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

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

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?

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

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

“The world without hegemony” — A long-form article based on my book with Amitav! Many thanks to Sam Haselby! @yalepress.bsky.social

"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 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...

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?

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

Congratulations @birchlse.bsky.social on winning the 2025 Royal Institute of Philosophy Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize! 👏

In this video by Matthew Wilcock, an overhead view of a motorway becomes a meditative piano and string composition, encouraging us to find beauty in the most mundane rhythms and repetitions of everyday life

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

‘Rawls is often treated as an austere theorist of justice, but I wanted to recover the moral and even spiritual warmth at the heart of his liberalism — and Aeon was the perfect place to do that’, – @lefebvrealex.bsky.social, winner of the Australasian Association of Philosophy’s Media Prize

In this brief introduction, the art historians Andrew Turner and Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank guide viewers through the oldest Maya book to have survived Spanish colonial destruction, the Códice Maya de México, revealing how ritual and the cosmos shaped life in Maya society @gettymuseum.bsky.social

Congratulations to Lois Parshley, winner of the top prize for Science Journalist in the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications. Lois’ writing illustrates the power of science journalism to illuminate systemic challenges shaping our planet’s future

‘As someone Indigenous to northern New Mexico, when I look at O’Keeffe’s paintings, I can only see what and who she has left out of the picture.’ How might we recenter Indigenous voices and engage with Georgia O’keeffe’s work anew?

Congratulations to Aeon author Rebecca Boyle for winning the top prize in the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications. Her luminous storytelling brings new wonder to familiar cosmic subjects, such as why darkness matters – for the planet and for us

Have you ever looked at a classical monument and been baffled by what it all means and how to understand its message? This elegant Essay takes a close look at the Altar of Peace, a symbolically rich and highly significant Roman monument to peace after a series of barbaric wars

“telling stories about monsters isn’t simply a way of describing beings that are nothing like humans. It’s also how societies define and police who they think counts as fully human.” My words in @aeon.co 💙📚 🧪🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #psychology 🧵/n

Won a couple of awards last week. Woo! One is the Australasian Association of Philosophy’s Media Prize for Rawls the Redeemer in @aeon.co: shorturl.at/vPOxH The other is a Teaching Leadership Award for my work on the new PPE degree The University of Sydney: shorturl.at/MAHtd

This short documentary follows the International Youth for Peace and Justice Tour where teenagers from then-conflict zones visited high-school students in Canada. Although the film is now almost 40 years old, amid ongoing conflicts affecting children around the globe it feels as relevant as ever

Inspired by the Nobel Prize in Economics being won by Aeon author Joel Mokyr, this week we’re featuring more Aeon essays from the archive which dive into diverse perspectives on economic history

For centuries we’ve used the declaration of ‘monster’ to eject individuals and groups from being respected as fully human buff.ly/Ny8Dsjo

Are the laws of classical physics missing something important about how the Universe works? This short documentary by @quantamagazine.bsky.social presents a proposal that could help us better understand why everything seems to grow more complex and orderly over time

Doctors are often taught that they should be authoritative and confident, even when they come up against ambiguous symptoms and unpredictable treatments. But, as this Essay by @zoecunniffe.bsky.social shows, the best doctors know that uncertainty can be a strength

Just finished reading this and it was a very interesting read. I always find it interesting when I find parallels in the past and present.

“The more fruitful question is not whether Woolf fits a medical category, but whether traits linked with autism shaped the originality of her vision – and what that possibility might illuminate.” ‘Why I wonder if Virginia Woolf was Autistic’, new blog on Aeon 👇

Thank you for this opportunity. As someone whose worldview has become much nuanced because of Aeon, it is a privilege to be your author.

In this short film from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, curators delve into the museum’s tarot collection – from rare hand-painted 15th-century decks to contemporary examples – tracing tarot’s evolution across ages

Aeon essayist Joel Mokyr has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics ‘for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress’. We’re pleased to reshare his insightful Essay on these themes which explores Europe’s extraordinary economic growth throughout history

New York! Join us tomorrow night as we explore the philosophy of goodness and how we find it with Katja Vogt in conversation with @skyecleary.bsky.social and acclaimed jazz pianist Jason Moran. Tickets still available!

This Essay by the journalist Rahul Pandita provides a rare opportunity to hear from a close observer of the guerilla leaders of India’s Maoist movement

What happens when a child ‘suffocates their identity in order to save their body’? This extraordinary story about Jewish children who were hidden as Christians during the Holocaust has much to teach us about the effects of memory and trauma

‘Do No Harm’ tells Raina’s story of struggle and recovery, which spans the streets of Portland, Seattle and Boston and several recovery programmes – until the unconditional support of one physician gives her the space she needs to heal

Inspired by this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology, we’re revisiting the Aeon archive to take a closer look inward and dive into facts and discoveries about the immune system

Whether or not Woolf would receive a diagnosis today, her traits and her way of experiencing the world contributed to the stunning uniqueness of her writing. Her stories open a window into a different kind of mind – and offer a glimpse of how an autistic person might perceive the world

Suppose we could talk to whales – should we? In this video, biologist David Gruber and comparative anatomist Joy S Reidenberg explore the scientific and philosophical challenges of decoding whale song

Choice is a ubiquitous part of many modern societies. But how did we get here? Based on her book ‘The Age of Choice’ – nominated as a finalist for the prestigious Cundill History Prize – Sophia Rosenfeld’s Essay argues that choice is not always the same thing as freedom

Sleep is very strange @aeon.co aeon.co/essays/two-b...

Two years ago, my husband & I's lives were radically, permanently altered. I don't know how we would have survived without our community of family, friends, and acquaintances. I wrote about our experience for @aeon.co psyche.co/turning-poin...

In this instalment of the series Great Art Explained, curator, gallerist and video essayist James Payne provides a rich and rewarding tour of ‘The School of Athens’ (1509-11) and reveals how Raphael turned to the past to capture the progress of his times

Despite vast technological advances in recent years and major breakthroughs in biology and medicine, there is still no unified theory of sleep. This Essay takes a step back and seeks a different angle on this bizarre experience that happens to us every day

The training data for generative AI is far from the sum total of human knowledge. As well as oral cultures, many languages are absent, creating significant blindspots in AI’s understanding of human experience