video
Childhood and adolescence
Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress
8 minutes
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
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?
12 minutes
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
video
History
There are fragments of Romani Gypsy history all over the UK – if one knows where to look
3 minutes
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
video
Biology
Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings
3 minutes
video
Anthropology
Does Mogi’s future lie with her horses on the Mongolian steppe, or in the city?
16 minutes
video
Genetics
Why it took a century to work out that humans interbred with Neanderthals
22 minutes
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
video
Art
The sprawling mural that depicts an unflinching people’s history of Los Angeles
7 minutes
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
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
video
Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
video
Human rights and justice
An unarmed Indigenous group aims to protect their native lands in this stirring portrait
15 minutes
video
Art
In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved
9 minutes
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
video
Ageing and death
We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?
6 minutes
video
Archaeology
How researchers finally solved the puzzle of the oldest known map of the world
18 minutes
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
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
video
Art
A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships
6 minutes
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
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