Aeon Magazine

People with ADHD and autism have to mask their instincts if they want to be included. But the strain exacts a very high price. 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...

If our ethical beliefs come from our social environment, how do some people find the moral courage to defy convention?. 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,...

Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time. 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...

The Mexican embrace of uncertainty, forged in the crucible of history, captures the true vulnerability of our existence. 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...

Our planet was once a harsh, alien, icy world. Yet this deep freeze may have shaped you, me and all life on Earth. 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...

Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the United States. Why don’t we know this history?. 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...

The immense complexity of the climate makes it impossible to model accurately. Instead we must use uncertainty to our advantage. 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,...

Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?. 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...

In their visions of the underworld Dante and Milton were truly subversive, incorporating predecessors into their own repudiation. 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...

The vision of solarpunk: joining nature with technology in vibrantly inclusive ways to create a world that truly blooms. 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...

Sea pandas or sadistic killers? These enigmatic creatures invite contradictory labels that say far more about us than them. 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...

Should we simply assume that all animals can feel pain and are of moral concern? Or is that taking things too far?. 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...

As a scientific concept the Anthropocene is dead. But it’s such a helpful idea to think with, should we use it anyway?. 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,...

An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition. 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...

In Japanese philosophy, unlike the atomised Western self, we are ‘ningen’ (人間), each enmeshed with other humans and nature. 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 metaphor of rewiring offers an ideal of engineered precision. But the brain is more like a forest than a circuit board. 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...

In Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, workers are being enslaved but the boundary between victim and perpetrator is blurred. 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...

Images of vast ‘canals’ rippling across the red planet inspired fears of alien ‘engineers’ and changed science forever. 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,...

Scientific progress depends on disagreement. So why are vaccine sceptics and other science critics not worth listening to?. 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...

Despite associations with the idle rich, the fact that inheritances are rising is a sign of a healthy, growing economy. 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,...

The 17th-century town Cacheu was a hub of West African and European cultures, languages and beliefs (and run by women). 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,...

As struggles over the human body escalate, we should return to the work of cinema’s greatest anatomist: David Cronenberg. 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...

As Pax Americana ends, a multipolar order is emerging. The history of Southeast Asia holds lessons for what’s to come. 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,...

As AI’s endless clichés continue to encroach on human art, the true uniqueness of our creativity is becoming ever clearer. 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...

Young Europeans join far-Right movements less out of grievance than out of a profound yearning to believe and belong. 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...