Seen & Unseen | Seen & Unseen

Gold bars stacked in the Bank of England vault.

Money’s hidden meanings in a contactless age

The Bank of England Museum reveals the symbolism, morality and power woven...

2025-11-21

Get the Friday digest email for all the week's articles.

Life is complicated, and Alan Bennett knows it

Beneath The Choral’s cosy nostalgia lie some discordant truths

2025-11-20

When universities turn their back on understanding

Axing Nottingham’s single-honours theology degree signals more than a...

2025-11-21

From MI6 to migration: the tangled legacy of empire

Britain’s security dilemmas, from LinkedIn spies to post-colonial legacies...

2025-11-20

This year’s Budget won’t define your future

Dare to be generous in a time of constraint

Annika Greco Thompson

2025-11-19

Calls to revive the Enlightenment ignore its own illusions

Returning to the Age of Reason won’t save us from post-Truth

2025-11-18

It’s in Third Places we can be our most human

Gathering in-person fights against the fragmentation

2025-11-18

The ancients had the right words for Trump’s tussle with the BBC

Can the truth be concealed?

2025-11-14

Impartial journalism isn’t possible for the BBC – or anyone else

It’s time to give up the ghost and opt for transparency over impartiality

2025-11-14

The Phoenician Scheme - opening the mind to wider horizons

Wes Anderson's new film widens our vision to a bigger world

2025-11-14

Recently Popular - Catch Up

Explainer

An emoji-style brain divided in two with active emojis one side and calm ones the other.

How to help someone with ADHD to live well

Overstimulation, inner critics, and the quiet power that restores balance

2025-11-07

Stillness is not always peace: how wellness and illness intertwine in silence

Stillness invites clinical insight—and a deeper kind of presence

2025-11-10

Alien, Nietzsche and the death of dread: why the franchise lost its fear

Alien: Earth forgets what made the original so terrifyingly profound

2025-11-13

Be generous: pass on values and vision, not just wealth

Millennials may not earn more—but they could steward more wisely

Annika Greco Thompson

2025-11-12

We need a sense of shame - but need mercy even more

Shame may be necessary, but only if it can be defeated

2025-10-31

Forget AI: I want a computer that says ‘no’

Chatbots only tell us what we want to hear. If we genuinely want to grow, we...

Paul Bradbury

2025-11-07

I came for the demon-fighting pop stars and stayed for the existential crisis

A Netflix kids’ film made me rethink shame, friendship, and my Spotify...

2025-10-28

Wanted, not wasted: the older brother who couldn’t lead

In Peaky Blinders and House of Guinness, Steven Knight shows being needed...

2025-10-29

Alice Roberts’ new book is the Da Vinci Code without the pretence of fiction

Tomes like Domination are part of the problem of public discourse about...

2025-11-06

Peter Thiel and the Antichrist

The PayPal founder’s obsession with the Beast is nothing new

Jack Nicholson

Browse more than 1,500 articles - explore the S&U index

2025-10-06

Podcasts

Podcast

Visionaries: Aquinas' reconciling of religion and reason

Andrew Davison joins the GodPod hosts to assess the saint's impact on modern...

2025-09-12

BBC, bequeathing, and being still

New episode: listen to articles by Tim Wyatt, Annika Greco-Thompson, and...

2025-11-17

Advent Special, from Seen & Unseen Aloud

Our audio box set serves up some choice picks from Christmases past and...

2025-11-12

Shame, Remembrance and Alice Roberts

New episode: listen to articles by Belle Tindall, Henna Cundill, and...

2025-11-12

The book, the ritual, and the reader

Season 7 of Re-Enchanting explores how books shape our habits and our search...

2025-11-04

Eccles, Older Brothers and a King and a Pope

Listen to articles by Derek Hughes, Will Fagan and Graham Tomlin

2025-11-03

Shifting seasons; Ruth & Boaz, and big waste

New episode: listen to articles by Rachael Newham, Glies Gough, and Jean...

2025-10-27

A wild Belle, Sarah Mullally and 'defending our girls'.

New episode: listen to articles by Jonathan Evens, George Pitcher, and Belle...

2025-10-20

Taylor Swift; the ABC & the Anti-Christ

New episode; listen to articles by Belle Tindall, Graham Tomlin, and Jack...

