Essay/Cultures & Languages From Aesop to doge The animal who speaks in a human voice is a figure of the most enduring imaginative power. What do we hope to hear? Stassa Edwards
Essay/Economics Of money and morals Moneylending has been taboo for most of human history. So how did usury stop being a sin and become respectable finance? Alex Mayyasi
Video/Physics If life feels out of balance, don’t worry – there’s always symmetry below the surface 4 minutes
Video/Gender & Sexuality Meet the lucky little organ that is uniquely dedicated to pleasure 3 minutes
Essay/Cities Common ground When we think of urban public space in terms of competing rights, we create a battleground. Is there a better way to share? Farhan Samanani
Video/Social Psychology Laughing at others’ misfortune is fine for ‘fail’ videos. It’s poison for politics 6 minutes
Essay/Biology Scents and sensibility Our sense of smell gives flavour to food, emotion to memories, and connects us to each other. But how exactly does it work? Katherine Whitcroft
Essay/Gender & Sexuality The orgasm cure What if we could expand ecstasy, reduce stress and lift depression, all by delaying and extending orgasm? Peter von Ziegesar
Essay/Cognition & Intelligence How totalism works The brainwashing methods of isolation, engulfment and fear can lead anyone to a cult. I should know – I was in one Alexandra Stein
Essay/Quantum Theory Quantum common sense Despite its confounding reputation, quantum mechanics both guides and helps explain human intuition Philip Ball
Essay/Work The future is emotional Human jobs in the future will be the ones that require emotional labour: currently undervalued and underpaid but invaluable Livia Gershon
Video/Human Enhancement It takes a careful blend of science, craft and compassion to make a prosthetic eye 6 minutes
Essay/Politics & Government Return of the grotesque The postmodern carnival has arrived, and there are good reasons to prefer François Rabelais’s version Robert D Zaretsky
Video/Subcultures A tour of the Brooklyn rooftops where man’s best friend has a beak and wings 8 minutes
Essay/Meaning & the Good Life Do we matter in the cosmos? Humanity is nothing more than a microscopic blip in the universe. But does that mean we are insignificant? Nick Hughes
Video/Nature & Environment What we’ve done with our world, from ingenuity to devastation – in two kinetic minutes 2 minutes
Essay/History ‘Here we are all the same’ The US Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, but the fight for religious equality was only just beginning Richard D Brown
Video/Evolution Flashing together: when fireflies meet LEDs, the result is a beautiful lightshow 2 minutes
Idea/Stories & Literature This is the Muslim tradition of sci-fi and speculative fiction Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
Essay/Social Psychology Microaggressions? Prejudice remains a huge social evil but evidence for harm caused by microaggression is incoherent, unscientific and weak Scott O Lilienfeld
Video/Internet & Communication A classic film on communication finds renewed meaning in the age of memes and emojis 22 minutes
Idea/Politics & Government Even the ancient Greeks thought their best days were history Johanna Hanink
Essay/Values & Beliefs Dissolving the ego You don’t need drugs or a church for an ecstatic experience that helps transcend the self and connect to something bigger Jules Evans