April 2018

April 2018 issue

Technology is changing how we die. But how—and what does it mean for those of us left behind? Cathy Rentzenbrink, Michael Marmot and Joanna Bourke consider the changing face of death. Plus: Philip Ball grows a second brain

Past issues

Essays

© PAUL MARTIN / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Could the green revolution begin down this disused Cornish mine?

American life expectancy is falling—and Britain could be heading down the same path

A MSF boat off the coast of Libya. Photo: PA

Europe's new anti-migrant strategy? Blame the rescuers

A Dream of Heroes, a 2015 collage by John Ashbery. Photo: Estate of John Ashbery, Courtesy Tibor De Nagy Gallery, New York

The quizzical priest: inside John Ashbery's everyday magical thinking

Jeremy Noel-Tod

Why Jeremy Corbyn needs a think tank

Marie Le Conte & Tom Clark

©HARD BAKER / IN PICTURES VIA GETTY IMAGES

Can Mohammed bin Salman really save Saudi Arabia?

Jane Kinninmont

How the internet is transforming death

Clinging on to life at all costs can be undignified—and unfair to our loved ones. Photo: Prospect

A fate worse than death

Cathy Rentzenbrink

Scientists are turning a sample from my arm in to a second brain. Photo: Prospect

Why I'm growing a second brain

Regulars

A man reads a newspaper while bathing in the Dead Sea. Photo: GPO

In data: the untold story of how the BBC became Britain’s biggest paper

The only certainty (other than taxes): a graveyard in Havana. Photo: PA

The Prospect editorial: The evolving ever-after

ETER SMITH / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

For national success in infrastructure, go local

Stephen Hammond

Infrastructure investment: Time to recapture the ambition of 1945

Stephen Kinnock

Policy report: Infrastructure

A short history of (alleged) political collusion with Moscow

Stephen Collins's cartoon: Dragon eggs

Stephen Collins

Opinions

Demonstrators hold up mobile phones during an anti-government and anti-corruption protest in front of the Romanian Parliament Photo: Getty

Exodus from Romania: How free movement looks at the other end of the EU

Stephen McGrath

Donald Trump (pictured) could be launching a costly, open-ended trade war. Photo: PA

An ill-advised trade war could turn out to be Trump's Afghanistan

Why the government should encourage veganism

A Rohingya refugee crosses a makeshift bridge over stagnant water at the Balukhali refugee camp. Photo: AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy

Our obsession with Aung San Suu Kyi blinds us to the deeper causes of the Rohingya tragedy

Arts & Books

James Bloodworth worked in a call centre

Forget fantasies of "full automation"—improving the workplace is a boring, but necessary, task

A 2009 suicide bombing in Baghdad, Iraw Picture Credit: Wikipedia

Frankenstein in Baghdad is a dark, funny fantasy

The way we structure society creates conditions where depression is the most likely outcome for millions

Who's to blame for depression?

A Dream of Heroes, a 2015 collage by John Ashbery. Photo: Estate of John Ashbery, Courtesy Tibor De Nagy Gallery, New York

The quizzical priest: inside John Ashbery's everyday magical thinking

Jeremy Noel-Tod

Billie Holiday is one of many artists who struggled with addiction Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Time's up for the romantic addict

Donald Trump's bite has proved much milder than his bark. Photo: PA

David Goodhart: Liberals are set on a collision course with democracy

Graffiti on the Mexican side of the wall in the city of Heroica Nogales that divides the Mexico from United States

Tear down these walls

Martin Luther King Jr has been sanitised. Photo: © John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

How America erased the radicalism of Martin Luther King Jr

Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the women's suffragette movement, is arrested outside Buckingham Palace while trying to present a petition to King George V in May 1914

Being a suffragette was no genteel hobby—it was all-out war

Sex, lies and communism: finding freedom through Doris Lessing

Society and Culture

Bitcoin has crashed—but cryptocurrencies are here to stay

Forget the Bitcoin crash—cryptocurrencies are a godsend

Should fans of US wine pay less attention to the west coast and a little more to the east?

Anyone for a glass of New York red?

Couscous came to France in the 1960s from Algeria. It's now one of France's most popular dishes

The food that got a Front National politician sacked

Wendell Steavenson

"I'm wondering if you want me to worry about you today?" I suggested

How not to handle a near-death experience