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Society

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

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

Vintage painting of a man with glowing eyes surrounded by floating spheres on a decorative background.

essay

Stories and literature

Merveilleux-scientifique

With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago

Fleur Hopkins-Loféron

A painting of a mythical forest scene with centaurs, satyrs and wild animals in a chaotic setting.

video

Nature and landscape

‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden

5 minutes

Photo of a gibbon mother holding her baby in a lush green forest setting.

video

Animals and humans

Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat

19 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

A person’s hands pouring olive oil into a row of wine glasses with people blurred in the background at a tasting event.

essay

Food and drink

The flavour of mechanisation

Olive oil was revered and cherished by the ancients. But its distinctive peppery taste is really a modern invention

Massimo Mazzotti

Painting of people playing dodgeball around a square pool with ripples in vibrant colours, long shadows cast on the ground.

video

Film and visual culture

A lush animated opus evokes the frenzied pace of modern life

4 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 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 suburban street with mountains in the background, featuring a girl on a bike, parked cars, and old furniture on the sidewalk in front of a house.

essay

Progress and modernity

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

Daniel Waldenström

Silhouette of a man, a child, and a cow with large horns sitting on the ground at sunset.

essay

Progress and modernity

In praise of magical thinking

Once we all had knowledge of how to heal ourselves using plants and animals. The future would be sweeter for renewing it

Anna Badkhen

A person and a dog look out from a window of a blue house during snowfall. The house has an external staircase covered with snow on the left, and a snow-covered porch on the right. The scene is set on a snowy day, with visible accumulation on the ground and surfaces.

video

Technology and the self

In the town once named Asbestos, locals ponder the voids industry left in its wake

16 minutes

Colourful hand-drawn illustration of a busy market scene. Background shows fruit stall and vendor. A yellow sign reads DO NOT LITTER.

video

Cities

A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county

3 minutes

A bustling 19th-century cityscape featuring a wide street with construction activity, carriages and pedestrians. Hills and a bridge are also visible under a cloudy sky.

essay

Religion

Conscientious unbelievers

How, a century ago, radical freethinkers quietly and persistently subverted Scotland’s Christian establishment

Felicity Loughlin

A stunning cityscape at dusk with a vibrant red sky, silhouetted skyscrapers, and a person near a railing taking a photo of the skyline across a river.

essay

Thinkers and theories

Our tools shape our selves

For Bernard Stiegler, a visionary philosopher of our digital age, technics is the defining feature of human experience

Bryan Norton

A woman is sitting at a table holding a knife at a chopping board, but her head is switch with the green onion she is cutting. Yellow blinds and a lamp are in the background.

video

Technology and the self

An artist swaps her head with everyday objects in a musing on consumerism

4 minutes

Close-up of an elderly Hmong man with grey eyebrows, holding a traditional instrument to his lips, and a pensive expression on his wrinkled face against a dark background.

video

Language and linguistics

Messages born of melody – hear the whistled language of the Hmong people

18 minutes

A woman in a pink coat and carrying a pink umbrella walks past a protestor carrying a yellow placard appealing to people to use cash

essay

Economics

Going cashless

It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok

Brett Scott

A figure is silhouetted in an older style apartment block window at night. In the distance are taller modern tower block apartments

essay

Cities

The haunting of modern China

In Nanjing, Hong Kong and other Chinese cities, rapid urbanisation is multiplying a fear of death and belief in ghosts

Andrew Kipnis

A woman and two children dressed in traditional First Nations clothing stand in front of a teepee structure

essay

Language and linguistics

Language is medicine

For First Nations people, health is not a matter of mechanical fitness of the body, but of language, identity and belonging

Erica X Eisen

Aerial view of a multi-level motorway with older classic cars driving on both upper and lower levels, and infrastructure such as railings and signs visible.

essay

Cities

Sick city

My dad grew up in Robert Moses’s New York City. His story is a testament to how urban planning shapes countless lives

Katie Mulkowsky

A woman helps another woman to her feet in a clearing among flowers.

essay

Mental health

People not professionals

Training individuals to support one another through difficult times is a profound step forward in our mental health crisis

Arjun Kapoor & Jasmine Kalha

A sunlit old stone corridor with Gothic arches and shadows cast on the walls, featuring arched windows and a lantern.

essay

Knowledge

The ends of knowledge

Academics need to think harder about the purpose of their disciplines and whether some of those should come to an end

Rachael Scarborough King & Seth Rudy

Two people standing barefoot on grass. Only their lower bodies are visible, with hills and trees in the background.

video

Technology and the self

Greetings from Green Bank – the small town where modern technology is banned

10 minutes

A doctor points at an X-ray on a monitor while conducting a video consultation with a patient who has a bandaged arm, shown on a second monitor.

essay

History of technology

Care from afar

For over a century telemedicine has promised healthcare for all. But will it ever replace seeing a human being in person?

Jeremy A Greene