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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
A brown wren standing on a rock with a blurred background.

essay

Biology

In praise of subspecies

To lump or to split? Deciding whether an animal is a species or subspecies profoundly influences our conservation priorities

Richard Smyth

Black and white photo of two men using an early voice recording device, seated and holding speaking tubes.

video

Information and communication

‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph

36 minutes

A man standing on a balcony of a brick apartment building, with tarps and debris in foreground.

essay

Politics and government

The end of neoliberalism?

The case of Mexico shows that, despite a proliferating discourse that it is over, neoliberalism is as relentless as ever

Inés Escobar González

A man in a suit demonstrates with a series of blocks in a lab setting; photo.

video

Engineering

From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation

23 minutes

A speaker on stage addressing a large audience in an indoor venue with screens displaying his image.

essay

Religion

Prosperity versus liberation

How Pentecostalism’s prosperity gospel replaced Catholic liberation theology in Latin American life

Elle Hardy

Photo of a giraffe seen through an arched doorway with brick and blue tiled walls in a zoo environment.

video

Animals and humans

Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?

57 minutes

Aerial photo of an archaeological excavation site in a barren landscape with workers digging and examining the area.

video

Archaeology

What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation

16 minutes

Painting of passengers in a 19th century bus, featuring men and women in period dress, one holding a basket of flowers.

essay

Stories and literature

Elegance and hustle

How French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world

Max McGuinness

Photo of three women viewed from behind near a lake with trees. One holds a megaphone and wears a colourful embroidered shirt.

video

Family life

The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them

21 minutes

Heron standing on a small patch of greenery surrounded by calm water with a lush forest in the background.

essay

Earth science and climate

The planetary fix

Despite decades of inaction we can avert the climate Hellocene and restore the atmosphere to keep our world habitable

Rob Jackson

Painting of a bustling 17th-century market square with people, horses and a church, surrounded by historic buildings and boats on a waterway.

essay

Global history

There are no pure cultures

All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history

Inanna Hamati-Ataya

Line drawing of a frog from a below perspective, with circles of various sizes indicating ripples.

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth

15 minutes

Vintage sepia photo of a Black man in a buttoned coat against a plain background with decorative border.

video

History

From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War

22 minutes

Colourful painting depicting a range of people eating, drinking and engaging in other activities, with floral patterns.

essay

Art

Threads of resistance

Knitting and embroidery are laden with stereotypes of domestic femininity – and the subversive potential for protest

Gemma McKenzie

Painting of a historic city square with a tall clock tower, statues, carriages, and groups of people in period clothing.

essay

History

Why history is always political

In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life

Rosario López

Illustration of two people observing ants on a forest floor with a textured tree background.

video

Family life

One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor

10 minutes

A beach with a white S U V, chairs and a bird in the foreground, and a rocket on a launch pad in the background.

video

Fairness and equality

Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches

14 minutes

Vintage black-and-white photo of a colonial-era courtroom with seated officials and standing West African defendants in traditional attire.

essay

Human rights and justice

What’s in the rule of law?

The British Empire used a great democratic ideal to manufacture racial difference and rationalise colonial domination

Kanika Sharma

Black and white photo of British and German First World War soldiers wearing winter uniforms and hats, one with a cigarette, looking at the camera.

video

War and peace

A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914

12 minutes

Black and white photo of a large group of boys and a few adults standing on bare ground, all dressed in 1960s attire.

essay

Education

A valiant experiment

The progressive and remarkably innovative Woodmead School briefly flourished amid the viciousness of apartheid South Africa

David Dyzenhaus

A photo of a printshop workbench featuring a newspaper layout, metal type blocks, and tools.

video

History of technology

Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy

19 minutes

Hand-drawn diagram titled “Free-Form Discrete H’Texts” showing a map with two-way links and a flowchart with one-way links.

essay

Future of technology

A linkless internet

In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum

Collin Jennings

A man with a long beard wearing glasses holding a net against a backdrop of a grassy field and cloudy sky.

video

Animals and humans

The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net

10 minutes

Black and white photo of cars in traffic on a multi-lane motorway seen from above.

essay

Political philosophy

The order of anarchy

How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of the late, great James C Scott

Reyko Huang