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Among the thinkers who weighed in on the theory of the social contract, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) took the position that freedom is good, but security is better. Now we must ask whether the likes of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are justified in their efforts to expose far-reaching government surveillance operations, or whether intelligence agencies are just taking the necessary safety measures to respond to an increasingly volatile world. This animated short video boils down the complex question of freedom vs security to its most essential, asking what are we prepared to give up to feel safe.
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
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Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
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War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
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Bioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
6 minutes
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History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes
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Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
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Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
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Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes
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The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes