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Sam Haselby

Senior Editor, Aeon+Psyche

Sam is a historian of early America with a particular interest in religion and politics. He was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and has been a faculty member at the American University of Beirut, the American University in Cairo and at Columbia University in New York City. He was a Senior Executive Producer at Al Jazeera America and is the author of The Origins of American Religious Nationalism (paperback, 2016). @samhaselby

Written by Sam Haselby

Edited by Sam Haselby

A person in a hi-vis vest sitting outdoors at a table with a drink, looking into the distance.

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Technology and the self

The unseen

Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being

Allison J Pugh

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting on a sofa holding a newspaper with a front-page story about a UFO sighting.

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History of science

Incredible testimonies

In the 1980s, thousands of Americans began to suspect they may have been abducted by aliens. What happened?

Greg Eghigian

Profile painting of a woman with dark hair against a vivid red background.

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History of science

A nasogenital tale

A bizarre theory (and a gory surgery) in fin-de-siècle Vienna help us get a grip on how science and medicine actually work

Urte Laukaityte

Ancient Chinese painting of a man under a tree with a trail of smoke coming from his mouth containing scenes of various figures, surrounded by miniature figures.

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Religion

Demonology

By turns benign and malign, powerful and vulnerable, earthbound and aerial, daimons across the world resemble one another

David Gordon White

An elderly couple sit beside a child standing next to a canal with bare trees behind them. The man talks to the child and has a walking stick beside him.

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Demography and migration

The vanishing of youth

The precipitous decline of birthrates throughout the world poses a serious threat to humanity. What is to be done?

Victor Kumar

Photo of a black and white moth with speckled wings against a dark background.

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Genetics

Beanbag genetics

Today a bitter dispute about the nature of biology is underway. A simple bag of beans may be what tips the balance

Zachary B Hancock

Photo of a rural scene: a man and child walk with ducks past a military motorcycle and three soldiers in a field.

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Nations and empires

Shame and revolution

Vietnam’s potent and storied anticolonialism is founded upon a unique sense of national shame

Kevin D Pham

An urban slum with people, horses and goats amidst debris, shacks and informal structures in the background.

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Poverty and development

Raising the threshold

The World Bank’s poverty line is inaccurate and out of date – an error that obscures the feebleness of market solutions

Attrishu Bordoloi

A busy urban street with cars, a motorbike and a truck passing by a neon-lit building at sunset.

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Poverty and development

How Kerala got rich

Fifty years ago it was one of India’s poorest states, now it is now one of the richest. How did Kerala do it?

Tirthankar Roy & K Ravi Raman

Vintage sepia photo of a group of soldiers in hats and uniforms posed with a US flag.

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War and peace

Could conquest return?

It’s only a century since US diplomats first persuaded the world that it’s wrong for countries to annex their neighbours

Kerry Goettlich

Photo of a large crowd celebrating outdoors with a person waving a South African flag energetically in the foreground.

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Political philosophy

A right to exist?

Since states are founded on violence and expulsion, their existence is always bound up in thorny questions about justice

Andrew F March

Six children with troubled faces sitting and lying on colourful blankets inside a dimly lit room with an earthen wall.

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Poverty and development

Poverty is not permanent

By understanding the pernicious myths surrounding poverty, we can make progress towards a lofty goal: dignity for all

Anirudh Krishna & Dirk Philipsen