Society
video
Childhood and adolescence
The unique fellowship between teens and young puffins on a remote Icelandic island
20 minutes
essay
Technology and the self
Tomorrow people
For the entire 20th century, it had felt like telepathy was just around the corner. Why is that especially true now?
Roger Luckhurst
video
Animals and humans
Why be dragons? How massive, reptilian beasts entered our collective imagination
58 minutes
essay
Nations and empires
Chastising little brother
Why did Japanese Confucians enthusiastically support Imperial Japan’s murderous conquest of China, the homeland of Confucius?
Shaun O’Dwyer
video
Rituals and celebrations
Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland
5 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Her blazing world
Margaret Cavendish’s boldness and bravery set 17th-century society alight, but is she a feminist poster-girl for our times?
Francesca Peacock
video
Technology and the self
In the town once named Asbestos, locals ponder the voids industry left in its wake
16 minutes
essay
Ecology and environmental sciences
Dominion
To take care of the Earth, humans must recognise that we are both a part of the animal kingdom and its dominant power
Hugh Desmond
essay
Mental health
The last great stigma
Workers with mental illness experience discrimination that would be unthinkable for other health issues. Can this change?
Pernille Yilmam
video
Biology
How the world’s richest reds are derived from an innocuous Mexican insect
5 minutes
video
Cities
A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county
3 minutes
essay
Music
Folk music was never green
Don’t be swayed by the sound of environmental protest: these songs were first sung in the voice of the cutter, not the tree
Richard Smyth
essay
Nations and empires
A United States of Europe
A free and unified Europe was first imagined by Italian radicals in the 19th century. Could we yet see their dream made real?
Fernanda Gallo
essay
Stories and literature
On Jewish revenge
What might a people, subjected to unspeakable historical suffering, think about the ethics of vengeance once in power?
Shachar Pinsker
video
Film and visual culture
‘Bags here are rarely innocent’ – how filmmakers work around censorship in Iran
8 minutes
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Acid media
How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD
Erik Davis
video
Language and linguistics
Closed captions suck. Here’s one artist’s inventive project to make them better
8 minutes
video
Thinkers and theories
A rare female scholar of the Roman Empire, Hypatia lived and died as a secular voice
5 minutes
essay
The environment
Decoupling
We need to find a way for human societies to prosper while the planet heals. So far we can’t even think clearly about it
Ville Lähde
essay
Archaeology
Why make art in the dark?
New research transports us back to the shadowy firelight of ancient caves, imagining the minds and feelings of the artists
Izzy Wisher
essay
Stories and literature
Do liberal arts liberate?
In Jack London’s novel, Martin Eden personifies debates still raging over the role and purpose of education in American life
Nick Romeo
video
Anthropology
Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?
4 minutes
essay
Politics and government
India and indigeneity
In a country of such extraordinary diversity, the UN definition of ‘indigenous’ does little more than fuel ethnic violence
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati
essay
History of ideas
Reimagining balance
In the Middle Ages, a new sense of balance fundamentally altered our understanding of nature and society
Joel Kaye