Why aren’t children protected from their parents monetising them? | Aeon Essays
We have laws to protect children from factory work. Why aren’t they protected from parents who...
How an ancient polymath first calculated Earth’s size, as told by Carl Sagan | Aeon Videos
Carl Sagan explains how, with just ‘sticks, eyes, feet and brains’, an ancient Greek polymath first...
Here’s to reviving the ancient practice of silvopasture | Aeon Essays
This ancient practice, nurturing animals and trees in an ecological system, fights climate change and restores...
Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition | Aeon Videos
They appear from the sea ice – the eerie tradition celebrated by the Labrador Inuit people...
What the controversial letters of Plato reveal about us | Aeon Essays
Scholars cannot agree whether the letters of Plato are fake or genuine. Is this just a...
Artificial ‘creativity’ is unstoppable. Grappling with its ethics is up to us | Aeon Videos
If all artists take inspiration from previous artists’ work, does AI art really pose a new...
Lydia Maria Child and the vexed role of the woman abolitionist | Aeon Essays
Taking up arms against slavery, the famous novelist foreshadowed the vexed role of the white woman...
How should we understand the weird experience of coincidence? | Aeon Essays
I am an unequivocal rationalist and yet I still want to see something strange and wonderful...
Refined towards imperfection – a ceramic artist recreates a rare Korean treasure | Aeon Videos
From clay to ceramic, making a Korean moon jar is a meticulous process that reflects ancient...
For some, it’s only when school stops that learning starts | Aeon Essays
It takes nerve to go against the grain and take your child out of school. But,...
Through a poetic account of childhood trauma, one woman reclaims her past | Aeon Videos
‘Reclaiming myself and my image’ – one woman’s powerful, lyrical meditation on childhood trauma and personal...
The philosophical legacy of Alexandre Kojève | Aeon Essays
Alexandre Kojève was an immense influence on many French thinkers. What was so compelling about his...
‘Without a poster, you don’t exist!’ – on the curious political banners of Mumbai | Aeon Videos
A slice-of-life documentary on Mumbai’s curious poster politics offers a wry commentary on self-image in the...
Why are most of us stuck with a belief in the soul? | Aeon Essays
The idea of the soul is obviously a nonsense, yet its immaterial mysterious nature has deep...
On Roman Charity, or a woman’s filial debt to the patriarchy | Aeon Essays
Since antiquity, artists have depicted a perverse scene of a daughter breastfeeding her aged father. What...
The famed medieval map that stretched beyond Earth to heaven, history and myth | Aeon Videos
How an imaginative piece of medieval cartography navigates history, mythology and religion to orient us in...
How do you decolonise the English language? | Aeon Essays
Is Earth’s most-spoken language a living ‘gift’ or a many-headed ‘monster’? Both views distract us from...
A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse | Aeon Videos
The Great Salt Lake’s ecosystem in free fall. What’s the emotional toll of watching it evaporate...
Women write about their divorce experience. Why don’t more men? | Aeon Essays
Straight men rarely write about the end of their marriages. Our enduring ideas about gender explain...
Household items are reborn in a ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’ | Aeon Videos
The French artist Alain Biet’s ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’ celebrates human ingenuity by mining magic...
How Stalin enlisted the Orthodox Church to help control Ukraine | Aeon Essays
Stalin presented Orthodox leaders with a proposal: the Soviet state that had destroyed their Church would...
JWST’s cosmic revelations will change our interior lives too | Aeon Essays
By showing us a new cosmos, the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope will ripple...
As a pianist strikes a chord, visualisations of his notes appear in real time | Aeon Videos
Watch as a computer code visualises, in real time, the ratios embedded in a virtuoso musician’s...
Breeding dogs to be cute and anthropomorphic is animal cruelty | Aeon Essays
The very attributes that make small dogs cute and popular are slowly strangling their ability to...
Meet the man who uncovered the scandal of nuclear testing in South Australia | Aeon Videos
How one man’s activism helped uncover the reckless nuclear tests that contaminated lands and bodies in...
