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Brigid Hains
Editorial Director, Aeon
Brigid oversees the editorial team at Aeon Media. She is an environmental historian by training and has particular interests in anthropology, psychology, history, ecology and evolutionary theory.
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Edited by Brigid Hains
Essay/
Genetics
Haunted by history

War, famine and persecution inflict profound changes on bodies and brains. Could these changes persist over generations?

Pam Weintraub

Essay/
Nature & Environment
Snarge

Our insatiable desire for acceleration exacts a mortal toll on the animal world. It’s time for humans to slow right down

Gary Kroll

Essay/
Values & Beliefs
Enjoy!

Philosophers have traditionally been highly suspicious of fleeting pleasures, but to enjoy the moment is a radical act

Sandy Grant

Essay/
Nature & Environment
To hunt or not to hunt?

Debates about whether to protect these ghostly white deer demonstrate deep connections between our humanity and the hunt

Curt Meine

Essay/
Human Evolution
Imagination is ancient

Our imaginative life today has access to the pre-linguistic, ancestral mind: rich in imagery, emotions and associations

Stephen T Asma

Essay/
Human Evolution
Sex makes babies

As far as we can tell, no other animal knows this. Did our understanding of baby-making change the course of human history?

Holly Dunsworth & Anne Buchanan

Essay/
Fairness & Equality
In defence of hierarchy

As a society we have forgotten how to talk about the benefits of hierarchy, expertise and excellence. It's time we remembered

Stephen C Angle, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Julian Baggini and others

Essay/
Self-Improvement
The self-help game

Millions believe that pop psychology can change their tennis skills, their love life or their moods. Are they all wrong?

Rami Gabriel

Essay/
Cosmopolitanism
This is your morning

I left the US, the land of my birth, sickened by racial injustice. But the return to a homeland is not a simple matter

Enuma Okoro

Essay/
Ecology & Environmental Sciences
A tale of three dogs

Coyotes, dingoes and wolves are all dogs, as intelligent and loyal as our familiars. Our treatment of them is unconscionable

Brandon Keim

Essay/
Fertility, Pregnancy & Childbirth
The twin boom

The proportion of twins in the population has waxed and waned in human history. For the first time we understand why

Laura Spinney

Essay/
Religion
Is God a silverback?

Protective, omnipotent, scary and very territorial. The monotheistic God is modelled on a harem-keeping alpha male

David P Barash

Essay/
Gender & Sexuality
The weaponised loser

Mass shootings have one thing in common: toxic masculinity. Where does it come from and what can be done to stop it?

Stephen T Asma

Essay/
Sleep & Dreams
Life in Circadia

The ticking of the bodyclock can help us fight cancer, safeguard our hearts, time our meals, and enhance our intelligence

Jessa Gamble

Essay/
History
American secular

The founding moment of the United States brought a society newly freed from religion. What went wrong?

Sam Haselby

Essay/
Nature & Environment
Ghosts and tiny treasures

We are quick to condemn a hunter posing with his prey, but all too slow to cultivate a chronic passion for wild things

Bryan Pfeiffer

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