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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
A woman walking on a dimly lit street pavement at night with a parked scooter and two men walking in the background, one appearing to follow her; the woman looks downcast, the man appears to be smiling.

essay

Human rights and justice

Did you think you were safe?

When I moved to India for work, I found that rape was a feature of the country, as deeply embedded as caste

Evelyn Fok

Photo of a person sitting in a dimly lit church with stained glass windows and sun rays filtering through.

video

Spirituality

Through rituals of prayer, a monk cultivates a quietly radical concept of freedom

4 minutes

Photo of a man speaking at a podium marked ‘Letters Live’, gesturing with one hand against a dark background.

video

Fairness and equality

‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation

7 minutes

Ceramic vase with yellow snake handles blue clouds and text detail in a workshop setting.

video

Design and fashion

A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery

14 minutes

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

essay

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

Photo of a gibbon mother holding her baby in a lush green forest setting.

video

Animals and humans

Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat

19 minutes

Vintage film poster with illustrated women underwater surrounded by bubbles text reads “Primitive and Exciting”.

essay

Public health

A very American fear

Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm?

Rebecca L Davis

Illustration of two people with closed eyes softly singing into a microphone, featuring simple brushstroke style.

video

Language and linguistics

Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers

5 minutes

Aerial black-and-white photo of a town surrounded by rolling hills and agricultural terraces.

essay

Nations and empires

Passion and Palestine

More than any other conflict, Israel/Palestine has provoked extraordinarily fervent emotion throughout the world. Why?

Derek Jonathan Penslar

Aerial photo of a winding river through lush green rainforest with dramatic cloud formations in the sky above.

essay

Public health

Hearts and brains

Humans always end up with clogged arteries, right? That’s not what the lives of the Tsimane in the Amazon basin tell us

Ben Daitz

Illustration of a purple star with an eye and shield with padlock on blue background encircled by laurel and gold rings.

video

Ethics

Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?

5 minutes

A brown wren standing on a rock with a blurred background.

essay

Biology

In praise of subspecies

To lump or to split? Deciding whether an animal is a species or subspecies profoundly influences our conservation priorities

Richard Smyth

Black and white photo of two men using an early voice recording device, seated and holding speaking tubes.

video

Information and communication

‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph

36 minutes

A man standing on a balcony of a brick apartment building, with tarps and debris in foreground.

essay

Politics and government

The end of neoliberalism?

The case of Mexico shows that, despite a proliferating discourse that it is over, neoliberalism is as relentless as ever

Inés Escobar González

A man in a suit demonstrates with a series of blocks in a lab setting; photo.

video

Engineering

From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation

23 minutes

A speaker on stage addressing a large audience in an indoor venue with screens displaying his image.

essay

Religion

Prosperity versus liberation

How Pentecostalism’s prosperity gospel replaced Catholic liberation theology in Latin American life

Elle Hardy

Photo of a giraffe seen through an arched doorway with brick and blue tiled walls in a zoo environment.

video

Animals and humans

Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?

57 minutes

Aerial photo of an archaeological excavation site in a barren landscape with workers digging and examining the area.

video

Archaeology

What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation

16 minutes

Painting of passengers in a 19th century bus, featuring men and women in period dress, one holding a basket of flowers.

essay

Stories and literature

Elegance and hustle

How French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world

Max McGuinness

Photo of three women viewed from behind near a lake with trees. One holds a megaphone and wears a colourful embroidered shirt.

video

Family life

The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them

21 minutes

Heron standing on a small patch of greenery surrounded by calm water with a lush forest in the background.

essay

Earth science and climate

The planetary fix

Despite decades of inaction we can avert the climate Hellocene and restore the atmosphere to keep our world habitable

Rob Jackson

Painting of a bustling 17th-century market square with people, horses and a church, surrounded by historic buildings and boats on a waterway.

essay

Global history

There are no pure cultures

All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history

Inanna Hamati-Ataya

Line drawing of a frog from a below perspective, with circles of various sizes indicating ripples.

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth

15 minutes

Vintage sepia photo of a Black man in a buttoned coat against a plain background with decorative border.

video

History

From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War

22 minutes