Maybe some of us are just not meant to be president
Unthinkable: Many of us aspire to wealth, status and titles such as ‘president’, even when our vocation lies elsewhere
I tried to stare at this painting for three hours. And something odd happened
Should art be useful and retrain our brains or is it more important than that?
This man spent 15 years translating Plato’s dialogues. What he learned is vital for us all
Plato throws down a challenge to us all on how to engage in free and open-ended public debate
The attention economy has made us less attentive, but there is a solution
Unthinkable: Philosopher Simone Weil died in 1943 aged 34, but she may have had the answer many of us are seeking
Meet the philosopher who thinks AI ought to have the same moral rights as humans
Unthinkable: Better start sucking up to your microwave
Do you suffer from FOCO, a fear of causing offence? Here’s some advice
Unthinkable: Parents may be partly to blame for heightened anxiety among under-30s
Cryptocurrency is financial cocaine for the middle classes
Unthinkable: It’s only a few years since the last global economic crash. Will the next one be worse?
It’s hard to resist the sense that, deep down, I’m a loser
Unthinkable: Toxic positivity may be exacerbating a sense that we’re losing in life
What did you do if you were young, Irish and idealistic 60 years ago? Join the missions
Unthinkable: Irish missionaries have left an example of positive evangelisation, even if we are seeing the last of them
The next president should be selected by lottery. It could be you
Unthinkable: In an era when crooks and despots cling to power at all costs, Ireland could model a different type of democracy by picking a president at random
We like to romanticise Ireland’s past, but too much remembering could be bad for us
Unthinkable: To create a shared future on this island, and internationally, we must move beyond uncritically celebrating the actions of any particular tribe
The Gaelic philosopher who wrote ‘one of the most influential books of our time’
Self-help books spoon-feed us ‘lessons for life’. But are we inspired to ask better questions?
Maybe we shouldn’t be quite so smug about Trump’s tariffs
Unthinkable: Moral superiority in Ireland over ‘populist’ uprisings in the US and UK ignores how we’ve become slaves to global capital
Forget hope. Be a hopeful pessimist instead
Unthinkable: Hope is not a strategy when it comes to tackling urgent challenges like climate change
How to avoid road rage and cyclist superiority
Unthinkable: We should think more about the consequences of actions and less about perceived character flaws in others