1. Age of extremes

Is the government’s Prevent strategy a defence against terrorism or a threat to free speech? Samira Shackle reports.

2. Beyond Boko Haram: fundamentalism in Nigeria

In Africa’s most populous country, strict interpretations of religion are on the rise. Can anything be done about it, asks Chitra Nagarajan?

3. Learning to listen: an interview with Shappi Khorsandi

The new president of the British Humanist Association talks to Ariane Sherine about life as a comedian and growing up atheist.

4. The authenticity of online grief

People who mourned David Bowie online were condemned for being self-indulgent, but, says Giovanni Tiso, shared rituals matter.

5. Rhyme & reason

200 years ago Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from Oxford for publishing ‘The Necessity of Atheism’. In this archive piece from 2014, Jonathan Rée reassesses the romantic poet’s rationalism

February's top long-reads

More on our Spring issue - out now