Aeon Magazine
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Aeon is a magazine of ideas and culture. Visit aeon.co for more.
Today, the ability to choose certain genetic traits has, in many cases, become a reality through preimplantation genetic diagnosis. This TED-Ed short draws on the work of prominent philosophers to pose provocative questions about the ethical implications of such interventions
When, if ever, is selecting a ‘designer baby’ ethical? | Aeon Videos
Should deaf parents be able to select for a deaf child? On the ethics of parental choice and ‘designer babies’
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November 15, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Today, the ability to choose certain genetic traits has, in many cases, become a reality through preimplantation genetic diagnosis. This TED-Ed short draws on the work of prominent philosophers to pose provocative questions about the ethical implications of such interventions
There’s nothing like being transported to imaginative worlds by another person’s writing. Join us at the Sophia Club in Melbourne, with our guest Ronan McDonald, Professor of Irish Studies, as we explore whether reading in the old, immersive way still matters, and if so, why sophiaclub.co
Sophia Club | Live Philosophy
The Sophia Club is a new international program of cultural events. Live Philosophy takes the audience on an immersive journey of ideas.
sophiaclub.co
November 14, 2025 at 10:30 PM
There’s nothing like being transported to imaginative worlds by another person’s writing. Join us at the Sophia Club in Melbourne, with our guest Ronan McDonald, Professor of Irish Studies, as we explore whether reading in the old, immersive way still matters, and if so, why sophiaclub.co
People with ADHD and autism often have to mask their natural instincts to fit in. In today’s essay, the clinical psychologist Gilly Kahn reflects on the personal cost of masking, drawing on her own lived experience of ADHD buff.ly/QfpHdHT
The hidden costs of masking for women with ADHD and autism | Aeon Essays
People with ADHD and autism have to mask their instincts if they want to be included. But the strain exacts a very high price
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November 14, 2025 at 11:30 AM
People with ADHD and autism often have to mask their natural instincts to fit in. In today’s essay, the clinical psychologist Gilly Kahn reflects on the personal cost of masking, drawing on her own lived experience of ADHD buff.ly/QfpHdHT
Justine Kurland views utopia as a practice of reimagining inherited worlds. In this video by @moma.bsky.social, she explores three decades of this practice, reframing the American landscape through images of teenage girls, women and outsider communities experiencing radical freedom
Seven years on the road, finding utopia in the lives of women | Aeon Videos
How the photographer Justine Kirkland reframes utopia in the radical freedom of teenage girls, women and outsider communities
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November 13, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Justine Kurland views utopia as a practice of reimagining inherited worlds. In this video by @moma.bsky.social, she explores three decades of this practice, reframing the American landscape through images of teenage girls, women and outsider communities experiencing radical freedom
Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the US. In today’s essay, the historian @araujohistorian.bsky.social explores its foundational role across the Americas and the enduring importance of understanding why race is historical buff.ly/zBcptu8
Way down south: slavery far beyond the United States | Aeon Essays
Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the United States. Why don’t we know this history?
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November 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the US. In today’s essay, the historian @araujohistorian.bsky.social explores its foundational role across the Americas and the enduring importance of understanding why race is historical buff.ly/zBcptu8
In ‘The Other Side of the Mountain’, the Chinese filmmaker Yumeng He melds personal and national history with breathtaking cinematography to capture her father navigating the streets of his youth as he returns to his childhood home in Chongqing, Southwestern China
Cheng visits his hometown, awash in the tides of history and time | Aeon Videos
In Southwestern China, a filmmaker follows her father on a search for his childhood home, reshaped by history and time
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November 12, 2025 at 11:15 AM
In ‘The Other Side of the Mountain’, the Chinese filmmaker Yumeng He melds personal and national history with breathtaking cinematography to capture her father navigating the streets of his youth as he returns to his childhood home in Chongqing, Southwestern China
Today’s climate models aren’t sufficiently realistic to predict something as complex as climate change. Some scientists argue that they might never be sufficiently accurate to make multi-decadal, local climate predictions. If so, how can we make good decisions despite the inevitable uncertainty?
