The slow system underneath every other subject: how many people there are, how old they are, and where they move. The long run of human numbers and the scares that forecast it wrongly; the fall in fertility and what governments have tried; aging and the pension arithmetic, with Japan as the frontier; the young world of Africa, India, and the Middle East; migration and the political turn of 2025–26; the displaced; the emptying countryside; the economics; and demography's weight in the balance of power. Brought to October: Japan's record-low 671,000 births in 2025 and South Korea's second year of rises; the UN's estimate of world fertility at 2.23 against a September study's 2.19; America's enforcement campaign and its disputed net migration; Britain's net migration down from 944,000 to 171,000; 117.8 million people displaced by force at the end of 2025; and the EU's temporary protection for Ukrainians extended to March 2028. Where the field argues, over why fertility fell, whether policy can raise it, how much immigration a rich country should admit, whether a shrinking population must grow slowly, and whether demography is destiny, each side makes its case before the evidence. Four worked examples, from what a baby bonus buys to the growth arithmetic of a shrinking workforce.
Collection 8 — Society
The people themselves: their numbers and migrations, the news they make and consume, the faiths they follow, and the questions of truth, justice, and how to live.
Where the news reaches people and who pays for it: the audiences and the trust gap; who owns what after the 2025-26 deals, and who funds the rest; where the money went, and the new money from licensing to AI companies; the platforms and the answer engines; the independents and the creators; the state as funder and adversary; and what the evidence says about misinformation and the loss of local news. Four questions are argued both ways before the course's reading, from whether the platforms should pay for news to whether the press is dying or transforming. Three worked examples, from one city's news traced to its owners and funders to an independent writer's economics against a staff job.
How the news is made and defended, at the level of a first-year college course: what separates journalism from commentary and public relations; how each of the craft's rules came out of a case, from the Zenger trial to Rolling Stone's retraction; reporting from people and from records; verification and the fakes; writing, the edit, and ethics; the law of the press, from Sullivan to the 2025-26 suits; investigative reporting; press freedom around the world; and artificial intelligence as tool, author, and defendant. Where the craft argues with itself, over bias, objectivity, and Sullivan, each side's case comes before the course's reading. Every module has a worked example, from a metro desk's day to an investigation from tip to impact.
## Religion: Who Believes, Who Leads, and Who Pays
About 3¾ hours · Last updated October 2026
The world's religions as they are today, with as much history as it takes to explain them. Who believes what, by Pew's count and the World Christian Database's, and why the two differ by hundreds of millions; why faith grows in Africa and South Asia and fades where people are older and richer; how the Catholic Church is run and paid for, from the Curia and the conclave to Peter's Pence and the American bankruptcies; Orthodoxy, the Anglicans, and the churches with no center at all; who speaks for Islam, from Al-Azhar to Najaf, and its money, from zakat to sukuk; Hinduism's temples and the state, the Sikhs' elected committee, Buddhism's monks, and who will choose the next Dalai Lama; Judaism's many authorities and Israel's rabbinate; and how states fund, favor, and restrict religion, from Germany's church tax to America's tax exemption. Brought to October: Leo XIV's changes to the Vatican's money, Iran's new Supreme Leader, the conservative Anglicans' rival council, Japan's final order dissolving the Unification Church, Lula's re-election and the evangelical vote, and the campaign before Israel's election of October 27. Where the field argues, from secularization to tax exemption, each side makes its case before the evidence. Thirteen worked examples, from conclave arithmetic to Italy's 8 per thousand.
The questions underneath every other subject, argued as their defenders argue them: what we can know and whom to believe; what consciousness is, and whether animals and machines have it; whether we act freely; what makes a person the same over time; the arguments for and against God; whether morality is objective, and the theories of right action, from consequences and duty to character, care, and Ubuntu; what we owe strangers, animals, and future people; death, abortion, and assisted dying; justice and the authority of the state; and how to live. Greek, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, African, and European thinkers come in where their arguments are strongest. Each answer gets its best case, the objection it must meet, and a place in a table of what it costs; on God, consciousness, free will, moral realism, abortion, assisted dying, and eating meat the course takes no side, and it gives a reading only where evidence or broad agreement settles a narrower point. Worked examples include Mary's room premise by premise, Pascal's wager as a decision table, a 10% pledge against GiveWell's estimates, Canada's assisted-death numbers since 2016, and three societies ranked by each theory of justice. Opens with where philosophers stand on each question in the 2020 PhilPapers Survey, a Who's Who of 135 thinkers, and a list of terms.** **
Who believes what in 2026, who leads the world’s religions, and where their money comes from and goes. It covers how believers are counted and why the two main global counts disagree, with belonging, believing, and behaving as three different measures; the short history that explains today’s traditions; which religions are growing, which are shrinking, and who switches; how the Catholic Church is governed and paid for; Orthodoxy and the Anglicans, the churches without a pope; Protestants, Pentecostals, and the newer churches; who speaks for Islam, and where Islam’s money sits; Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism; Buddhism and the religions of East Asia; Judaism; and how states favor, fund, and restrict religion. A dated watch list closes the course.