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Essays

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Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

Aerial view of a large pipeline construction site with machinery and vehicles cutting through green fields and hills under a partly cloudy sky.

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Nature and landscape

Land loneliness

To survive, we are asked to forget that our lands and bodies are being violated, policed, ripped up, silenced, sacrificed

Kelsey Day

Newborn baby being held by a person wearing blue gloves, with another masked individual looking at the baby in a medical setting.

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Human reproduction

Baby talk

When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb?

Darshana Narayanan

Black-and-white photo of three Black men sitting at a table with microphones during a press conference. One of the men has a bandage on his head.

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History of ideas

All that we are

The philosophy of personalism inspired Martin Luther King’s dream of a better world. We still need its hopeful ideas today

Bennett Gilbert

Still life with musical instruments, sheet music, books, and a small statue on a table draped with a richly patterned red and gold curtain.

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Music

A novel kind of music

So-called ‘classical’ music was as revolutionary as the modern novel in its storytelling, harmony and depth

Joel Sandelson

A black-and-white photo of soldiers in uniform checking documents of several men standing outdoors, with laundry hanging in the background.

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Psychiatry and psychotherapy

Decolonising psychology

At times complicit in racism and oppression, psychology has also been a fertile ground for radical and liberatory thought

Rami Gabriel

A close-up drawing of a face with detailed patterns and a hand touching the face, using earthy tones and texture on a brown background.

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Meaning and the good life

Beyond authenticity

In her final unfinished work, Hannah Arendt mounted an incisive critique of the idea that we are in search of our true selves

Samantha Rose Hill

Aerial view of an industrial site emitting smoke, surrounded by snow-covered buildings and landscape, under a clear blue sky with birds flying overhead.

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Politics and government

Governing for the planet

Nation-states are no longer fit for purpose to create a habitable future for humans and nature. Which political system is?

Jonathan S Blake & Nils Gilman

Three women in traditional attire stand outdoors in a dry landscape. One person carries a child on their back while another holds a walking stick.

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Anthropology

The Ju/’hoansi protocol

Hunter-gatherer societies are highly expert in group deliberation and decision-making which respects both difference and unity

Vivek V Venkataraman

Abstract art depicting DNA sequencing, with vertical bands of vibrant colours including yellow, red, blue and green, blending into each other with a glossy, reflective texture.

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Genetics

We are not machines

Welcome to the new post-genomic biology: a transformative era in need of fresh metaphors to understand how life works

Philip Ball

Silhouette of a man, a child, and a cow with large horns sitting on the ground at sunset.

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Progress and modernity

In praise of magical thinking

Once we all had knowledge of how to heal ourselves using plants and animals. The future would be sweeter for renewing it

Anna Badkhen

Illustration of various human skulls and profiles with captions detailing different ethnic groups and regions, from a historical anthropological study.

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History of ideas

Baffled by human diversity

Confused 17th-century Europeans argued that human groups were separately created, a precursor to racist thought today

Jacob Zellmer

Ancient Mayan ruins, including a prominent stone pyramid, surrounded by dense green jungle under a cloudy sky.

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Archaeology

Beyond kingdoms and empires

A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms

David Wengrow