video
Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
essay
Addiction
The kratom question
Millions are turning to an unregulated herbal extract to curb their opioid addiction. But do the risks outweigh the benefits?
Xi Chen
video
Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
essay
Neuroscience
Why nothing matters
It took centuries for people to embrace the zero. Now it’s helping neuroscientists understand how the brain perceives absences
Benjy Barnett
essay
Personality
The highly sensitive person
Those with this little-known trait think more deeply and feel more empathy. But they also deal with significant challenges
Elaine Aron
video
Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
essay
Medicine
When I lost my intuition
For years, I practised medicine with cool certainty, comfortable with life-and-death decisions. Then, one day, I couldn’t
Ronald W Dworkin
essay
Thinkers and theories
The winter of civilisation
Byung-Chul Han’s relentless critiques of digital capitalism reveal how this suffocating system creates hollowed-out lives
Josh Cohen
essay
Childhood and adolescence
Hegemony and childcare
Early childhood development interventions in the Global South is a huge industry built on highly questionable assumptions
Francesca Mezzenzana & Gabriel Scheidecker
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
The art in the analyst’s room
The consulting office reflects the personality of the therapist, while also subtly shaping the experience of their patients
Anna Parker
essay
Computing and artificial intelligence
Chatbots of the dead
We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again?
Amy Kurzweil & Daniel Story
video
Sports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
video
Spirituality
Through rituals of prayer, a monk cultivates a quietly radical concept of freedom
4 minutes
essay
Public health
A very American fear
Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm?
Rebecca L Davis
video
Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
The listening gift
It is the dark matter of conversation, the white space around a poem. For Rilke, listening is receiving the divine
Faith Lawrence
video
Home
How an artist transformed a dilapidated hunting lodge into a house made of dreams
8 minutes
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
Psychodynamic nonsense
After decades of practising psychotherapy, I believe it has little foundation in science and often causes harm
Niklas Serning
video
Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
essay
Bioethics
Moral resilience
Nurses experience deep suffering when they can’t act according to their moral compass. Our research shows a way forward
Cynda Hylton Rushton
essay
Cognition and intelligence
The power of prayer
Praying is a cognitive practice full of problem-solving resources. You can learn from it even if you don’t want to do it
Eleanor Schille-Hudson
video
Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
video
War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes