Six of the best films about love
LITTLE IS KNOWN about Saint Valentine. He may have been a Roman priest or the bishop of Terni. He may have performed secret w...
Does more education lead to less sex?
UNIVERSITY LIFE in America is often portrayed as an alcohol-fuelled, sexual free-for-all. In “The Sex Lives of College Girls”...
Fans are going crazy for Thai television shows and music
RECENTLY Siam Paragon, a ritzy shopping mall in Bangkok, transformed into an impromptu concert hall. Beneath palm trees wrapp...
How TikTok became a religious pulpit
THEY SAID it was divine intervention. TikTok was resurrected on January 19th, just hours after the short-video app shut down ...
Why auction houses are turning to private sales
On February 8th, after The Economist went to press, Sotheby’s was scheduled to hold the first international auction in Saudi ...
Have doctors been wrong about how to treat Alzheimer’s disease?
Doctored. By Charles Piller. Atria; 352 pages; $28.99. Icon Books; £20 Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 30m people world...
It’s spellbinding! Riveting! A triumphant tour de force!
Books are about to become a little less “Spellbinding!”, “Stunning!” and “Compelling!”. Fewer still will offer a “tour de for...
Performing in a cinema near you:Bob Dylan and Maria Callas
Everyone knows a genius when they see one. At least they do in biopics. In “A Complete Unknown”, a young Bob Dylan rocks up a...
Are internet firms the problem, or are you the problem?
Superbloom. By Nicholas Carr. W.W. Norton; 272 pages; $29.99 and £19.99 IN EARLY 2019 an unusual abundance of orange poppies ...
Can Magnus Carlsen convince people to watch chess?
CHESS IS the sort of deep and rewarding game that you can spend an enjoyable lifetime failing to master. But even ardent fans...