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Society
Long-debunked conspiracies don’t disappear—they evolve and thrive in the age of algorithms.
A century ago, an American colony named after Trump's favorite president was thriving on the Isle of Pines. Then came hurricanes and geopolitical reality.
Tech leaders may have backed Trump in 2024, but the majority of the community still leans left -- and has a big opportunity ahead.
Ryan Holiday on why wisdom depends on failure, experimentation, and the courage to admit when we’re wrong.
Nearly 30 would be "nones" — an amorphous group that spans from zealous atheists to the vaguely spiritual.
A study on the “moral circles” of liberals and conservatives gets drafted into the culture wars — with mixed results.
In ancient Sparta, it was accepted practice for more women to marry and have children by more than one man.
The "Shopping Cart Litmus Test" is a popular meme about morality. What does it really reveal about one's character?
Some of the world's most satisfied societies are poor, small, and remote.
Meet the people paid to rouse the workers of industrial Britain.
From "The Castle of Otranto" to "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, these books changed the literary landscape.
Tikal, one of the biggest cities the Maya ever built, was home to a vast and flourishing society.
Six hundred years in the history of trousers.
Alchemy had its golden age in the 17th century, when it counted Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle among its adherents.
John Templeton Foundation
How humans came to feel comfortable among strangers, like those in a café, is an under-explored mystery.
John Templeton Foundation
Some authors never saw their books score widespread acclaim—or even get published at all.
Modern robotics are creating a kind of cultural paradox, where the best religion is the one that eventually involves no humans at all.
Queen Calafia seems like she could have sprung from the pages of a modern fantasy novel.
Democratic freedom, rapturous religion, and newspapers created a hotbed for social experimentation in 19th-century America.
There is a strong case to be made that the China has moved too slowly to reverse the effects of its one-child policy.
Mahāyāna is the most popular type of Buddhism in the world today.
The word “turkey” can refer to everything from the bird itself to a populous Eurasian country to movie flops.
After 10,000 years of civilization, have we figured out what virtue is?
Deaths of despair are skyrocketing in the U.S., while at the same time, they are falling in other wealthy countries. What are we doing wrong?
In terms of sheer productivity, “-gate” has no peer. Wikipedia’s list of -gates has over 260 entries.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not to mark Mexican independence.
To clear Scotland’s roads in winter, the local traffic agency employs heavy machinery with punny names. Can you grit and bear it?
Despite losing most of his extended family to the guillotine, Tocqueville grew up to become a fervent supporter of democratic revolution.
Famished, not famous: retrace Orwell’s hunger days, when he was one of the city’s legion of poor foreigners.