The hot, humid air greets me as I step out of Cuiaba’s airport, in Brazil’s western Mato Grosso state. I grapple to get my bearings in the sauna-like atmosphere and dive into the first taxi. Marcus Silva, the middle-aged, sturdy driver, wants to know what brings me to the area. “I’m assuming the Pantanal, am I right?” he asks. It’s a fair guess. The world’s largest tropical wetlands draw thousands of tourists every year to admire their flooded plains, home to toucans, macaws, ibis, caimans, capybaras and the region’s crown jewel: jaguars. Close, but not quite, I tell Marcus. “You’re reporting ..read more

The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power and People (Princeton University Press) by Paul Seabright Not long ago, religion seemed to be in terminal decline. But, as Paul Seabright points out in his impressive new book, it is now going from strength to strength. Local cults or “ethno-religions” may have dwindled, but the big brands are doing well: Christianity still commands the loyalty of about a third of the world’s population, while Islam has climbed to a quarter, and the proportion identifying as atheists and agnostics has dropped slightly in recent years. What can explai ..read more

In March 1928, in Moscow, 53-year-old philosopher and scientist Alexander Bogdanov performed a blood transfusion. He transferred his own blood into a 21-year-old student, Lev Koldomasov, and that of the young man into himself. Initially the transfusion went well, but that evening Bogdanov began to suffer aches and pains throughout his body, as well as fever and vomiting. This was not surprising. Bogdanov had chosen the student because he was suffering from tuberculosis and malaria. For several years Bogdanov had been experimenting in transferring blood between people, including his wife, vari ..read more

“Why late love is so much better than young love”; “The midlifers who found love on a dating show”; “The truth about dating in your 50s”. These are a sample of recent headlines from just one British newspaper, The Times, which seems to be mining endless clickbait on the topic of midlife dating. Some readers might sneer, but I marvel at the victory they represent. Amid all the horror of the US Supreme Court overturning abortion rights, and the broader backlash globally against women’s rights, it’s easy to forget that one of the world’s biggest and most undervalued progressive victories – espec ..read more

Our Moon: A Human History (Sceptre) by Rebecca Boyle The Moon, “like to a silver bow” (Shakespeare), “sole in the blue night” (E. E. Cummings), with its “face like the clock in the hall” (Robert Louis Stevenson), has inspired poetry for centuries. Now a new book by science writer Rebecca Boyle offers a surprising entry into the lunar canon. Our Moon does certainly convey a great deal of science and history about the Earth’s Moon, but the dominant impression it leaves is one of dream-like wonder, more akin to poetry than a dry work of popular non-fiction. The lyrical prose feels like a lullaby ..read more

Tomiwa Owolade is a Nigerian-born British journalist and critic. He is author of “This Is Not America” (Atlantic Books). In the last Academic Freedom Index report, the UK came second-lowest compared with EU states. What is happening to free speech on campuses? Many people have a great misunderstanding of what free speech actually looks like. They often are well meaning and imagine free speech to be a way of addressing inequality or of empowering certain marginalised communities. One of the problems with universities and the way that the bureaucracy operates is that they often acquiesce to tha ..read more

"Don’t punch down, we always say.” Ian Quaife leans in towards the camera, black and gold sunglasses on top of his shaven head. We’re chatting about the millennial-boomer culture war, where the younger generation is pitted against “well-off” retirees. But 66-year-old Quaife, still working beyond state pension age, sees past this artificial divide. He lists the problems that affect both generations, such as the cost of living and sky-high rents. “Look at the common ground between older and younger people,” he says. Quaife manages Bristol Older People’s Forum, a charity that challenges the “age ..read more

"If you knew the right people, you would know it’s very common,” wrote a man on Grindr, the LGBTQ dating app. He was one of many users of the app who claimed to have witnessed, or participated in, drug-fuelled parties within the Catholic Church. Not all felt able to meet in person, but digging further I found men willing to disclose their identities and share their stories in full. What initially sparked my curiosity was the news of a priest testing positive for cocaine after crashing his car on the highway in central Italy in March 2024, while driving home from dinner. Police withdrew his dr ..read more

It's been a big year, with transformative elections – for better or worse – in the US, UK and across Europe, not to mention the other events reshaping our society, from ongoing conflicts to scientific advances. As ever, we've been working with some of the best journalists and experts from around the world to help unpick the forces at play, identify emerging trends and anticipate what comes next. As we all reflect on the year that's been, here are the stories from 2024 you shouldn't miss: 1. Catholics for Trump by Mary Jo McConahay In the run-up to Trump's re-election, we exposed how US Cathol ..read more

Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World (Verso) by Dan Hancox When you picture a crowd, you may think of a jostling, unruly mass. It’s an image often painted by politicians, news outlets and the police, who warn us of the dangers of mass panic, crime and violence. It’s a compelling vision, but it isn’t the whole picture. What if crowds are not the enemy of society that they sometimes seem? That is the argument presented by journalist Dan Hancox in his thought-provoking new book. According to Hancox, our modern conception of crowds was shaped in the late 19th century by French proto-fasci ..read more