Culture

RIP adulthood

Is Western culture stopping people from growing up?

Kidults are all around you

Mad, bad and dangerous to know

Two centuries after his death, why is Lord Byron still seductive?

The poet is celebrated where he spent his period of exile

Wanna bet?

A famous forecaster takes on the establishment

Nate Silver offers praise for contrarians and scorn for intellectual sheep

Cables from Kabul

Three years ago this month America withdrew from Afghanistan

A trio of new books tries to make sense of the war and its aftermath

The sports page

Making sense of the world’s most dangerous horse race

Il Palio is chaotic and corrupt—and full of community spirit

The test is history

A love story, shaped by Ukraine’s travails

A Ukrainian journalist imagines a couple brought together and wrenched apart in the 20th century

Dollar Bill

What Bill Gates reveals about other billionaires

An unusual biography of the technologist-turned-philanthropist

In defence of the “dirty documentary”

Reality TV is irritating but irresistible

There is more to the format than meets the eye

Back Story

On some holidays, beauty and bloodshed are entwined

In grand old cities like Verona, your gelato comes with a moral education

The sports page

Could a scaled-back Olympics still be good?

Faster, higher, cheaper, smaller

Guinea pigs

The dark history of abuse in medical research

People who expose malpractice are rarely considered heroes

Fight club

Humans have engaged in warfare throughout their existence

Are they ever going to change?