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
Much ado about Shakespeare: A reading list January 16, 2026 Shakespeare is a cultural icon who had an outsized impact on literature and language, even shaping modern English with the introduction of new words and phrases. His writing is aesthetically complex, often blending genres and experimenting with forms. Over four centuries, his plays and poems have been read, performed, edited and debated, with every generation finding new meaning. Dive into a curated selection of our Shakespeare titles. 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
Podcast On Democracy and Bullshit January 14, 2026 We鈥檙e continuing our series on philosopher Harry Frankfurt鈥檚 seminal work, On Bullshit. Our discussion with H茅l猫ne Landemore is on democracy and bullshit, with a special focus on her book, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century. 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 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 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
Podcast What Do You Want Out of Life? December 17, 2025 What do you want out of life? To make a lot of money鈥攐r work for justice? To run marathons鈥攐r sing in a choir? To have children鈥攐r travel the world? The things we care about in life鈥攆amily, friendship, leisure activities, work, our moral ideals鈥攐ften conflict, preventing us from doing what matters most to us. 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
Podcast Everything Evolves December 10, 2025 Mark Vellend describes how all observable phenomena in the universe can be understood through two sciences. The first is physics. The second is the science of evolvable systems. Read More
Podcast How Progress Ends December 08, 2025 Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. Read More
Essay Minding our minds December 08, 2025 Roughly twenty-five centuries ago in northern India, the Buddha learned to watch his feelings in order to forge new kinds of relationships with them. Read More
Podcast Safe Havens for Hate December 02, 2025 Content moderation on social media has become one of the most daunting challenges of our time. Nowhere is the need for action more urgent than in the fight against terrorism and extremism. Read More
Podcast Wound Man December 02, 2025 The Wound Man鈥攁 medical diagram depicting a figure fantastically pierced by weapons and ravaged by injuries and diseases鈥攚as reproduced widely across the medieval and early modern globe. Jack Hartnell charts the emergence and endurance of this striking image, used as a visual guide to the treatment of many ailments. Read More
Essay The Aztecs鈥� grammar of gratitude November 27, 2025 Forty years ago, I was deeply involved with a manuscript housed in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. It was written in a language variously known as Aztec, Mexicano, and Nahuatl.聽 Each of these names carries a bit of truth. Read More