Today’s complex climate models aren’t equivalent to reality | Aeon Essays
The immense complexity of the climate makes it impossible to model accurately. Instead we must use uncertainty to our advantage
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November 11, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Today’s climate models aren’t sufficiently realistic to predict something as complex as climate change. Some scientists argue that they might never be sufficiently accurate to make multi-decadal, local climate predictions. If so, how can we make good decisions despite the inevitable uncertainty?
If we’re unsure about an animal’s feelings, should we assume they don’t feel pain, or that they do? Moral concern often centres on sentient beings, but it can extend further. The challenge is to build and sustain policies that reflect both our compassion and our limitations
An ant is drowning: here’s how to decide if you should save it | Aeon Essays
Should we simply assume that all animals can feel pain and are of moral concern? Or is that taking things too far?
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November 10, 2025 at 11:15 AM
If we’re unsure about an animal’s feelings, should we assume they don’t feel pain, or that they do? Moral concern often centres on sentient beings, but it can extend further. The challenge is to build and sustain policies that reflect both our compassion and our limitations
Reposted by Aeon Magazine
Can AI tell us anything meaningful about Bob Dylan’s songs? Delighted to share a new essay in @aeon.co breaking down an artists' evolution using AI extracted idea graphs.
aeon.co/essays/can-a...
aeon.co/essays/can-a...
November 8, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Can AI tell us anything meaningful about Bob Dylan’s songs? Delighted to share a new essay in @aeon.co breaking down an artists' evolution using AI extracted idea graphs.
aeon.co/essays/can-a...
aeon.co/essays/can-a...
Assistant professor of political theory Kevin D Pham argues that Vietnam’s potent and storied anticolonialism is founded upon a unique sense of national shame. Read his insightful Aeon Essay to learn more buff.ly/fcz4CWV
November 8, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Assistant professor of political theory Kevin D Pham argues that Vietnam’s potent and storied anticolonialism is founded upon a unique sense of national shame. Read his insightful Aeon Essay to learn more buff.ly/fcz4CWV
At the turn of the 20th century, two Swedish sisters dreamt of an existence free from male oppression and built an all-female co-living residence as a safe haven for single women over 35. Watch how its community endures more than 75 years later in this documentary by director Fanny Rosell
Can young and old coexist at a feminist co-living residence? | Aeon Videos
This feminist housing collective has endured for 75 years. Now, a new generation is moving in, bringing change – and men
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November 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM
At the turn of the 20th century, two Swedish sisters dreamt of an existence free from male oppression and built an all-female co-living residence as a safe haven for single women over 35. Watch how its community endures more than 75 years later in this documentary by director Fanny Rosell
Today, on Albert Camus’ birthday, we are re-sharing this Aeon original video from the archive. It details the disagreement between Camus and Sartre which became the philosophical feud of the century. How could two such close friends become such unforgiving enemies? buff.ly/VzNSdB9
How did the 20th century’s most glamorous intellectual friendship go wrong? | Aeon Videos
How did the 20th century’s most glamorous intellectual friendship go wrong?
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November 7, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Today, on Albert Camus’ birthday, we are re-sharing this Aeon original video from the archive. It details the disagreement between Camus and Sartre which became the philosophical feud of the century. How could two such close friends become such unforgiving enemies? buff.ly/VzNSdB9
In this archive essay, Mahmood Mamdani reflects on South Africa’s transition to build a nonracial democracy and the lessons it still offers for a world increasingly trapped in identity politics. Read Mamdani’s timely essay here, published in light of his son Zohran Mamdani’s recent electoral victory
The world can learn from South Africa’s ideal of nonracial democracy | Aeon Essays
What the United States and other settler societies can learn from South Africa’s push to create a nonracial democracy
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November 7, 2025 at 1:31 PM
In this archive essay, Mahmood Mamdani reflects on South Africa’s transition to build a nonracial democracy and the lessons it still offers for a world increasingly trapped in identity politics. Read Mamdani’s timely essay here, published in light of his son Zohran Mamdani’s recent electoral victory
For six decades, Bob Dylan has challenged listeners with songs that reward interpretation. He even won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
But what more might we discover if, instead of a human scholar, we asked generative AI to sift through every word Dylan ever wrote?
