---
title: "Best of 2019: interviews and columns"
date: "2019-12-23T10:20:09+00:00"
modified: "2019-12-23T10:20:09+00:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2019/12/23/best-of-2019-interviews-and-columns/"
post_id: 6956
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Best of 2019: interviews and columns

 ![Alice-Roberts1](https://newhumanist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Alice-Roberts1.jpg "Alice Roberts, interviewed for our summer 2019 issue.")Alice Roberts, interviewed for our summer 2019 issue.[Our incredible shrinking brains ](/articles/5445/our-incredible-shrinking-brains)

The human brain has shrunk around 10 per cent in mass since peaking in size 15-30,000 years ago. Marcus Chown explains.

[“The problem with the marketplace of ideas is that it is more like an oligarchy of ideas”](/articles/5529/the-problem-with-the-marketplace-of-ideas-is-that-it-is-more-like-an-oligarchy-of-ideas)

Journalist and author Nesrine Malik offers a nuanced critique of prevailing ideas about free speech and the terms of public debate.

[Learning from the good old days ](/articles/5426/learning-from-the-good-old-days)

Can nostalgia have positive uses? Samira Ahmed looks back at her own past.

[You don’t know whether to laugh or cry ](/articles/5523/you-dont-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry)

In his regular Endgame column, Laurie Taylor considers the mystery of memory.

[“Privatising the causes of stress dovetails nicely with neoliberal ideology”](/articles/5503/privatising-the-causes-of-stress-dovetails-nicely-with-neoliberal-ideology)

Mindfulness is mainstream. In this interview, Ronald Purser, professor of management at San Francisco State University, argues that mindfulness is actually reinforcing the neoliberal status quo.

[“Science deniers embrace a double standard of evidence”](/articles/5498/science-deniers-embrace-a-double-standard-of-evidence)

Attacks on science have become commonplace – from climate change denial to anti-vaccination movements.Defenders of science often point to its discoveries without explaining exactly why scientific claims are superior. Academic Lee McIntyre discusses his book *The Scientific Attitude*, which seeks to explore these issues.

[“Science says you are not the pinnacle of evolution” ](/articles/5459/science-says-you-are-not-the-pinnacle-of-evolution)

JP O’Malley talks to Alice Roberts – president of Humanists UK, evolutionary biologist and broadcaster – about church schools, evolution and the climate.

[“Laughing is not a political action”](/articles/5524/laughing-is-not-a-political-action)

Ece Temelkuran is one of Turkey’s best known political commentators and a prominent critic of the Turkish government. In this interview she discusses her latest book, *How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship*.

[Vintage designs and the dream of a better future](/articles/5458/vintage-designs-and-the-dream-of-a-better-future)

The wartime posters of Abram Games show a vision of a shared civic state, writes Samira Ahmed.

[The alien creatures that live in our bodies](/articles/5536/the-alien-creatures-that-live-in-our-bodies)

You are born 100 per cent human but die 50 per cent alien, because half the cells in your body do not belong to you. Marcus Chown explains.

[*Read our top 10 long reads*](/articles/5545/best-of-2019-long-reads)

[*Read our top 10 culture pieces*](/articles/5546/best-of-2019-culture)