Aeon Magazine

Lansana Keita rejected Eurocentric ideas, tracing the philosophical tradition back to African Kemet or ancient Egypt. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, p...

Elephant families are matriarchal, inclusive and caring. But when environmental scarcity hits, everything changes. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psyc...

We know that black holes are strange, but they could be hiding something even weirder beyond their horizons. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psychology...

The word can morph from noun to verb to adjective, from dog to human, from female to male. What will it do next?. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psych...

As the 18th-century war between mechanism and romanticism returns, we face a new question: can we build artificial souls?. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scien...

Since living requires choosing, we will always feel regret about the paths not taken. But what matters is the future we forge. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, s...

In the early 20th century, Emmy Noether’s mathematics transcended the physical world. She longed to do the same herself. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science...

Contemplating the world requires a body, and a body requires an immune system: the rungs of life create the stuff of thought. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, sc...

Ayahuasca has gone global. But do corporate managers in China’s megacities have the same visions as shamans in Peru?. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, p...

African philosophical values of harmony and vitality have much to offer our thinking about what we owe to ourselves. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, ps...

Technologies of preserving and reviving organisms are already redefining the meaning of life, death, and extinction itself. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scie...

Franz Boas helps us solve the puzzle of where our emotional lives originate: in our selves or in the cultures around us. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science...

Who belongs to our moral community? The Greek philosopher Empedocles had an answer: all life, from humans to the laurel bush. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, sc...

The gravest of all decisions, to go to war, happens without the consent of the people. This is a great flaw in democracy. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scienc...

Neat ethical principles have nothing to say to doctors like me, faced with the brutal, bloody compromises of hospital life. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scie...

Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook remains shocking, necessary and imperfect – a dazzling experiment in living as a woman. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science,...

Whole regions of the world are now uninsurable, bringing radical uncertainty to the economy. How do we fix the problem?. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science...

A prominent architect of decolonial theory, his diagnosis of European colonial ills is both penetrating and flawed. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psy...

This life-giving element, stored in rock and organic material, moves around Earth in an ancient cycle we have just broken. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scien...

Acute inflammation helps the body heal. But chronic inflammation is different and could provoke a medical paradigm shift. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scienc...

Virtually everything you think you know about psychopathy has been thoroughly debunked. Why does this zombie idea live on?. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, scie...

The Indian thinker Rammohun Roy believed that good governance must be close: distance made the British Empire cruel. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, ps...

From art to religion to sex, instrumentalisation has drained away intrinsic value. But life is about more than material benefits. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy...

Ecology is pervaded by a nativist dogma against invasive species that distorts the science and undermines wildness. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psy...

Our cursed age of self-monitoring and optimisation didn’t start with big tech: as so often, the Victorians are to blame. Aeon audio explores the most profound and relevant ideas, told through essays that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science...