The desire for good food and pretty clothes was there at the beginning of humanity
The pleasure of thinking about prehistoric people was never that of laying claim to land or heritage but of familiarity and strangeness
A World Appears: Michael Pollan’s quest to understand consciousness and the mind
The bestselling author turns his attention to the mysteries of awareness and perception
Sometimes we should be unreasonable – it allows in sorrow, hope and joy
The word ‘reason’, like ‘natural’ and ‘common sense’, often alerts us to a hidden agenda
Nervously tracking my son’s flight I realise the freedom in embracing not knowing
In most situations, data promotes safety only when someone knows what to do about it
Standing in the shampoo aisle I wondered, which one just makes your hair clean?
Choosing from a menu of deficits for your hair, skin and body is not freedom
Sometimes a liar needs more trust, not more humiliation
The adults in my life had cause to doubt my word, because I did a lot of imagining and I wasn’t always sure what I’d made up
The helmets and hi-vis for cyclists are symptoms of the Irish problem, not the solution
You’ll see very few helmets on cyclists in the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, certainly no laws mandating their use
I’m not saying it’s wrong to wear a weighted vest while running, but...
When the technology of 19th-century prisons is sold to us as healthful, it’s worth asking some questions
Midlife has come with a liberating loss of self-consciousness
Is it possible to care a little less about what other people think without a lessening of attention to how other people feel?
The patriarchy loathes women in midlife. Don’t fall for it
A friend in her 30s tells me her contemporaries are living in fear of perimenopause, which wasn’t even a word until recently
There are happier and healthier countries than Ireland, but most aren’t
However awful the state of the world, more people are living longer, healthier and probably happier lives now than ever
The far right likes to say everything is broken. Rage thrives on simple stories
I have deep faith in incompatible truths, in complexity and an instinctive resistance to childish tales of good and evil
Happy birthday, Jane Austen: 250 years of undermining the romantic novel
The works of the 18th century author are about so much more than love, exploring female friendship, power struggles and survival in a patriarchal society
Striving to perform an ideal Christmas is costly in every way
People tend to behave worse at home, among family, than with friends and colleagues
It’s been a busy few weeks, or months, or decades... that’s how I like it
The idea that we would deliquesce into slothfulness without the whips of capitalism is untested but probably untrue