Chapter 1 – Setting the Stage

Joshua Rothman, Why is it so hard to be rational? The NewYorker, 16 August 2021, available at:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/23/why-is-it-so-hard-to-be-rational

Sacha Golob, Why some of the smartest people can be so very stupid, Psyche, 4 August 2021, available at:
https://psyche.co/ideas/why-some-of-the-smartest-people-can-be-so-very-stupid

Elvia Wilk, What AI Can Teach US About the Myth of Human Genius, The Atlantic, 28 March 2021, available at:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/03/pharmako-ai-possibilities-machine-creativity/618435/

Chapter 2 – Let’s Ponder Us in Culture

Kathleen Wallace, The self is not singular but a fluid network of identities, Aeon, 18 May 2021, available at:
https://aeon.co/essays/the-self-is-not-singular-but-a-fluid-network-of-identities

Bonnie Evans, After neurodiversity… Enter psydiversity, (Edited by Sally Davies), Aoen, 29 July 2021, available at:
https://aeon.co/essays/neurodiversity-is-not-enough-we-should-embrace-psydiversity

Chapter 3 – Let’s Consider Culture

Kojo Koram, Here”s what the right gets wrong about culture: it’s not a monument, but a living thing, The Guardian, 16 August 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/16/right-culture-tories?

Andrew Anthony, Everything you wanted to know about culture wars – but were afraid to ask, The Guardian (The Observer), 13 June 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/13/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-culture-wars-but-were-afraid-to-ask?

Chapter 4 – Cultural Representation

Cort W Rudolph, Quit the millennial bashing – generationalism is bad science, Psyche, 17 August 2021, available at:
https://psyche.co/ideas/quit-the-millennial-bashing-generationalism-is-bad-science

Zoe Williams, “Do you blame us for house prices?” GenZers nswer baby boomers’ biggest questions, The Guardian, 4 August 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2021/aug/04/do-you-blame-us-for-house-prices-gen-zers-answer-baby-boomers-biggest-questions?

Chapter 5 – Cultural Legitimacy: What state of reality?

Aeon Editions 28, Focus on generational identity and memory, A selection of essays, Issue 28, 2020, available at:
https://alpha.aeon.co/editions/d8ac3870-1c46-41ab-a5e2-460cbc9df5d1.pdf

Zoe Heller, What Makes a Cult a Cult? The line between delusion and what the rest of us believe may be blurrier than we think, The NewYorker, 5 July 2021, available at:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/12/what-makes-a-cult-a-cult

Carla MacKinnon (Director), James Mullighan (Producer), Devil in the Room: A world between dram and reality: the science - and horror – of sleep paralysis (Short movie), Aeon, 4 April 2014, available at:
https://aeon.co/videos/a-world-between-dream-and-reality-the-science-and-horror-of-sleep-paralysis

Meghan O’Gieblyn, A dog’s inner life: what a robot pet taught me about consciousness, The Guardian, 10 August 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/10/dogs-inner-life-what-robot-pet-taught-me-about-consciousness-artificial-intelligence?

Chapter 6 – Taboo and Questioning

Sophia Ahmadi Video, The surprising psychology behind being rich, BBC Reel video, 1 July 2021, available at:
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07vts5j/the-surprising-psychology-behind-being-rich?

Saroj Rathirna, Female genital mutilation (FGM): I had it, but my daughter’s won’t, BBC World Service, 26 June 2021, available at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57530121

Chapter 7 – Language and Cultural Norms

Steven Marche, The chatbot problem, The NewYorker, 23 July 2021, available at:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-chatbot-problem

Jordan Peterson, White privilege isn’t real, YouTube video, available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEESNpAu1EU

Joseph Bernstein, Bad News: Selling the story of disinformation, Harpers Magazine, September 2021 issue (Disinformed: How we get fake news wrong), available at:
https://harpers.org/archive/2021/09/bad-news-selling-the-story-of-disinformation/

Chapter 8- History and Culture

Tom Standage, The lost history of the electric car – and what it tells us about the future of transport, The Guardian, 3 August 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/03/lost-history-electric-car-future-transport?

Paul Bloom, Being in Time: How much should we value the past, the present and the future? The NewYorker, 2 July 2021, available at:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/being-in-time

John Rapley, Plagues and Empires: What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West? Aeon, 13 July 2021, available at:
https://aeon.co/essays/empires-pandemics-and-the-economic-future-of-the-west

Chapter 9 – Us, Big Tech and Culture

Karen Hao, She risked everything to expose Facebook. Now she’s telling her story. MIT Technology Review, 29 July 2021, available at:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/29/1030260/facebook-whistleblower-sophie-zhang-global-political-manipulation/

Khari Johnson, A Global Smart-City Competition Highlights China’s Rise in AI. Wired, 3 July 2021, available at:
https://www.wired.com/story/global-smart-city-competition-highlights-china-rise-ai/

Tim Adams, How artist Ben Grosser is cutting Mark Zuckerberg down to size, The Guardian (The Observer), 15 August 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/aug/15/ben-grosser-order-of-magnitude-mark-zuckerberg-film-software-for-less-arebyte?

Chapter 10 – Final Thoughts

Isabel Reynolds, Pavel Apelyev, Jane Pong, Tokyo Olympics highlight long arc of Japan’s technology decline, The Japan Times, 20 July 2021, available at:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/07/20/business/economy-business/tokyo-olympics-now-highlight-long-arc-japans-technology-decline/

Jason Wilson, When I look at Australia from the US, I see an insular nation that has turned its back on its own, The Guardian, Opinion, 27 June 2021, available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/27/when-i-look-at-australia-from-the-us-i-see-an-insular-nation-that-has-turned-its-back-on-its-own?

Richard McGregor, The Chinese Communist Party: 100 years that shook the world, The Guardian (The Observer), 27 June 2021, available at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/27/the-chinese-communist-party-100-years-that-shook-the-world?

Project Collections

Culture and Society

Culture in Context

Us and Them