2025-10-13

Explore our podcasts: Re-enchanting, Seen & Unseen Aloud, and GodPod

Reviews: film, TV, books, art, music and more

Wanted, not wasted: the older brother who couldn’t lead

In Peaky Blinders and House of Guinness, Steven Knight shows being needed...

2025-10-29

I came for the demon-fighting pop stars and stayed for the existential crisis

A Netflix kids’ film made me rethink shame, friendship, and my Spotify...

2025-10-28

Impartial journalism isn’t possible for the BBC – or anyone else

It’s time to give up the ghost and opt for transparency over impartiality

2025-11-14

The Phoenician Scheme - opening the mind to wider horizons

Wes Anderson's new film widens our vision to a bigger world

2025-11-14

The BBC and the quest for Truth

Space for neutrality is shrinking; two French philosophers explain why

2025-11-13

The BBC and the Church of England: two giants, one crisis of trust

Will honourable resignations save the BBC—or anyone?

2025-11-13

Alien, Nietzsche and the death of dread: why the franchise lost its fear

Alien: Earth forgets what made the original so terrifyingly profound

2025-11-13

The dot and the dash: modern art’s quiet search for deeper meaning

Neo-Impressionism meets mysticism in a quietly radical exhibition

2025-11-11

Alice Roberts’ new book is the Da Vinci Code without the pretence of fiction

Tomes like Domination are part of the problem of public discourse about...

2025-11-06

Deliverance in the dark: Springsteen’s Nebraska and the scars that shaped it

His starkest album emerged from a season of pain, where family, faith, and...

2025-11-05

Digital Culture

Article

An AI image of a person stood holding a phone with a bubble above their head, below them is a chatbot-like demon with a tail

Are AI chatbots actually demons in disguise?

Early Christian thinkers explain chatbots better than Silicon Valley does

Gabrielle Thomas

2025-09-17

Do you believe in a coin called hope?

From fiat to faith: the rise of crypto evangelism

2025-08-18

Heaven can wait: the gig economy can’t

Good Fortune skewers modern work culture with a celestial twist

2025-10-22

Big Tech is gaslighting us into waste

After being nudged to ditch yet another working device, I’ve had enough

2025-10-13

Am I a project or a person?

What we lose when we AI tempts us to refuse our limits

Nathan Mladin

2025-10-03

Could thinking and feeling become futile pastimes in the future?

AI, and more, is eroding our agency, we need to act now

Jamie Mulvaney

2025-08-29

How a card game, going off-grid, and a great teacher, shaped Bill Gates

A new biography explores the man who shaped the digital decades

2025-08-11

Beyoncé, reality, and The Four Seasons

The idolatry of Queen B, we may be extinguishing reality, and what does it...

2025-07-16

Line judges replaced by robots? You cannot be serious!

Wimbledon is about more than efficiency, it’s about humanity.

2025-07-10

What my film about the prodigal son really means

Our relentless focus on productivity devalues the things that make us human

2025-06-24

Explore the digital life

Political Culture

Article

The Pope and King Charles walk together from the Sistine Chapel

If a King can pray with a Pope, there's hope for MAGA and woke to talk

Once bitter enemies found peace through prayer - offering a quiet challenge...

2025-10-27

Tim Farron: our politics is fragmenting, not polarising

Responding to Christian nationalism and the politicisation of religion

2025-09-22

From MI6 to migration: the tangled legacy of empire

Britain’s security dilemmas, from LinkedIn spies to post-colonial legacies...

2025-11-20

Calls to revive the Enlightenment ignore its own illusions

Returning to the Age of Reason won’t save us from post-Truth

2025-11-18

The ancients had the right words for Trump’s tussle with the BBC

Can the truth be concealed?

2025-11-14

The BBC and the quest for Truth

Space for neutrality is shrinking; two French philosophers explain why

2025-11-13

The BBC and the Church of England: two giants, one crisis of trust

Will honourable resignations save the BBC—or anyone?