What we lost with Persianate modernity | Aeon Essays
Cultural exchange between Iran and India led to the creation of literary histories that inspired modern...
Jeremy Bentham was consumed by creating a perfect prison. Here’s the result | Aeon Videos
A precise digital construction of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon prison offers a subtle commentary on power and...
Out of John Locke’s shadow: Damaris Masham and her philosophy | Aeon Essays
Were it not for her friendship with John Locke, the radical feminist gems of philosopher Damaris...
Why aren’t our everyday lives as ‘spooky’ as the quantum world? | Aeon Videos
Why don’t we experience ‘quantum weirdness’ in our everyday lives? A brief dive into the current...
What hunter-gatherers demonstrate about work and satisfaction | Aeon Essays
Hunter-gatherers don’t live in an economic idyll but their deep appreciation of rest puts industrialised work...
The strange journey of the Parthenon Marbles to the British Museum | Aeon Videos
How the Parthenon Marbles came to be on display in the British Museum, thousands of miles...
What drum machines can teach us about artificial intelligence | Aeon Essays
As AI drum machines embrace humanising imperfections, what does this mean for ‘real’ drummers and the...
Laura fights to protect the magnificence of wild horses running free | Aeon Videos
Why Laura Leigh campaigns to protect the magnificent sight of wild horses running free in the...
Medieval babycare: from breastfeeding to developmental toys | Aeon Essays
From mansplaining about breastfeeding to debates on developmental toys, medieval parenting was full of familiar dilemmas...
Can a martyr’s death be an act of true resistance and freedom? | Aeon Essays
When everyday life is marked by oppression and violence, can a martyr’s death truly be an...
The old-time cinema experience endures in a quiet corner of Japan | Aeon Videos
Step inside a century-old cinema in Japan and experience the nostalgic charms of watching (and hearing)...
To understand AI sentience, first understand it in animals | Aeon Essays
As the power of AI grows, we need to have evidence of its sentience. That is...
Burning ice, metal clouds, gemstone rain – tour the strangest known exoplanets | Aeon Videos
An operatic, 3D-animated tour of some of the most fascinating exoplanets yet discovered reveals burning ice...
How the interpersonal model explains, and heals, mental pain | Aeon Essays
In order to understand and heal mental distress, we must see our minds as existing in...
‘I didn’t fall in love with a couple of body pieces’ – on marriage and transition | Aeon Videos
Les worried that transitioning would ruin his life with Scott and their children. Instead, it strengthened...
What are the moral implications of humanity going extinct? | Aeon Essays
Why would it be so bad if our species came to an end? It is a...
Embryo risk screening is already here. What are the ethical risks? | Aeon Essays
Embryo risk screening could lower the odds of illnesses ranging from depression to diabetes. Can it...
Chew over the prisoner’s dilemma and see if you can find the rational path out | Aeon Videos
A whimsical felted take on the prisoner’s dilemma, the classic game-theory puzzle with real-world political implications...
Your secrets hurt your mental health. What’s the alternative? | Aeon Essays
Holding back the truth can take a huge toll on your relationships and your mental health....
The radically impractical 18th-century architect whose ideas on beauty endure | Aeon Videos
Étienne-Louis Boullée imagined structures for an ideal new social order. These designs were never built, but...
How atomic doomsday experiments shaped disturbance ecology | Aeon Essays
How atomic doomsday experiments, fuelled by Cold War fears, shaped then shook ecologists’ faith in self-healing...
From log to Go board – the world’s oldest game, made the old-fashioned way | Aeon Videos
Enter a workshop where the world’s oldest board game is still made by hand, in a...
What was it like to grow up in the last Ice Age? | Aeon Essays
With the help of new archaeological approaches, our picture of young lives in the Palaeolithic is...
If not vegan, then what? An investigation of three options | Aeon Essays
A vegan diet can be hard to adopt, even if you’re convinced it’s the right thing...
The key to a vampire’s immortality? Meeting the anxieties of the moment | Aeon Videos
How do vampires remain undead? They stay culturally relevant by evolving to reflect the anxieties of...
