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Pleasure and pain

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

Addiction Ageing and death Childhood and adolescence Cognition and intelligence Consciousness and altered states Family life Gender and identity Language and linguistics Life stages Love and friendship Mental health Mood and emotion Neurodiversity Neuroscience Personality Pleasure and pain Psychiatry and psychotherapy Self-improvement Sex and sexuality Sleep and dreams Social psychology Spirituality Teaching and learning Technology and the self Wellbeing

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Photo of a young woman in a pink hijab skateboarding on a ramp, with a building and a flag visible in the background.

videoSports and games

Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park

13 minutes

Clay animation of a person pondering at a table with a drink can, against a dark background.

videoPersonality

A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law

5 minutes

Photo of three boys riding wooden carts down a street in an urban setting, with onlookers in the background.

videoSports and games

Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play

5 minutes

Close-up of a man smiling and interacting closely with a puppet of an old man wearing a black beret, both faces nearly touching.

videoArt

A puppeteer makes sense of an overwhelming world by shrinking it down to size

5 minutes

Close-up of a person with glasses playing the violin, illuminated by colourful lights in the background.

videoPleasure and pain

The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy

12 minutes

Painting of a person in a striped dress, resting their head on their hand, sitting next to a table with bottles, and a green background.

essayPleasure and pain

Me versus myself

I work against myself through procrastination, distraction and addiction. Why do I consistently sabotage my own life?

Eliane Glaser

Mist-covered city skyline with a calm, reflective body of water in the foreground under a grey sky.

essayPleasure and pain

Eulogy for silence

Tinnitus is like a constant scream inside my head, depriving me of what I formerly treasured: the moments of serene quiet

Diego Ramírez Martín del Campo

Illustration of a person sitting in a room with a bed and various objects. The background is pink, and the objects include a lamp, books, clock, plants, lava lamp, slippers, and a small ball. The person appears to be drawn in a simple, sketch-like style.

videoSex and sexuality

After a sextortion scam, Eugene conducts an unblushing survey of masturbation

14 minutes

A surreal artwork depicting floating items, including a woman, child, chair, bullets, and a photo of a family, all set in a dark abstract background.

videoHuman rights and justice

A reporter orphaned by night raids in Afghanistan investigates their cruel legacy

17 minutes

Tourists walking on a foggy road with buses parked on the side and a driver standing beside a bus, partially obstructed by the fog.

essayStories and literature

Solace and saudade

In the face of an inscrutable, indifferent universe, Pessoa suggests we cultivate a certain longing for the elusive horizon

Jonardon Ganeri & Sarah Seymour

A girl in a dress is swinging with the Sagrada Família towers in the background.

essayHistory of ideas

Disorient yourself

Now associated with childhood fun, the swing has a near-universal history of ritual transgression and transformation

Javier Moscoso

A woman and a man are having a conversation on the street, standing in front of old storefronts and a wooden barricade.

essayMood and emotion

In praise of irritation

Unlike anger, irritation has neither glamour nor radicalism on its side. Yet it might just be the mood we need right now

Will Rees

View of a snowy courtyard from above with two people standing near a beige car.

essayMental health

Secrets hurt their holders

Holding back the truth can take a huge toll on your relationships and your mental health. Why? And is there a better way?

Michael Slepian

Sketch of a figure in a hat facing a waterfront with a red sky, accompanied by handwritten notes on the right.

essayHistory

The politics of pain

Medical science can only tell us so much. To understand pain, we need the cultural tools of history, philosophy and art

Rob Boddice

A ballerina adjusting her ballet shoe ribbons, wearing pink tights and pointe shoes against a neutral background.

videoDance and theatre

From calluses to burnt shoes, the elegance of ballet is built from the ground up

4 minutes

A person stands on a rocky cliff edge overlooking a vast canyon under a clear blue sky.

videoConsciousness and altered states

You need to make friends with pain to run through the Grand Canyon and back

5 minutes

Elderly man with grey hair and beard, wearing glasses and a black T-shirt, resting his head against a tree trunk in a forest.

videoMood and emotion

Alone on a small island in Belgrade, a father grieves his daughter in quiet solitude

12 minutes

Two women touch hands through a clear plastic barrier, one wearing a mask and gloves, the other smiling and wearing a striped top.

videoWellbeing

A unique theatre performance explores what touch means in an age of lockdown

17 minutes

Black and white image of a woman singing passionately into a microphone, with hand raised, against a dark background.

essayMusic

Music and sex

A song can take you on a journey of ecstatic arousal. Is music imitating sex, inviting it, or something else altogether?

Michael Spitzer

A silhouette of a man in a hat holding a briefcase, standing under a street lamp in front of a house, with bright light illuminating the scene.

essayFilm and visual culture

Fear not

You might think that horror movies are a delicious, trashy pleasure. But watching them has surprisingly wholesome effects

Mathias Clasen

Person sitting on a bucket in a field, with another person digging nearby and trees in the background.

videoNature and landscape

An afternoon with hobbyist diamond miners in Arkansas is a thing of rare beauty

16 minutes

Aerial view of a dimly lit car park at night with scattered vehicles and visible tyre marks on the ground.

videoSports and games

After a day’s toil in California’s fields, labourers let loose in street races

9 minutes

Silhouette of a person standing at a window inside a dimly lit building at night against a deep blue sky.

essayPleasure and pain

Apocalypse, please

The COVID-19 pandemic, like other catastrophes before it, got some of us hooked on phobic energy and terror. Why?

Travis Alexander

A vibrant casino exterior with neon lights and swirling ceiling designs in red, orange and white against a twilight sky.

essayMathematics

Mathematics for gamblers

If philosophers and mathematicians struggle with probability, can gamblers really hope to grasp their losing game?

Catalin Barboianu