Aeon Magazine

Deskilling the body

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told th

Is everything conscious?

If the question makes no sense to you, try spending some time with the principle of sufficient reason. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told thro

The ghetto on the lagoon

Sixteenth-century Venice wanted to expel its Jews but couldn’t do without them. Its compromise was the world’s first ghetto. Aeon audio explores the most profound and rel

How to assemble science

Humanity produces a staggering amount of new knowledge every day. The question is how to make sense of it all. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, t

A life in episodes

For a decade, I’ve posted episodes of my memoir to Facebook. My readers correct my understanding of my past. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, tol

Life on a hair trigger

A world of violence sustains itself through guns, poverty and other social ills, but also through the minds it creates. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant

Reason is more than a tool

If intelligence is merely optimisation then machines will outrun us. Kant tells us why human reason is so much more. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant id

Don’t use the ‘C-word’

A cancer diagnosis carries with it fear and upheaval. For many patients the cellular changes do not warrant the label. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant

Paternity is poetical

The notion that fatherhood and creativity are at odds is plain wrong, as both poetry and neuroscience are showing us. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant i

Chasing la dolce vita

Homecomings, fantasies, food and ghosts – how the myth of eternal return keeps the Italian diaspora in a state of longing. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relev

Reasoning together

Jürgen Habermas, the great defender of deliberative democracy, lived up to its demands: he never feared changing his mind. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relev

Where a land ethic blooms

Caring for this planet entails decisions that are intimate, about our farms, our homes, our human and our wild neighbours. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relev

Toadstools and toxins

When I found the mushroom Amanita muscaria being sold in candy wrappers, I uncovered legal loopholes, dangerous dosages and more. Aeon audio explores the most profound an

He was probably right

Cicero’s life and thought are a testament to the idea of probabilia: we should be confident in our beliefs, but never certain. Aeon audio explores the most profound and r

Cosmic amnesia

A black hole rings like a struck bell, then settles into silence, forgetting almost everything about its history. Why?. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant

Who will taste the cherries?

The computist has one dream: to debug the subjectivity out of all of human knowledge, creating a pure, frictionless world. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relev

The bombarding of childhood

It’s not just screen time: the problem with children’s media is that it has become relentlessly hectic, loud and bright. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevan

Penchants of the polymaths

The fathers of Islamic science hold lessons for students: breadth over specialisation, and never let constraints get in the way. Aeon audio explores the most profound and

Medieval mental health

Saffron and ostrich liver were prescribed but so were exercise, gardens, animals, socialising, and music. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told t

Our eloquent hands

Physicians reject palmistry as nonsense. But reading the creases of our palms for hidden meaning is what doctors have always done. Aeon audio explores the most profound a