a non-random selection:
features, comment, essays, talks, interviews, book
reviews and more
EUROPE
From
Lublin to London, Europe’s Contested Ideas of
National Identity, NYR Daily
12 November 2019
On patriotism, being European,
and how to live with the other half of a divided
nation.
Observations,
FT Magazine 1 March 2019
On identity, documents and reclaiming my Polish
citizenship.
Why we need a Europe of
communities 20 June 2018
Conversation
#14 Conversations With Europe 28 August 2017
In which I talk about what's behind my current
writing and activity: 'I've committed myself to
doing what I can for openness, inclusion and
diversity in the face of the threats that these
now face. That is a worldwide struggle, but its
European theatre is the one I'm most aware of, and
feel most deeply about.'
And which led, via a question about my favourite place in Europe, to my 2023 book The Stories Old Towns Tell.
Choosing Europe, Choosing Hope 12 June 2016
lANGUAGES
Artificial
Intelligence and Human Insight: The Importance of
Understanding What You Are Saying
AIIC UK & Ireland webinar 4
December 2020
Why advances in AI will highlight the qualities that
only humans can bring to interpreting.
Four
Words For Friend (podcast) The Hedgehog and
the Fox 15 May 2019
The
importance of learning multiple languages
(podcast) Yale University Press 2 May 2019
Using more than one
language matters now more than ever Big Issue 22
February 2019
Why some people object to hearing foreign
languages in public, and what to do about it.
Why multilingualism
matters Yale University Press 18
February 2019
A little of a language can take you a long way.
Is
the era of artificial speech translation upon us?
Observer 17 February 2019
Why
Babel fish will make us value languages more, not
less busuu 11 April 2019
The better artificial translation gets, the more
people will appreciate the value of knowing
languages.
When politics fills the
language gap, can science be neutral? New Scientist
2 November 2016
Language is human; language is political. That's a
challenge for scientists such as the ones who argue
that bilingualism is good for the brain.
'My train, my lingo'. The free
movement of languages and people: talk
and text
Fabrica Understanding
Territoriality conference 26 May 2015
THe future
The
lynx effect Has the next mass extinction of
species begun? Intelligent Life
January/February 2013 The thousand-year stare Imagining and caring about the distant future Aeon 17 September 2012
Who needs oil? London in the mid-21st century Evening Standard 13 May 2011
Climate change is a hard sell - especially when it's freezing out Guardian 10 December 2010
Can We Rise Above a Warming Planet? Climate Change, Democracy and Human Nature: lecture, October 2010.
evolutionARY THINKING
The Handaxe Challenge 20
January 2023
The
Neanderthal mind Aeon 15 May 2013, and
a radio
chat about it on Word of Mouth, NHPR, 10 June
2013.
Us
and them Aeon 10 January 2013
Believing in
Change: Darwin, Lincoln, Obama Royal Society
of Edinburgh lecture, 13 November 2009
Did Charles Darwin believe in racial inequality? Independent 30 January 2009
Far Weirder Than Hobbits Author's version of 'The Little Troublemaker', New Scientist 18 June 2005
John Maynard Smith 1920-2004 A personal appreciation
Darwin Day and the Peppered Moths Independent on Sunday 29 February 2004
Unity is Health: An Evolutionary Left Author's version of 'An Evolutionary Left', Prospect October 2001
Market Eugenics Prospect May 2000
Handaxes: Products of Sexual Selection? by Marek Kohn and Steven Mithen Antiquity 73, 1999
Views for the Left Peter Singer Independent on Sunday 24 May 1998
Cinderella Revisited Martin Daly and Margo Wilson Independent on Sunday 24 November 1996
Drive an Escort, not a Ferrari, and be happy Robert Frank Independent on Sunday 16 June 1996
evolution: book REVIEws
Daniel Dennett's From Bacteria to Bach and Back Literary Review February 2017
Richard
Dawkins's An Appetite for Wonder
Independent 28 September 2013
Steven
Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature
Independent 7 October 2011
Chris Stringer's The
Origin of Our Species Literary
Review August 2011
Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion Independent 29 September 2006
Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell Independent 10 March 2006
Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate Independent 14 September 2002
PoLISH BOOKS: REVIEWs
Hanna Krall's Chasing the King of Hearts Independent 18 October 2013Zygmunt Miłoszewski's A Grain of Truth Independent 19 November 2012
Paweł Huelle's Cold Sea Stories Independent 20 October 2012
Artur Domosławski's Ryszard Kapuściński: A Life Independent 18 August 2012
Andrzej Stasiuk's On the Road to Babadag Independent 29 July 2011
Jan Karski's Story of a Secret State Independent 13 May 2011
Race and science
Race
Rerun Trends in Ecology and Evolution
November 2015
Writing this book review provided an interesting
opportunity to reflect upon writing about race and
science twenty years after my book The Race
Gallery came out. New claims, new critiques;
same angst about what must and must not be said.
This Racist Undercurrent in the Tide of Genetic Research Guardian 17 January 2006. Not a headline I would have chosen, unless I'd defined racism in the article, which I should have done. And maybe yet will, if a sense of duty gets the better of me.