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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

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Painting of a child in a red dress with arms raised standing beside an adult in a pink dress against a dark background.

video

Childhood and adolescence

Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress

8 minutes

Photo of a white temple with modern design features, a golden statue on top and a bright double rainbow in the cloudy sky.

essay

Human rights and justice

Utah is so gay!

The Mormon state is seen as deeply homophobic. Yet, from polygamy to pride, Mormons themselves are a distinctly queer lot

Kristi Rhead

A DNA double helix with overlapping images: lined pages, the printed pages of an old book, and a painted portrait of a woman that is the Mona Lisa, all on a black background.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?

12 minutes

Close-up photo of a wooden mask with fur eyebrows, hollow eyes, a rounded mouth opening and long black hair against a dark background.

essay

Anthropology

Witches around the world

The belief in witches is an almost universal feature of human societies. What does it reveal about our deepest fears?

Gregory Forth

Photo of a street sign reading ‘Gipsy Lane’, mounted on a brick wall with green foliage behind, and a car in the background.

video

History

There are fragments of Romani Gypsy history all over the UK – if one knows where to look

3 minutes

Photo of colourful light reflections on a dark tiled floor, possibly from a stained glass window in a dimly lit interior space.

essay

Values and beliefs

My leap across the chasm

After years of debate and contemplation, I’ve come to think a heretical form of Christianity might be true. Here’s why

Philip Goff

Close-up photo of butterfly wing scales in shades of orange, pink, white and black arranged in a mosaic-like pattern.

video

Biology

Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings

3 minutes

A child peeking over the back of a horse in a grassy open field with a distant horizon and a slightly cloudy sky.

video

Anthropology

Does Mogi’s future lie with her horses on the Mongolian steppe, or in the city?

16 minutes

A man and a woman smiling with their hands on the shoulders of a Neanderthal figure with long hair and a beard but in modern clothes.

video

Genetics

Why it took a century to work out that humans interbred with Neanderthals

22 minutes

Photo of people in a forest, some kneeling and examining plants, others standing and walking, all surrounded by lush greenery.

essay

Food and drink

The joy of foraging

Offering an escape from industrial foods, foraging nourishes the soul and body, but it needs democratic access to the land

Nikita Sud

A colourful mural depicting a Mexican American family, a Mexican American woman being tackled by a white policeman, and a stadium resembling a U F O descending from the sky.

video

Art

The sprawling mural that depicts an unflinching people’s history of Los Angeles

7 minutes

A woman in casual attire walking by a large weaving loom with black threads in a bright, clean room

essay

Design and fashion

When luxury is good

The waste and exploitation of fast fashion shouldn’t blind us to the joys of making beautiful clothing with care

Roger Tredre

Painting of a woman with a sword defending a fort from attackers; other figures fight with swords and wooden poles and carry stones.

essay

Race and ethnicity

The forging of countries

Two distinct and conflicting forms of nationalism – civic and ethnic – helped create the nation-states of Europe

Luka Ivan Jukić

A person at night placing an object in a large bin labelled ‘TRASH ONLY’ on an empty street lit by streetlights.

video

Personality

A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded

14 minutes

A woman in a purple jumper, named María Victoria Maldonado, picking berries in a lush green forest.

video

Human rights and justice

An unarmed Indigenous group aims to protect their native lands in this stirring portrait

15 minutes

Black-and-white drawing of labourers working in a warehouse, overlaid with the text “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” in yellow.

video

Art

In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved

9 minutes

Black-and-white photo of a woman holding her child on a stone pier, with small wooden boats and a shoreline in the background.

essay

Film and visual culture

The risk of beauty

W Eugene Smith’s photos of the Minamata disaster are both exquisite and horrifying. How might we now look at them?

Joanna Pocock

Illustration of four adult giraffes, and a young one lying down, with Mount Kilimanjaro and acacia trees in the background.

video

Ageing and death

We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?

6 minutes

An ancient, broken clay tablet with a circular design and various inscriptions, displayed on a dark background.

video

Archaeology

How researchers finally solved the puzzle of the oldest known map of the world

18 minutes

Painting of two men sitting in a barn, one on a bench and the other on a chair, with a horse and pumpkins in the background.

essay

History of ideas

Philosophy of the people

How two amateur schools pulled a generation of thinkers from the workers and teachers of the 19th-century American Midwest

Joseph M Keegin

Fresco fragment with geometric borders framing curved shapes representing waves crashing upon the shore, partially damaged.

essay

Nature and landscape

Laughing shores

Sailors, exiles, merchants and philosophers: how the ancient Greeks played with language to express a seaborne imagination

Giordano Lipari

Wooden model of a sailing ship with multiple masts and detailed rigging on a white background.

video

Art

A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships

6 minutes

Photo of a light beige woven fabric with black and red borders on the sides, frayed edges at the bottom, and a black background.

essay

Political philosophy

Citizens and spinning wheels

For Indians to be truly free, Gandhi argued they must take up traditional crafts. Was it a quixotic hope or inspired solution?

Benjamin Studebaker

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and hat grabbing another man by his collar in front of a bar with bottles.

essay

Political philosophy

C L R James and America

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

Harvey Neptune