But what more might we discover if, instead of a human scholar, we asked generative AI to sift through every word Dylan ever wrote?
Can AI tell us anything meaningful about Bob Dylan’s songs? | Aeon Essays
Generative AI sheds new light on the underlying engines of metaphor, mood and reinvention in six decades of songs
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November 7, 2025 at 11:15 AM
For six decades, Bob Dylan has challenged listeners with songs that reward interpretation. He even won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
But what more might we discover if, instead of a human scholar, we asked generative AI to sift through every word Dylan ever wrote?
But what more might we discover if, instead of a human scholar, we asked generative AI to sift through every word Dylan ever wrote?
In this film, journalists speak with four unnamed citizens of Myanmar, providing a glimpse into how culture, daily life and political instability intersect in this isolated nation @artefr.bsky.social
A glimpse of daily life for people in isolated, war-torn Myanmar | Aeon Videos
Citizens of Myanmar describe what daily life is like in their isolated, war-torn nation
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November 6, 2025 at 3:45 PM
In this film, journalists speak with four unnamed citizens of Myanmar, providing a glimpse into how culture, daily life and political instability intersect in this isolated nation @artefr.bsky.social
The ‘Anthropocene’ has officially been declared dead. But, as this Essay argues, this does not mean we should abandon the term. It still has currency as a prism through which we can examine the multifaceted history of human activities on this planet
Declared dead last year, the Anthropocene is very much alive | Aeon Essays
As a scientific concept the Anthropocene is dead. But it’s such a helpful idea to think with, should we use it anyway?
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November 6, 2025 at 11:45 AM
The ‘Anthropocene’ has officially been declared dead. But, as this Essay argues, this does not mean we should abandon the term. It still has currency as a prism through which we can examine the multifaceted history of human activities on this planet
Discover how virtual reality is reframing and shedding new light on some of philosophy’s most enduring questions about cognition, epistemology and the nature of reality in this instalment of Aeon’s In Sight series with the renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers buff.ly/7xSFD1m
November 5, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Discover how virtual reality is reframing and shedding new light on some of philosophy’s most enduring questions about cognition, epistemology and the nature of reality in this instalment of Aeon’s In Sight series with the renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers buff.ly/7xSFD1m
The inspiring short documentary ‘Between Moon Tides’ by Jason Jaacks follows members of the Saltmarsh Sparrow Research Initiative in Rhode Island. Watch as they race against time and extreme tides to protect the species which has become increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels @theguardian
Racing rising tides, volunteers work to save a bird on the brink | Aeon Videos
How a dedicated team of volunteers in Rhode Island hack nature to find new ways to protect vulnerable sparrow hatchlings
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November 5, 2025 at 11:15 AM
The inspiring short documentary ‘Between Moon Tides’ by Jason Jaacks follows members of the Saltmarsh Sparrow Research Initiative in Rhode Island. Watch as they race against time and extreme tides to protect the species which has become increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels @theguardian
Reposted by Aeon Magazine
“The world without hegemony” — A long-form article based on my book with Amitav! Many thanks to Sam Haselby! @yalepress.bsky.social
Southeast Asian history shows us that there are other pathways to international order and that, contrary to Western modes of thinking, a hegemonic power is not required for stability
What Southeast Asian history tells us about a multipolar order | Aeon Essays
As Pax Americana ends, a multipolar order is emerging. The history of Southeast Asia holds lessons for what’s to come
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October 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM
“The world without hegemony” — A long-form article based on my book with Amitav! Many thanks to Sam Haselby! @yalepress.bsky.social
Reposted by Aeon Magazine
"History shows that there has long been a blurry, moving line between the categories of human being and monster."
