Volume 127 Issue 2 March/April 2012

Editorial: Marketplace of outrage: An inclination to censor is supplanting the free flow of ideas

Cover Story

How to defend free speech: With the persecution of Salman Rushdie, the continuing furore over ‘offensive cartoons’, and polluters, dictators and terrorist bagmen using British libel law to shield their misdeeds from public scrutiny, the opponents of free speech have never had it so good. This is Nick Cohen’s ten-point plan to stop the rot, protect free expression and turn back the tide of outrage that threatens our right to speak
The triumph of Rushdie's censors: The response to the latest threats against Salman Rushdie shows that we have become dangerously accustomed to the erosion of free speech, says Kenan Malik

Q&A: Tom Watson: The MP for West Bromwich East and Deputy Chair of the Labour Party Tom Watson has made his name as the relentless pursuer of tabloid hackers as a member of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, even comparing James Murdoch to a mafia boss. We hacked into his private thoughts to find out what makes him tick
Atheists can embrace the power of Tarot: Elizabeth Wilson lays her cards on the table
A rise in Premier League piety?: Musa Okwonga asks what's behind football's on-pitch displays of devotion
Top Six: Jesus Sightings: If the Lord moves in mysterious ways, then his son moves in downright weird ones. Jesus Christ’s inexplicable predilection for appearing in the snack foods of small-town America has become even more legendary than his early work in the Bible. It started small, toast mostly, the occasional taco or flatbread, but to get those column inches – and please the fans – one must up the ante. Christina Martin selects some of his greatest public appearances
The growing threat to abortion rights: Nadine Dorries may have suffered defeats in Parliament, but the anti-choice lobby continues gain in strength, warns Sarah Ditum

Poised on the edge: an interview with Lisa Randall: Lisa Randall is both a top research cosmologist and one of the best guides to the dizzying world of theoretical physics. Manjit Kumar collides with her
What's wrong with university? Laurie Taylor interviews Stefan Collini: Amid the research targets and funding reforms our once world-leading centres for higher learning have lost their way. Laurie Taylor meets Stefan Collini, the Cambridge don mounting a fight back
An atheist at Alcoholics Anonymous: Spirituality is central to the Twelve Step programme. But when Frank B reached rock bottom, he discovered that even the godless can be saved
No fire, no brimstone: An interview with Alain de Botton: Alain de Botton thinks atheists should take the best ideas from religion, and leave the bad stuff behind. Caspar Melville goes in search of enlightenment
No argument: In America rationalists find themselves in a new battle – opposing the passing of ‘academic freedom’ laws that allow the undermining of science in the classroom. Paul Sims reports
Stayin' alive: Humans have invented an endless series of strategies to try and outwit the Grim Reaper. Stephen Cave explores our fascination with immortality
A risk worth taking: The crisis at Japan’s Fukushima plant raised the spectre of nuclear disaster. But, one year on, it has made atomic power safer than ever. Angela Saini on the productive upside of failure

Chown's Cosmos: Our fragile home: Voyager’s distant photo of Earth should remind us that we’re all in this together, says Marcus Chown
Endgame: Artful dodger: Laurie Taylor flashes his inner muse
New Humanist Cartoons March/April 2012: Cartoons from the March & April issue of New Humanist magazine

Our man in Marseille: In his uncategorisable writing and brilliant television essays Jonathan Meades is forever peering into the nooks and crannies of our absurd age. Matthew Adams runs him to ground in his modernist hideaway to poke into his private places

Book review: The Train in the Night by Nick Coleman: Andrew Mueller hears Nick Coleman's pain
Book review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo: Charles Haynes enjoys a portrait of the Mumbai slums
Book review: A Death in the Family: Karl Ove Knausgard has been hailed as a new literary star, in his publisher's press release. Philip Womack is not convinced by his "monstrous ego trip"
Book review: The Last Holiday by Gil Scott-Heron: His posthumous memoir is just the last of the many disapointments of the great Gil Scott-Heron, says Caspar Melville
Book review: The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt: Jonathan Rée is entertained, but unimpressed, by the PT Barnum of cultural psychology