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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations

Architecture Art Biography and memoir Dance and theatre Design and fashion Film and visual culture Food and drink Home Music Nature and landscape Rituals and celebrations Sports and games Stories and literature Subcultures Travel

Cyclists in a professional race riding in rainy conditions. The leading cyclist in a blue jersey raises his arms in victory, with other cyclists closely following behind on the wet road. Everyone is wearing helmets and sunglasses for protection.

essay

Sports and games

Performance-enhancing vices

Selfishness channels ambition, envy drives competition, pride aids the win. Does it take a bad person to be a good athlete?

Sabrina Little

A young girl in a helmet and with a skateboard stands in a skatepark. Behind her is a hand-drawn reclining figure.

video

Subcultures

Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community

5 minutes

A footballer in the Manchester United red strip runs past cheering fans in the stadium

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Sports and games

The moral risks of fandom

Players, coaches and team owners sometimes do terrible things. What, if anything, should their fans do about that?

Jake Wojtowicz & Alfred Archer

A man in tradional long shorts and striped shirt holds a huge heavy stone abvove his head as a crowd looks on

essay

Values and beliefs

How traditions progress

The colourful Swiss sport of stone putting illuminates Aristotle’s insights into the shortcomings of conservative thought

Daniel Kranzelbinder

A football player is celebrating in front of an enthusiastic crowd, including a marching band and cheerleaders holding red pom-poms.

video

Sports and games

A unique project frames college football as an intricately choreographed mass ritual

7 minutes

A person wearing a dark jacket is focused on working with a pencil and ruler on a wooden box in a cluttered workshop.

video

Making

From log to Go board – the world’s oldest game, made the old-fashioned way

20 minutes

A man in a rural setting wraps his hands and prepares for physical work or training, with a focused expression and a rustic tin roof in the background.

video

Sports and games

The brutality and beauty of the West African martial art of ‘dambe’

15 minutes

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

Teaching an AI to beat video games still takes human imagination

5 minutes

Cyclists in colourful jerseys compete in a road race, surrounded by blurred cars and spectators in the background.

video

Sports and games

Bodies, bikes and groovy music propel this stylish classic film from 1965

17 minutes

A bald man with tattooed back facing a boxing ring; tattoo reads “Poochi, Pride is Forever” with boxing gloves image.

video

Personality

Why a journeyman boxer finds contentment in the art of losing

6 minutes

Two people wearing helmets and high-visibility jackets riding a vehicle in a snowy environment, with headsets and microphones for communication.

video

Love and friendship

Skiing blind is a challenge – but it helps to have a loved one to guide you

20 minutes

A person stands on a rocky cliff edge overlooking a vast canyon under a clear blue sky.

video

Consciousness and altered states

You need to make friends with pain to run through the Grand Canyon and back

5 minutes

A young man in traditional attire galloping on a horse across a vast grassy plain with rolling hills in the background.

essay

Animals and humans

Becoming a centaur

The horse is a prey animal, the human a predator. Our shared trust and athleticism is a neurobiological miracle

Janet Jones

Aerial view of a dimly lit car park at night with scattered vehicles and visible tyre marks on the ground.

video

Sports and games

After a day’s toil in California’s fields, labourers let loose in street races

9 minutes

Female basketball player in a green jersey jumps to shoot a ball near the hoop, with a team player in yellow defending.

video

Sports and games

You’ve likely never heard of the only woman drafted into the NBA – and that’s fine by her

22 minutes

Two basketball players in action, one holding running past the other while holding the ball, with a crowd and referee in the background.

essay

Complexity

All stars

Is a great team more than the sum of its players? Complexity science reveals the role of strategy, synergy, swarming and more

Jessica Flack & Cade Massey

A smiling swimmer in open water near a lighthouse on a rocky island under a cloudy sky.

video

Consciousness and altered states

‘It makes sense of everything I am.’ The transcendence of the long-distance swimmer

12 minutes

Close-up of playing cards on a green table held by a hand, revealing a Joker card and a King of hearts card.

essay

Sports and games

Love is a hold’em game

While some keep their cards close to their chest, others try raising the stakes. What can poker teach us about dating?

Suki Finn

Black and white drawing of two fencers competing in an arena. Their uniforms feature Olympic rings, with an audience in the background.

video

Biography and memoir

‘I feel the weight of everyone’: Keeth Smart foiled death to make it to the Olympics

19 minutes

Collage with six frames showing a diver in mid-air, faceless abstract art, and various black backgrounds with white particle patterns.

video

Film and visual culture

Behold the invisible swoosh and swirl of athletic movement in digital art

2 minutes

A climber wearing a helmet and red gear ascending an icy surface, photo taken from below, with ice and sky visible in the background.

video

Nature and landscape

Experience the thrills – and major chills – of scaling a frozen waterfall

16 minutes

An American football player in a Patriots helmet. He has tattooed arms and is looking up with his gloved hands raised and mouth open.

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Sports and games

Invisible tattoos

Many athletes are propelled by childhood trauma to succeed, but it’s a toxic myth that healing the wounds blunts the edge

William D Parham

Two cyclists in Legnano jerseys, one passing an ice cream bar to the other, riding through a countryside setting with trees in the background.

video

Sports and games

Grab bags, café raids and booze – how Tour de France cyclists refuelled in the 1960s

3 minutes

A man in a suit concentrating on a chess game. He is seated and resting his head in his hands, looking at the chessboard.

essay

Cognition and intelligence

Concentrate!

The challenge of chess – learning how to hold complexity in mind and still make good decisions – is also the challenge of life

Jonathan Rowson