2025-11-13

The Danish Prime Minister is right - the West needs a spiritual rearmament

Christianity should challenge, not reflect, the cultural zeitgeist

2025-10-20

The UN promised freedom of belief — but 80 years later, it’s still elusive

Flawed, fragile but still vital to those without a voice

2025-10-20

Let's keep hope weird, Zack

Amid growing grief for the future, the Greens' leader is calling for...

2025-10-17

Re-Enchanting podcast, by Seen & Unseen

Re-enchanting culture, politics, the arts, the sciences, history, and so much more

07/04/2025

Seen & Unseen Aloud, by Seen & Unseen

A weekly editor's pick of the best of Seen & Unseen magazine.

07/04/2025

GodPod, by Seen & Unseen

Discuss burning issues of God, theology, life and much more, over a supply of coffee and biscuits.

1 min read

07/04/2025

Sport Culture

A player holding a finger to his lips stands in front of an indoor American football pitch.

Horror turns pro: when greatness demands blood

The pursuit of sporting glory turns into a fever-dream of sacrifice, madness...

2025-10-14

Fed up with today’s football? Blame this passion killer

How the beautiful game became boring

2025-09-16

Rodrigues and Mullally: rewriting history with bat and mitre

A match-winning innings and the rise to Archbishop both speak of the quiet...

2025-11-05

The profound and profane at sporting events, plus cafe time

New episodes: listen to articles by Jonathan Rowlands, Graham Tomlin, and...

2025-10-06

So we won the Ryder Cup. At what cost?

When beer flies and etiquette dies, maybe we’ve mistaken sport for something...

2025-09-29

Bad blood is damaging both football and politics

Are we all in the stands baying for blood?

2025-09-09

The 50-year injustice at the heart of women’s football

Now we need to do these two things to put right decades of disparity

2025-07-29

Scottie Scheffler has a lesson for this summer's fading sports teams

The Open Champion's musings speak to the demise of Welsh Rugby and West...

2025-07-17

Line judges replaced by robots? You cannot be serious!

Wimbledon is about more than efficiency, it’s about humanity.

2025-07-10

Surfing with Dostoevsky: what waves taught me about the journey

The water draws things out of us that we can’t see on our own

2025-07-10

AI - Artificial Intelligence

Article

A cyborg like figure opens the door to a classroom.

Artificial Intelligence needs these school lessons to avoid a Frankenstein fail

To learn and to learn to care are inseparable

Joel Pierce

2025-10-27

ChatGPT’s answers on human desire left something to be desired

So we had a little conversation

Rick Hansen

2025-08-14

Forget AI: I want a computer that says ‘no’

Chatbots only tell us what we want to hear. If we genuinely want to grow, we...

Paul Bradbury

2025-11-07

Peter Thiel and the Antichrist

The PayPal founder’s obsession with the Beast is nothing new

Jack Nicholson

2025-10-06

Am I a project or a person?

What we lose when we AI tempts us to refuse our limits

Nathan Mladin

2025-10-03

Foundation shows you can’t ‘Ctrl+V’ a soul

A sci-fi classic unearths transhumanism’s flaws

Giles Gough

Ageing

2025-09-05

Could thinking and feeling become futile pastimes in the future?

AI, and more, is eroding our agency, we need to act now

Jamie Mulvaney

2025-08-29

Ethan Hunt is MI Jesus, and it’s ridiculous

The final instalment of Mission Impossible warns about AI, yet plays out as...

Yaroslav Walker

Think more about artificial intelligence

2025-05-30

The Met Gala, that conclave, and artificial intelligence

New episode. why the pope counts, who wasn't at that gala, and how we handle...

2025-05-12

Laughing, unruliness, and diplomacy

Jonny Torrance: we’re less in control than we think; Henna Cundill: AI will...

2025-05-05

Seen & Unseen Interviews

Interview

Belief

Books

Marilynne Robinson: “an ordinary person is as metaphysically amazing as Julius Caesar”

The self-confessed daydreamer and slacker talks with Graham Tomlin

28/08/2025

When the answers run out: Kate Bowler on faith, fragility, and the beauty of uncertainty

Kate Bowler in conversation with Graham Tomlin.

21/08/2025

Re-Enchanting podcast, by Seen & Unseen

Re-enchanting culture, politics, the arts, the sciences, history, and so much more

2 min read

07/04/2025

Re-enchanting