Bookmarks (750)

Americana has never looked as eerie as at the annual Cajun crawfish festival: video art by a Québécois filmmaking trioBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

It’s not just that Hegel and Rousseau were racists. Racism was baked into the very structure of their dialectical philosophyBy Avram AlpertRead at Aeon

Raw emotion, hard truths and silence as a daughter calls her mother with an update on her breast-cancer treatmentBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Centuries before Columbus, Vikings came to the Western hemisphere. How far into the Americas did they travel?By Valerie HansenRead at Aeon

Slime mould seems to be intelligent despite lacking a nervous system. The artist Heather Barnett puts its smarts to the testBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Yes, there are just two biological sexes. No, this doesn’t mean every living thing is either one or the otherBy Paul GriffithsRead at Aeon

In an age thick with anger and fear, we might dream of a purely rational politics but it would be a denial of our humanityBy Manos TsakirisRead at Aeon

Why Søren Kierkegaard saw doubt – though disorienting and horrifying – as the cornerstone of a sound philosophical practiceBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

The heart-tug tactics of 1950s ads steered white American women away from activism into domesticity. They’re still thereBy Ellen Wayland-SmithRead at Aeon

The consolidation of the ‘attention economy’ to a handful of companies is an experiment that demands our attentive resistanceBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

There’s a strange, and deeply human, story behind how we taught machines to breathe for critically ill patientsBy Sarah Ruth BatesRead at Aeon

To understand a society’s values and history, look at its public art: a 1973 guide to Manhattan’s charms and contradictionsBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Here’s the paradox of articulation: are you excavating existing ideas, or do your thoughts come into being as you speak?By Eli AlshanetskyRead at Aeon

The idea of the ‘supply chain’ shackles how we think about economic justice. What forces could new metaphors unleash?By Michael GibbRead at Aeon

Watch the perpetual motion of life and sand in eastward drift across the windswept Frisian Islands of the North SeaBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Jet-age glamour was more than just aesthetic: its promise of motionless movement reshaped perception of time and spaceBy Vanessa R SchwartzRead at Aeon

Does a terrorist deserve a respectful burial? The question that divided a city in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombingBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Perched on the cusp between biology and chemistry, the start of life on Earth is an event horizon we struggle to see beyondBy Natalie ElliotRead at Aeon

Every cover is a true original when it’s been crafted by hand: watch the artisanal process behind marbled book jacketsBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Far from a social luxury, tact becomes imperative when life is cheapened. We exercise it to show gentle respect for anotherBy Corina StanRead at Aeon

William Blake saw angels and ghosts and the Hallelujah sunrise, even on the darkest day. We need to foster his state of mindBy Mark VernonRead at Aeon

Can we ever know everything about something we can’t experience? A thought experiment from the philosopher Frank JacksonBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

How we came to represent (through inky marks) the vagaries of the mind, inflections of the voice, and intensity of feelingBy Florence HazratRead at Aeon

The tireless team working to clear the Zone Rouge in northeastern France from the deadly debris of the First World WarBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Reinhart Koselleck, the last great theorist of history, sought in the apparent chaos of events a science of experienceBy Stefan-Ludwig HoffmannRead at Aeon

Watch as the carnivorous Cape sundew, a bog-dwelling plant of South Africa, uses electricity to capture its preyBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Extraordinary beliefs don’t arise in a vacuum. They take root in minds confronted by unusual and traumatic experiencesBy Huw GreenRead at Aeon

The pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity – seeing human society as a complex system opens a better future for us allBy Jessica Flack & Melanie MitchellRead at Aeon

Can you find the key that will set you free? The methodical thrills of working through an impossible-to-solve prisoner puzzleBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Whether collecting, storing or hoarding, we’ve always had our issues with stuff – not least deciding what’s worth havingBy Astrid Van OyenRead at Aeon

What Antoni Gaudí began in 1882, Etsuro Sotoo aims to finish: the Sagrada Família as a divine conversation between artistsBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Renowned for his pessimism, Arthur Schopenhauer was nonetheless a conoisseur of very distinctive kinds of happinessBy David Bather WoodsRead at Aeon

The Fayum portraits are a vivid evocation of the diverse peoples living in Egypt’s desert oasis amid the fall of RomeBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

In the 19th century, the rest cure tested women’s sanity. Today, it challenges cherished myths about work and productivityBy Alicia PuglionesiRead at Aeon

Hurts – your own or those done to you – keep you stuck. Forgiveness therapy can help you gain perspective and move onBy Nathaniel WadeRead at Aeon

An award-winning film captures a mysterious bubbling substance. What it is stays a mystery until the explosive finaleBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Evolution is extraordinarily creative in the wake of a cataclysm. How does life keep steadily ticking over in between?By Renée A DuckworthRead at Aeon

Why we don’t feel pain in dreams, and other brain puzzles that neuronal assemblies might help neuroscientists unlockBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Partly of the earth, partly of our body, the shoe sits on the edge of an ontological threshold. Where can it transport us?By Randy LaistRead at Aeon

Plato’s timeless ‘allegory of the cave’, brought to life with retro-surreal animation and Orson Welles’s narrationBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

For the warriors and wanderers who became the Aztec people, truth was not singular and history was braided from many voicesBy Camilla TownsendRead at Aeon

The ignorant pundit is absolutely certain; the true expert understands their own limits and how to ask the right questionsBy Andrew Little & Matthew BackusRead at Aeon

An elegant meditation on the intersections of streets, stories and social forces that give shape to a Barcelona squareBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Before death became a source of disgust and denial, Europeans cheerfully painted with – and ingested – human remainsBy Michael PressRead at Aeon

How the American Museum of Natural History grappled with its controversial statue of Roosevelt before pulling it downBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Brain-to-brain interfaces promise to bypass language. But do we really want access to one another’s unmediated thoughts?By Mark DingemanseRead at Aeon

‘My battery is low and it’s getting dark’: the sights and sounds of life on Mars before Oppy the rover’s expedition endedBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

Being an employee is a threat to your liberty. But while firms exist, compulsory unions are a basic safeguard of freedomBy Mark R ReiffRead at Aeon

Our planet is a tiny porthole, looking over a cosmic sea. Can we learn what lies beyond our own horizons of perception?By Katie MackRead at Aeon

A deadpan glimpse of life aboard a cruise ship, where rituals of excess and organised fun have built a $45 billion industryBy Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon