The Devil owns the magazines now

In 2006, Runway magazine was the place everyone wanted to be. Twenty years on, the fictional fashion media giant is at crossroads – but just how close to reality is Miranda Priestly’s situation in the Devil Wears Prada II?

Yesteryear

“Yesteryear” follows self-professed “flawless Christian woman” and tradwife influencer Natalie Heller Mills who wakes up one morning to find herself mysteriously transported back in time to 1855 pioneer America.

How to enter the art world

How to Enter the Art World by Hettie Judah offers a smørgasbord of sage advice for budding artists of all ages looking to navigate their way in a world where the human creation of art is threatened as never before.

How music dumbed down

Do you feel like they don’t make music like they used to? You might be right! International researchers have found that classical and jazz music have become simpler and more uniform since the mid-20th century and are now closer in complexity to genres such as pop and rock.

The many lives of Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for writing “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in 1792 but while it helped lay the foundations of western feminist thought, she was far more radical and prolific than this single book suggests.

Moral metrics

As traditional forms of moral authority weaken in the Western world, algorithmic systems are moving into the void.

Remembering David Malouf

David Malouf will be remembered as a writer of wisdom, grace and generosity, and for the richness of his poetic imagination.

In praise of curiosity

The violent, chaotic state of the world today increases our craving for certainty but its opposite, curiosity, might be what we really need.

Perpetual peace – perpetual relevance

18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant remains a central figure in modern philosophy, but his argument that ethics and governance should be rooted in reason rather than self-interest or superstition is threatened even in the Western world by the current resurgence of nationalism, authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism.

A rising of the lights

Steve Toltz’s new novel offers some ideas about the place of humans in a world redefined by AI and the precious solace of personal connection.

Opera wars

Is opera’s greatest fight really about avoiding a slide into cultural obsolescence? Or is it about how it might survive in an economic system obsessed with “the price of everything, and the value of nothing”?

Learning how to talk again

In a polarised and contentious age where civil disagreement seems increasingly impossible, we need more spaces for debate where difficult questions can be explored honestly, disagreement is not treated as failure, and curiosity is not mistaken for hostility.