Brief encounter

THE PROSPECT GRID

Our monthly cut-out-and-keep guide to who falls where on the taste hierarchy

Contributors

Writers in this issue

PEOPLE

Sam McDowell, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Helen Hobin, Thomas Dixon, Michael Pollen

Are they worth it?

The pay of CEOs has soared far beyond that of their workers. How did the fat cats get so fat—and is it time their pay packets were slimmed down?

All in it together

With liberal democracy in crisis, can industrial democracy be a credible alternative? The head of John Lewis, Sharon White, argues that it can

Dig for victory

China holds or processes almost all the materials we need to build batteries and other green technologies. It won’t be easy for the west to catch up, argues Katherine Dunn

Drowning in its own irrelevance

The Church of England could be extinct by the 2060s. That threatens to trigger a constitutional, as well as an existential, crisis. Martyn Percy explains why

Arrested development

Police forces are under pressure to tackle violence against women— but misogyny has deep roots within the ranks. Do senior officers have the will or the means to fix the problem?

Return to sender?

As the Pitt Rivers Museum changes displays to acknowledge its colonial heritage, should something more fundamental be done with the UK’s historic collections?

Slapping back

Strategic lawsuits that prevent criticism of the rich and powerful have become the weapon of choice for oligarchs. It’s time to put a stop to them

A different darkness

How “The Waste Land” became the most enigmatically quotable book of the last 100 years

Extremely online

Factions lurking in dark corners of the web are destabilising democracy. Will they succeed?

Debt to the future

What would the world look like if we valued the generations to come as much as we value our own?

The assimilation game

Joseph Roth’s path through the world was thwarted by prejudice as much as by his own failings

Books in brief

Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval

Dissenting bodies

The figures in Franz Kafka’s drawings are as restless and uncomfortable as his fictional anti-heroes

The other 9/11

The celebrated filmmaker Patricio Guzmán returns to a Chile still grappling with Pinochet’s legacy

The good guy

Elliot Levey is one of our finest actors—and he’s finally stepping into the limelight

Let there be delight

The soul-stirring work of Arvo Pärt appeals to classical and non-classical audiences alike

Can AI master art?

Ethan Zuckerman

Philosopher-at-large: The hereditary principle

Julian Baggini

Sarah Ogilvie The joy of lex: Stinking!

Sarah Ogilvie

They’ve blown it

Sam Freedman

Diary

Olesya Khromeychuk

Lives

Farming life, Clerical life, Young life, Mindful life, Long life, Displaced life, Sporting life

The Generalist by Didymus

Plus Bobby Seagull's Brain Teaser

Letters

Words from our readers...