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The great silence: why haven’t we found any aliens yet?

Given the size and age of the universe, it should be full of species with technology far more advanced than our own. So where are they? By Adam Kirsch. Read by James Sobol Kelly. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

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  ‘If you build something vastly smarter than you, it better be on your side…

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  From the archive: The rubbishscapes of Essex: why our buried trash is back…

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  Democracy v the machine: the birth of the digital age and the warnings tha…

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  The long shadow of Argentina’s dictatorship: she wasn’t who she thought sh…

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  From the archive: Sudan’s outsider: how a paramilitary leader fell out wit…

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  Introducing Black Box: The Chatbots

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  The body snatchers: how a young Nigerian man was lured to London in an org…

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  From the archive: ‘Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic’

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  ‘I can sense Sinatra enter my body and exit my lungs’: aboard the celebrit…

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  Best of 2026…so far: ‘Any other child would have died’: the miraculous sur…

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  Best of 2026…so far: Apocalypse no: how almost everything we thought we kn…

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  ‘The war leaked into every lesson’: learning Ukrainian in a country under …

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  Best of 2026 … so far: Where Duolingo falls down: how I learned to speak W…

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  Best of 2026 … so far: Asian mothers, bad feelings: notes on an all-conque…

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  Iraq’s impossible predicament: why the country is trapped between Iran and…