When thinking about Catalonia seeking independence, we circle back to metaphors. Romantic breakup or severed-limb mutilation, the language of feelings or the language of the body. What they all have in common is that in most cases breakups are irreparable and painful. In that, the other Catalans and Spaniards are right, too. At his point, nobody knows whether Catalonia will finally secede from Spain, but, if it comes to that, it will feel like the loss of a limb. And for many, the hurt will be unbearable. By Miguel-Anxo Murado.

The brain is perhaps the most complex machine in the Universe. It consists of two cerebral hemispheres, each with many different modules. Fortunately, all these separate parts are not autonomous agents. They are highly interconnected... By Yaïr Pinto.

On the trail of the trade in human body parts. By Azad Essa.

The power and danger of women who take up space. By Carmen Maria Machado.

One grim day (when youth is over) you find that new music gets on your nerves. But why do our musical tastes freeze over? By Lary Wallace.

Going natural despite family and societal expectations. An essay by Kimberly Melton.

Alzheimer's destroyed my mother's memory, but she remembered the doll. By Maria Browning.

it might be time to revise the authenticity trope in romantic movies… By Christian Jarrett.

‘A person is a person through other persons.’ By Abeba Birhane.

At Swedish start-up hub Epicenter, workers can get implanted with microchips that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers, or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand.

Her genius is for wrapping up the paradoxes of being a misfit and a cipher in something to wear that is magically misfitting. By Judith Thurman. (July 4, 2005)

Your ambitions to improve your life do not need to be confined by your personality. By Christian Jarrett.

“I’m not sure what Mama prayed for during that time, but I know in those last years with her and Daddy, bitterness and Daddy’s perpetual incorrigibility had made her too tight to pray right for anything.” By Zandria F. Robinson. (Dec. 8, 2016)

What Trumpism could do to our human infrastructure. By Rebecca Traister. (Dec. 11, 2016)

Dr. Bones makes the case why no election will drive him from the shores of this continent…

Here Are All the Possibilities. By Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

We tend to think that our memories determine our identity, but it’s moral character that really makes us who we are. By Nina Strohminger.

See a pretty girl or guy on the street? Snap a pic, and you can find out who they are. What could go wrong? By Ashlee Vance.

This is no time to back away from our commitment to women’s rights, racial justice and sexual equality.. By Laurie Penny.

Caroline McHugh