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• How a history of conquest shapes the present

  A century ago, European empires dominated much of the planet. Gurminder K Bhambra and Charlotte L Riley ask what we can learn from the past.

• Could empathy do us more harm than good?

  Today, it is taken as given that empathy is a driving force for good. But is reason a more useful and compassionate approach?

• ‘‘Saying something is a miracle is a failure of imagination’’

  Q&A with philosopher and scientist Daniel Dennett.

• New Humanist reading list: terrorism, extremism and democracy

• Can humans survive on earth?

  Professor Stephen Hawking claims we must colonise another planet in the next 100 years.

• What is the point of education?

  Q&A with Lawrence Busch, author of a new book on the neoliberal takeover of higher education.

• How we invented nature, in search of whiteness, and becoming British

  The best long-reads from the New Humanist this month.

• What do algorithms know about you?

  Q&A with Ed Finn, author of "What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing".

• Becoming British

  As a teenager, I fought hard to feel like I belonged. Now, that right is being undermined – for me and millions of others.

• In a word: faith

  Michael Rosen's column on language and its uses