I wrote a philosophical essay threading together monsters from antiquity to the present for @aeon.co:
8/
aeon.co/essays/those...
I wrote a philosophical essay threading together monsters from antiquity to the present for @aeon.co:
8/
aeon.co/essays/those...
Those declared ‘monsters’ are ejected from the human family | Aeon Essays
For centuries we’ve used the declaration of ‘monster’ to eject individuals and groups from being respected as fully human
aeon.co
October 31, 2025 at 7:33 PM
"History shows that there has long been a blurry, moving line between the categories of human being and monster."
I wrote a philosophical essay threading together monsters from antiquity to the present for @aeon.co:
8/
aeon.co/essays/those...
I wrote a philosophical essay threading together monsters from antiquity to the present for @aeon.co:
8/
aeon.co/essays/those...
Reposted by Aeon Magazine
I love publishing with @aeon.co. In this article, come for the UAPs (!), stay for the Martian canal-builders - and the history of how they changed our ideas about the environment, our future, and our place in the universe. #EnvHist #Aliens #Mars #History aeon.co/essays/in-th...
In the late 1800s alien ‘engineers’ altered our world forever | Aeon Essays
Images of vast ‘canals’ rippling across the red planet inspired fears of alien ‘engineers’ and changed science forever
aeon.co
November 4, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The 19th-century ‘discovery’ of canal-building aliens on Mars caught the attention of millions and subsequently inspired much 20th-century pop culture on alien civilisations. As this Essay explores, this story reveals how humans might react to evidence about alien life today
In the late 1800s alien ‘engineers’ altered our world forever | Aeon Essays
Images of vast ‘canals’ rippling across the red planet inspired fears of alien ‘engineers’ and changed science forever
buff.ly
November 4, 2025 at 11:45 AM
The 19th-century ‘discovery’ of canal-building aliens on Mars caught the attention of millions and subsequently inspired much 20th-century pop culture on alien civilisations. As this Essay explores, this story reveals how humans might react to evidence about alien life today
Since the earliest days of science, dissent and disagreement have driven its progress. Yet not all scientific disagreement is valuable. How do we distinguish between a ‘valuable misunderstanding’ or an attack on science itself?
Science needs disagreement. What makes some disagreement useless? | Aeon Essays
Scientific progress depends on disagreement. So why are vaccine sceptics and other science critics not worth listening to?
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November 3, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Since the earliest days of science, dissent and disagreement have driven its progress. Yet not all scientific disagreement is valuable. How do we distinguish between a ‘valuable misunderstanding’ or an attack on science itself?
In this video, the biologist Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social provides close-ups of a diverse array of caterpillars and shows how they support healthy ecosystems, employ a range of strategies to protect themselves from predators and transform into seemingly entirely different creatures
Close-ups reveal how caterpillars live long enough to cocoon | Aeon Videos
From poison spikes to fake snake eyes, caterpillars employ many clever strategies to survive to their dazzling adulthoods
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November 1, 2025 at 10:30 AM
In this video, the biologist Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social provides close-ups of a diverse array of caterpillars and shows how they support healthy ecosystems, employ a range of strategies to protect themselves from predators and transform into seemingly entirely different creatures
Since the 1970s, David Cronenberg has been cinema’s great anatomist, staging dramas of growth, decay and mutation. Amidst current political focus on managing bodies, Cronenberg offers a necessary framework: affirming bodily autonomy without stoking the panic that casts transformed bodies as threats
Our political moment is ripe for David Cronenberg’s body horror | Aeon Essays
As struggles over the human body escalate, we should return to the work of cinema’s greatest anatomist: David Cronenberg
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October 31, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Since the 1970s, David Cronenberg has been cinema’s great anatomist, staging dramas of growth, decay and mutation. Amidst current political focus on managing bodies, Cronenberg offers a necessary framework: affirming bodily autonomy without stoking the panic that casts transformed bodies as threats