Putting down my phone and picking up a book has saved my sleep
I dreaded doing without my device’s dopamine dripfeed, but insomnia was out of control. Now I’m not only sleeping but reading with real pleasure
Twitter admits it verified fake account of author Cormac McCarthy
Reclusive US novelist’s agent confirms he did not share his opinions about kombucha and SoundCloud
Jeanette Winterson: ‘The male push is to discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space’
The writer’s new essay collection covers 200 years of women and science. She discusses burning books and the ensuing Twitter storm, the end of her marriage, and why a move into politics could be next
12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson review – how we got here and where we might go next
Twelve essays drawing on years of research into artificial intelligence ask challenging questions about humanity, art, religion and the way we live and love
Social Warming by Charles Arthur review – a coolly prosecutorial look at social media
Social media giants contribute to global conflicts and allow misinformation. What are they doing to our lives, and what can we do about it?
Can you hear the Hum? The mystery noise that says a lot about modern life
The insistent low-frequency sound has been heard from Bristol to Swansea and ascribed to everything from horny fish to 5G – but the enigma itself is telling
The rise of BookTok: meet the teen influencers pushing books up the charts
Young Tiktok users are sharing their passion for books with millions – bringing titles they love to life online and reshaping the publishing world, all in under a minute
On my radar: Anne Enright’s cultural highlights
The Booker prize-winning author on Mare of Easttown, her favourite lockdown park and the fearsome power of folk music
George RR Martin, console-less games and a Final Fantasy fail: the biggest news from E3 2021
This year’s online-only E3 video game expo was hardly the usual explosion of blockbuster games, but there were still some standout stories
Ailsa Land obituary
Researcher into mathematical approaches to real-world problems who seized on the increased possibilities offered by computers
David Eagleman: ‘The working of the brain resembles drug dealers in Albuquerque’
The neuroscientist, broadcaster and author on the evolution of the brain, the mystery of consciousnesss, and why the next generation will be much smarter than us
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam review – a deft take on tech times
A witty investigation into the misogyny and bro culture of the world of startups and social media apps
Microsoft’s Kate Crawford: ‘AI is neither artificial nor intelligent’
The AI researcher on how natural resources and human labour drive machine learning and the regressive stereotypes that are baked into its algorithms
Amazon Unbound review: how Jeff Bezos engulfed and devoured us all
Brad Stone’s second book on the world’s richest person is another portrait of great power – and the great damage it does
‘Without books, we would not have made it’: Valeria Luiselli on the power of fiction
The Mexican author won the Dublin literary award last week for Lost Children Archive. She reflects on how reading and writing have helped her through the pandemic