Julia Shaw: ‘I had so many questions about bisexuality’
The psychologist is known for her work on the criminal mind, but wrote her new book to answer her own questions about her sexualityJulia Shaw is a psychologist at University College London and part of...
View ArticleRegenesis by George Monbiot review – hungry for real change
The environmental activist’s proposals for remaking the global food industry, from changes in farming practices to 3D-printed steaks, make for urgent, essential readingWe are farming our planet to...
View ArticleBeyond Measure by James Vincent review – worth its weight in gold
This enlightening book reveals the importance of scales and rulers to humanity’s survival– and how measurement can be used for inhumane purposesOnce upon a time there was no time at all. And no weight,...
View ArticleDon’t Trust Your Gut by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz review – the problem with...
From relationships, to sport, to happiness – why data points, not feelings, are a better guide to what worksIntuition is a funny business. Back in the day, you might have thought that making life...
View ArticleAnimal magic: why intelligence isn’t just for humans
Meet the footballing bees, optimistic pigs and alien-like octopuses that are shaking up how we think about mindsHow do you spot an optimistic pig? This isn’t the setup for a punchline; the question is...
View Article‘I’m certainly open to criticism’: David Wengrow and the trouble with...
Wengrow and his late co-author David Graeber caused a sensation with their revisionist view of humankind’s development. But then came the attacks…Last year a book called The Dawn of Everything...
View ArticleWhen I Grow Up by Moya Sarner review
A journalist and psychotherapist explores what it means to be an adult in a world that often infantilisesWhat’s going to happen to the children, when there aren’t any more grownups?” sang Noël Coward,...
View ArticleBirdwatcher Mya-Rose Craig: ‘The nature sector is decades behind in terms of...
The birder and activist on increasing access to nature, why it’s important to be an optimist, and the joys of Cambridge University’s Taylor Swift societyMya-Rose Craig is a 20-year-old birdwatcher and...
View ArticleIn brief: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way; The Rise and Reign of the Mammals; The...
A razor-sharp story of familial tensions; a paleontologist’s fascinating history of mammals; and a rich guide to hummingbirds across AmericaRebecca WaitRiverrun, £16.99, pp400Continue reading...
View ArticleAn Immense World by Ed Yong review – the astonishing ways in which animals...
This magnificent book reveals the strange and mysterious ways that creatures sense their surroundings – pushing our understanding of them to the limitScallops have eyes. Not just two eyes, like humans...
View ArticleBi by Julia Shaw review – the past and present of a maligned minority
A tour of the science, culture and history of bisexuality that ranges from the vehemently political to the charmingly weirdAccording to periodic reports in the media, bisexuality has been a brand-new...
View ArticleForget Me Not by Sophie Pavelle review – a fan letter to Britain’s unsung...
From overdressed hares to furious falcons … an impassioned study of wildlife under threat that still manages to inspire hopeSophie Pavelle has been busy. A science writer, presenter, maker of podcasts,...
View ArticleMike George obituary
Writer and campaigner on social justice and the environment who developed the understanding of consumer vulnerabilityMike George, a writer and campaigner on social justice and the environment, who has...
View ArticleBrainwashed by Daniel Pick review – do great minds really think alike?
From The Simpsons to QAnon via The Stepford Wives, the psychoanalyst’s absorbing study of mind control is part media studies, part political historyContinue reading...
View ArticleIn Search of Us by Lucy Moore review – the first anthropologists, warts and all
The eccentric adventures, academic insights and many prejudices of 12 pioneering scholarsWhen anthropology first became established at English universities, its practitioners kept a fastidious distance...
View ArticleThe big idea: should we worry about sentient AI?
A Google employee raised the alarm about a chatbot he believes is conscious. A philosopher asks if he was right to do soThere’s a children’s toy, called the See ’n Say, which haunts the memories of...
View ArticleRooted by Sarah Langford; Regenesis by George Monbiot reviews – how to fix...
Modern agriculture isn’t working. Two energising books come up with contrasting solutionsThere was one day in each of the springs of my childhood when we moved the ewes and lambs from the fields around...
View ArticleLand Healer by Jake Fiennes review – go wild in the country
The conservation manager argues that regenerative agriculture can rebuild our relationship with the countrysideIt must be frustrating for Jake Fiennes that reviews of his book will, as this one does,...
View ArticleSacred Nature by Karen Armstrong review – back to the garden
The former nun argues that reconnecting with the spiritual side of nature could help us contend with the climate crisisIn Laurence Sterne’s 1759 novel Tristram Shandy, the hero describes how his...
View ArticleAm I Normal? by Sarah Chaney review – it’s OK to be strange
An examination of the 200-year-old history of the notion of ‘normal’ and its power to alienate and oppress“Are you Norma, Typical Woman?” With that headline, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, an Ohio...
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