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A busy beach scene with children on donkeys, people in the sea, a man reading on a sun lounger, and a dog urinating on a sun shade.

Make it awkward!

Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script

​

A busy beach scene with children on donkeys, people in the sea, a man reading on a sun lounger, and a dog urinating on a sun shade.

essay

Virtues and vices

Make it awkward!

Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script

Alexandra Plakias

Popular this month

Silhouette of a person walking through a spray of water at sunset with cars and buildings in the background.

essay

Neuroscience

The melting brain

It’s not just the planet and not just our health – the impact of a warming climate extends deep into our cortical fissures

Clayton Page Aldern

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

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and hat grabbing another man by his collar in front of a bar with bottles.

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

Close-up of a person’s hand using a smartphone in a dimly lit room with blurred lights in the background. The phone screen shows the text ‘How can I help you today?’ and a text input field.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

Mere imitation

Generative AI has lately set off public euphoria: the machines have learned to think! But just how intelligent is AI?

Deepak P

Black and white photo of four people in sunglasses standing on a terrace overlooking the sea with a hilly coastline in the background.

essay

Metaphysics

Desperate remedies

In order to make headway on knotty metaphysical problems, philosophers should look to the methods used by scientists

Nina Emery

Illustration of a dodo bird with grey feathers, brown beak, and stubby wings, standing on a grassy, sandy ground.

video

Evolution

How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution

60 minutes

Photo of a light beige woven fabric with black and red borders on the sides, frayed edges at the bottom, and a black background.

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

Wooden model of a sailing ship with multiple masts and detailed rigging on a white background.

video

Art

A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships

6 minutes

Photo of two young Asian women wearing sunglasses sitting in the back of a pickup truck at an outdoor event with American flags and mountains.

video

Meaning and the good life

A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado

9 minutes

A silhouetted figure walking with a dog through a dimly lit tunnel, contrasting with bright concrete walls in the foreground.

essay

Psychiatry and psychotherapy

Targeted

For those who hear voices, the ‘broken brain’ explanation is harmful. Psychiatry must embrace new meaning-making frameworks

Justin Garson

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and hat grabbing another man by his collar in front of a bar with bottles.

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

Two older women wearing hats and sunglasses raise their arms in celebration at a street parade, with a purple background.

video

Sex and sexuality

From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories

29 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

A person in a workshop uses a tool to smooth wood. Wood shavings are scattered on the workbench.

video

Making

Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity

27 minutes

Silhouette of a person walking through a spray of water at sunset with cars and buildings in the background.

essay

Neuroscience

The melting brain

It’s not just the planet and not just our health – the impact of a warming climate extends deep into our cortical fissures

Clayton Page Aldern

Children climbing on monkey bars, photographed from below, against a clear blue sky.

video

Education

Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America

25 minutes

A brick house with a tiled roof, surrounded by a well-maintained garden with bushes and colourful flowers.

essay

Home

Falling for suburbia

Modernists and historians alike loathed the millions of new houses built in interwar Britain. But their owners loved them

Michael Gilson

An old photograph of a man pulling a small cart with a child and belongings, followed by a woman and three children; one child is pushing a stroller.

essay

Thinkers and theories

Rawls the redeemer

For John Rawls, liberalism was more than a political project: it is the best way to fashion a life that is worthy of happiness

Alexandre Lefebvre

A man playing a piano in a dark room with animated planets and stars floating around him, illuminated by soft light.

video

Physics

The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance

5 minutes

Close-up of a person’s hand using a smartphone in a dimly lit room with blurred lights in the background. The phone screen shows the text ‘How can I help you today?’ and a text input field.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

Mere imitation

Generative AI has lately set off public euphoria: the machines have learned to think! But just how intelligent is AI?

Deepak P

Two children hugging on the floor, one in a white shirt smiling with eyes closed while the other wears a red jacket.

video

Bioethics

Is it ethical to have a second child so that your first might live?

10 minutes

A black-and-white photo of a person riding a horse in, with a close-up of another horse in the foreground under bright sunlight.

essay

Anthropology

Your body is an archive

If human knowledge can disappear so easily, why have so many cultural practices survived without written records?

Helena Miton

Five differently coloured triangular wax crayon bars standing upright on a white surface.

video

Art

Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons

4 minutes

Person in a wheelchair with a laptop, wearing a monitoring cap, and a doctor in a lab coat standing nearby in a clinical setting.

essay

Illness and disease

Empowering patient research

For far too long, medicine has ignored the valuable insights that patients have into their own diseases. It is time to listen

Charlotte Blease & Joanne Hunt

Silhouette of baobab trees against a vibrant orange sunset with the sun peeking through the branches of the largest tree.

essay

Biology

Seeing plants anew

The stunningly complex behaviour of plants has led to a new way of thinking about our world: plant philosophy

Stella Sandford

A walking figure made of black shapes, with a pink ticket for “The Moviegoer” by Walker Percy as its body, on a yellow background.

video

Meaning and the good life

‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’

2 minutes

Close-up of a hand gracefully resting on a naked woman’s torso, soft lighting accentuating the skin’s smooth texture against a dark background.

essay

Sex and sexuality

Sexual sensation

What makes touch on some parts of the body erotic but not others? Cutting-edge biologists are arriving at new answers

David J Linden

Close-up of a person with glasses playing the violin, illuminated by colourful lights in the background.

video

Pleasure and pain

The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy

12 minutes