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Aeon Magazine

Aeonaeon.co
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, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert concepts and stories that provoke, enrich and expand our horizons. Aeon is a nonprofit digital magazine publishing essays and videos that seek to illuminate the big questions of life. Free to read and now free to listen, Aeon’s mission is to share knowledge and insight with everyone, everywhere. Discover essays and videos at Aeon.co. Aeon essays are only ever written and edited by human experts. We use AI for audio narration only.
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Episodes

A duty to oneself

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert co...

Mar 13, 202620 min

Reversing extinction

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into ex...

Mar 12, 202626 min

Does culture make emotion?

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exper...

Mar 10, 202628 min

Nothing alive is alien to me

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into ...

Mar 08, 202623 min

Not in our name

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expe...

Mar 07, 202620 min

Savage care

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into ex...

Mar 06, 202624 min

On her own terms

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert...

Mar 05, 202632 min

The insurance catastrophe

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exper...

Mar 03, 202628 min

Who is Walter Mignolo?

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert con...

Mar 02, 202633 min

Our phosphorescent world

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exp...

Mar 01, 202623 min

The inflammation age

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expe...

Feb 28, 202629 min

There are no psychopaths

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into ex...

Feb 27, 202624 min

The presence of power

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert co...

Feb 26, 202629 min

The six-second hug

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey i...

Feb 24, 202626 min

Conservation’s prejudice

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert con...

Feb 23, 202630 min

‘I awoke at ½ past 7’

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exper...

Feb 22, 202629 min

Mask on/mask off

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into...

Feb 21, 202622 min

Going-against-the-grainers

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert...

Feb 20, 202624 min

Books and screens

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert co...

Feb 19, 202623 min

Mexistentialism

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exper...

Feb 17, 202622 min

The snowball effect

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert conc...

Feb 16, 202623 min

The deepest South

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expe...

Feb 15, 202633 min

The model of catastrophe

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey in...

Feb 14, 202626 min

Guarding the guardians

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exper...

Feb 13, 202624 min

Subverting hell

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey i...

Feb 12, 202620 min

Compost modernity!

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exper...

Feb 10, 202623 min

Orcas and ourselves

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into ex...

Feb 09, 202629 min

The ant you can save

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert con...

Feb 08, 202623 min

Are you Confusedocene?

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, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into expert...

Feb 07, 202621 min

How selfish are we?

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, science, psychology, society and culture. Each episode features a narrated Aeon essay, a journey into exp...

Feb 06, 202624 min
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