Cultura e ideias

Would you pay to have the ‘best baby’? Liberal eugenics and the troubling quest for human perfection

For decades the idea of eugenics has been taboo. Now it is returning in a new commercial guise For a very long time, I dreamed of being cured. I was born in 1981. I learned to walk early enough, but I stumbled and fell more easily than other children. My parents began to worry that something was wrong, that my muscles were weaker than they should be. Eventually, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In the 1980s, the precise mechanics were not yet understood, but the condition was known to be hereditary, probably linked to a recessive gene. It was a

The Guardian Long Read · EN

From the archive: The disabled villain: why sensitivity reading can’t kill off this ugly trope – podcast

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors This week, from 2023: For centuries, fictional narratives have used outer difference to telegraph inner monstrosity. As someone who uses a wheelchair, I’ve learned you can’t just edit out a few slurs or bad words to fix this – it’s often baked deep into the story Written and read by Jan Grue Read the text version here Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod Continue reading...

The Guardian Long Read · EN

Fake film deals and emails from top agents: who is behind the explosion in literary scams?

Writers are being bombarded daily with invitations from fake book groups and offers to publicise their work. For the scamming industry, aspiring authors can be a soft touch • This piece first appeared in the Dial ‘Hello Professor Snigdha Poonam,” the email began. I read that again. Nobody has ever called me “professor” for the obvious reason that I am not a professor. Bracing myself, I read on. The email was from Timothy Firth, organiser of a Seattle-based life-drawing community with 1,943 members that regularly has “thoughtful discussions inspired by creative works”. A recent inspiration was

The Guardian Long Read · EN

‘It could knock a whole street down’: the art of defusing a second world war bomb – podcast

On 14 January this year, army and navy squads faced an unprecedented challenge: one bomb on a Plymouth building site, another floating on a dredger in Exmouth. That afternoon, the clock started ticking By Samira Shackle. Read by Dinita Gohil Read the text version here Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod Continue reading...

The Guardian Long Read · EN

A perfect storm: how the super El Niño is devastating the fishing industry – podcast

Peru’s anchoveta have made up about a 10th of the entire global commercial fishing catch since 1970, more than any other fish. A combination of warming seas and decades-long overfishing spells disaster By Geoff Mann. Read by Adam Sims Read the text version here Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod Continue reading...

The Guardian Long Read · EN

Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power

When Patrick Stewart, who died on Wednesday, first stepped onto the bridge of the Enterprise in 1987 in his defining role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Berlin Wall still stood. The Soviet Union would not fall until the fourth season of that show, Star Trek: The Next Generation, had already begun. Yet Picard’s generation of […]

Vox · EN

Will Melania Trump save Ukraine?

In the last month or so, President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again relationship with Ukraine — which has ranged from kicking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House in early 2025 to promising new air defense missiles this summer — has once again run cold. Trump has excoriated Zelenskyy for successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian […]

Vox · EN

Are you over-optimizing your hobbies?

We often pick up hobbies to add some fun to our lives. We join a book group, take up knitting, or commit to finally learning how to play pickleball. But before long, what started out as leisure can begin to feel like just another obligation to execute and perfect: We fall behind in the reading, […]

Vox · EN

Can’t commit to vegetarianism but want animals to suffer less? You’ve got options.

Editor’s note, November 1, 8 am ET: We’re bringing you some of our best-loved Your Mileage May Vary. The one below was originally published in August 2025. This unconventional advice column offers you a unique framework for thinking through moral dilemmas. It’s based on value pluralism: the idea that each of us has multiple values […]

Vox · EN

Gen Z can’t afford the culture war

Conventional wisdom holds that young voters are idealistic and socially progressive dreamers, while older voters are hard-headed, pragmatic, and much more attuned to pocketbook issues. Conventional wisdom, meet Gen Z. Between 2020 and 2024, voters in this cohort swung right by more than 20 percentage points — but now they’re boomeranging back away from President […]

Vox · EN

The Supreme Court could make it impossible to sue federal officers

Let’s say that you’re savagely beaten by a federal officer despite the fact that you committed no crime. Or maybe your home is ransacked by FBI agents who didn’t even bother to get a warrant. Or maybe you’re shot in cold blood by immigration officials engaged in a paramilitary occupation of your home city. The […]

