Interview Virginia Dignum on The AI Paradox February 09, 2026 Drawing on her decades of experience in AI research and governance, Virginia Dignum cuts through the hype and sensationalism that often surround AI and reveals why the most profound questions it raises are not about technology but ourselves. Read More
Essay Carrying the Olympic flame February 06, 2026 My application to carry the Olympic torch in my adopted home of Sicily had been accepted. Along with 10,000 others from every walk of life鈥攆rom famous celebrities to those who battle crippling disease鈥擨 would be part of the team that transports the flame from its origin in Ancient Olympia to the Games. I knew it would be a wonderful experience, but the strongest impression it left on me is not one that I expected. Read More
Interview Melissa Burch on The Criminal Record Complex February 04, 2026 The Criminal Record Complex chronicles the daily interactions of hiring managers, workforce development professionals, and job-seekers with felony convictions in Southern California, and Melissa Burch shows that this discrimination is not simply a matter of employer bias. Read More
Essay How I let go of gentrification February 03, 2026 While scholars argue over how to define and measure gentrification, the word has found a new home for itself. A broad range of people deploy the term, many of whom are less concerned with parsing its meaning than scholars like me. Read More
Interview Hrvoje Tkal膷i膰 on When Worlds Quake January 27, 2026 When Worlds Quake by Hrvoje Tkal膷i膰 is a fascinating account of how scientists around the globe seek to use quakes to answer tantalizing questions about the structure and inner dynamics of our planet and to discover the deepest secrets of our nearest neighbors in the solar system. Read More
Essay Dreaming under fascism January 27, 2026 Did ordinary Germans realise they were living through a historical nightmare? Would we recognise the same signs if we were living through them today? Read More
Essay Children as projects January 22, 2026 Contemporary parenting is far from permissive chaos and more relentless effort: careful scheduling, constant supervision, and pouring our souls鈥攁s well as loads of money鈥攊nto our children. Read More
Interview Mustafa Aksakal on The War That Made the Middle East January 22, 2026 A sweeping narrative of war, great power politics, and ordinary people caught up in the devastation, Mustafa Aksakal's The War That Made the Middle East offers new insights about the Great War and its profound and lasting consequences. Read More
Essay On the page January 21, 2026 鈥淭his is perhaps the greatest accomplishment of poetry: to descend, to fall, to break, to know that in writing and reading we become one again.鈥� Read More
Essay Squirrels: Nature鈥檚 ultimate ambassadors January 20, 2026 At the edge of every woodland, backyard, and city park, a small, twitchy-nosed guide ushers us into our most common encounter with the wild. The squirrel lives where we live, moving easily between tree canopy and sidewalk, wilderness, and civilization. Long before we can name ecosystems or understand food webs, squirrels introduce us to the idea that we share our world with other lives. Read More
Essay When shaming backfires January 16, 2026 When someone behaves badly, a natural and understandable reaction is to shame them. But what if the problem being addressed is actually fuelled by shame? Read More
Interview Hanna Pickard on What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? January 09, 2026 What would you do alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine? Drawing on her expertise as an academic philosopher and her clinical work in a therapeutic community, Hanna Pickard explores the meaning of drugs for people with addiction and the diverse factors that keep them using despite the costs. Read More
Essay Thinking from the far south January 02, 2026 How do we see the world whole? We can start by looking at it through the lenses that southern writers and storytellers offer us. Read More
Essay Countering violence through never-ending tales January 02, 2026 Once upon a time, I thought that the foundation of Israel in 1948 would set an example of peace and good will on this troubled planet. Sadly, this has not occurred, and the decline of Israel as a model state has compelled me to do soul searching. Read More
Essay Civility in the age of Shakespeare December 16, 2025 A time of turmoil, riven with conflict, a deeply divided world in which opposing factions harbour nothing but contempt for other members of society鈥攖he early modern period bears a remarkable resemblance to our own. Read More
