Philosopher Michael Marder explores the problematic figure of “talking trees," from the sacred grove of Dodona in ancient Greece, to the vegetalized human beings in Dante’s “Inferno.”
Michael Marder | Jul 25
Jorge Luis Borges was deeply inspired by the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose prints of imaginary prisons and palaces captured the Argentinian author's imagination.
Victor Plahte Tschudi | Jul 20
An excerpt from Eva Meijer's book “Animal Languages,” an exploration of how animals speak to each other and to humans.
Eva Meijer | Jul 17
An excerpt from veteran game designer Greg Costikyan's book "Uncertainty in Games."
Greg Costikyan | Jul 11
The science of viruses, born out of the 20th century's deadliest pandemic, launched medical thinking in a dramatically new direction, saving countless lives in the decades to come.
Richard Conniff | Jul 6
"As you can see, I haven’t stopped being a painter. Now I draw on chance."
Trevor Stark | Jun 29
An excerpt from “Memory,” a primer on human memory, its workings, feats, and flaws, by two leading psychological researchers.
Fergus Craik and Larry Jacoby | Jun 26
An excerpt from "Thousands of Mirrors," cult critic Ian Penman's kaleidoscopic study of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Ian Penman | Jun 22
Now that we’ve discovered exoplanets, can we detect the moons that might orbit them? And might life exist on them?
Chris Impey | Jun 20
Our broken definition of play is drawn from a white European philosophical tradition that has harmed and erased people of color.
Aaron Trammell | Jun 15