Vox · EN

A MAGA whisperer on why Republicans can still win

With the midterms now upon us, polls continue to suggest that we’re headed for a blue wave election. One thing that might stop it is if Republican voters come out in big numbers on Election Day. But is MAGA even united behind their candidates? And do they have a plan to motivate a base that […]

Vox · EN

Trump makes one last attempt to get the Supreme Court to interfere with the midterms

Here’s a hot take: The outcome of the 2026 midterms is unlikely to turn on close races in California. California has no statewide races that are expected to be close, and it is a solid blue state that recently redrew its US House maps to maximize Democratic gains. So it’s a bit baffling that the […]

Vox · EN

Christopher Harding: Sometimes a man has to jump

Early​ in July 1942, people on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaidō became aware that a man was rifling through their rubbish bins. This would have been peculiar behaviour under any circumstances, but the man was their prime minister. Tōjō Hideki was a little over half a year into an all-out war with the United States and Britain – to add to an older conflict still raging in China – and it was taking its toll.

London Review of Books · EN

Lavinia Greenlaw: Two Poems

Sometimes We Are in the Same CityAfter Rilke/After TsvetaevaHalf a life half my life a half-lifewere/are you?Such immediate/such fittingrecognitionwe floated into place. What next/what...

London Review of Books · EN

Miriam Dobson: Not all trees are useful

By the late 1600s, the most important commodity from Russia’s forests was no longer fur or fish; it was the trees themselves. The expanding Russian Empire required a naval fleet to defend itself: oaks, larch and pine were chopped down to build ships. Forests became a resource to be managed.

London Review of Books · EN

Fraser MacDonald: Who owns the glen?

Girning about hydro power in Strathglass is a bit like moving to Soho and complaining about the noisy nightlife. This energy landscape isn’t ideal if you’re in search of wildness. For Kassabova, the present upheaval is a further instance of ‘industrial ways’ being imposed on native pastoralism. The history she gives is uncertain.

London Review of Books · EN

Daniella Shreir: Short Cuts

The call to mobilisation began to spread at the start of September: first on TikTok, then across social media platforms via AI-generated graphics announcing ‘le retour des gilets jaunes’. The date has political resonance: on 17 October 1961, Maurice Papon ordered the Police Nationale to attack Algerians protesting in support of the FLN. This time, graffiti across Paris read: ‘Nous sommes les descendants des Algériens que vous n’avez pas noyés.’

London Review of Books · EN

Anne Carson: 9 October

Yesterday I won the Nobel Prize.Odd day.

London Review of Books · EN

James Meek: Across 8 Mile

Detroit is the largest city in Michigan, a swing state. To win the Senate, the Democrats need to hold on to the one Michigan seat (out of two) that is up for grabs, and have chosen a new candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, a moderate leftist in European terms, a ‘communist loser who hates Jews and Israel’ according to Trump, ‘very, very evil’, per J.D. Vance.

London Review of Books · EN

Eyal Weizman: Necro-Economics

Gaza has been experiencing an old-fashioned scorched-earth campaign reminiscent of the Nakba of 1948 and no different from the settler-colonial genocides of previous centuries. Yet much of the outrage generated by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s film NAZA concerns Israel’s use of artificial intelligence and other computational technologies to select targets and calculate how many people will be killed.

London Review of Books · EN

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 774)

1. An Idea for Decorating your Bathroom “I’d like to share my grandma’s half bathroom. She calls it ‘the sitting room’ and she has been collecting little chairs for YEARS and adding them to the walls. Sometimes when I was a little girl I’d try to count them all and always lost track. There are […]

Messy Nessy Chic · EN

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 775)

1. The Cholita Climbers of Bolivia Photographed by David Jácome The Cholita Climbers of Bolivia, or Las Cholitas Escaladoras Bolivianas, are a group of Indigenous, Aymara, women mountaineers who climb peaks in Latin America. They do not wear modern mountaineering clothing, preferring instead their traditional costumes including polleras, brightly colored, full, pleated skirts with many under skirts. They do wear helmets and boots and use […]

Messy Nessy Chic · EN

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol.776)

This week’s edition is dedicated to our readers in America. Happy 250, with love & courage from your friend in Paris. 1. One of America’s most recognisable corporate buildings is for sale Nearly three decades after it opened as the headquarters of the Longaberger Company, one of America’s most recognisable pieces of corporate architecture has […]

Messy Nessy Chic · EN