2024
Beyond the two cultures, cover feature, New Humanist, v. 139, no. 1, Spring 2024
The psychology of free thought: interview with Simon McCarthy-Jones, Freethinker, 29 March 2024
From Satan to the Hate Monster, editorial, Freethinker, 25 March 2024
‘Nobody really understands what the consequences are’ – interview with Susie Alegre, Freethinker, 22 March 2024
On sex, gender and their consequences – interview with Louise Antony, Freethinker, 27 February 2024
Note: From January 2022 to 31 March 2024, I was editor of the Freethinker. In addition to writing and commissioning articles, I redesigned the website and logo, and updated the guiding principles.
2023
Essays
How taxpayers subsidise evangelism – cover story, New Humanist, vol. 138, no. 2, Summer 2023
Blasphemy and bishops: how secularists are navigating the culture wars, Freethinker, 19 May 2023
Reviews
Year in review: 2023 – with Daniel Sharp for the Freethinker, 22 December 2023
A century of British humanism: review of Brown, Nash and Lynch, The Humanist Movement in Modern Britain (Bloomsbury, 2023), New Humanist, vol. 138, no. 3, Autumn 2023
Algorithm is Gonna Get You – review of The Battle for Thought by Simon McCarthy-Jones, and Free Your Mind by Laura Dodsworth and Patrick Fagan, Literary Review, August 2023. This review was quoted in Freedom of thought, an essay by Michael Barber in the November 2023 issue of The Oldie.
Acropolis Now: review of What the Greeks Did for Us by Tony Spawforth, Literary Review, April 2023
Interviews for the Freethinker
‘This is not rocket science’: the Disestablishment of the Church of England Bill 2023 – interview with Paul Scriven, 7 December 2023
Britain’s liberal imam – interview with Taj Hargey, Freethinker, 20 November 2023
‘When the chips are down, the philosophers turn out to have been bluffing’ – interview with Alex Byrne, Freethinker, 5 October 2023
‘The real beauty comes from contemplating the universe’ – interview with Sarah Bakewell, Freethinker, 26 May 2023
Can sentientism save the world? – interview with Jamie Woodhouse, Freethinker, 12 May 2023
British Islam and the crisis of ‘wokeism’ in universities – interview with Steven Greer, Freethinker, 29 March 2023
‘You have to know your own mind’ – interview with Laura Dodsworth, Freethinker, 10 February 2023
2022
Articles for various publications
Flying spaghetti monsters, on the ‘religion’ of Pastafarianism, New Humanist, Autumn 2022
Out of Aristotle’s Shadow – review of Looking for Theophrastus: Travels in Search of a Lost Philosopher by Laura Beatty, Literary Review, Issue 508, June 2022
Faith in education – on the problems with faith schools in Britain, New Humanist, Vol. 137, No. 1, Spring 2022
The Freethinker – articles, interviews and commentary
‘The defence of liberty is a state of mind’ – interview with Jonathan Sumption, 22 December 2022
Race: the most difficult subject of all? – interview with Inaya Folarin Iman, founder of the Equiano Project, 14 December 2022
Free thought in the 21st century – edited version of an interview I gave to Liberas, a Belgian institute of liberalism and free thought, 1 December 2022
‘A godless neo-religion’ – interview with Helen Joyce, author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, 18 November 2022
‘The light of democratic scrutiny was switched off for two years’ – interview with Adam Wagner, author of Emergency State, 11 November 2022
The resurgence of enlightenment in southern India – interview with Bhavan Rajagopalan, Freethinker, 6 September 2022
‘We need to move from identity politics to a politics of solidarity’ – interview with Pragna Patel, Freethinker, 15 July 2022
Various satire, April-July 2022
‘An animal is a description of ancient worlds’ – interview with Richard Dawkins, Freethinker, 1 July 2022
Reading list against nuclear war – Freethinker, 29 June 2022
The price of criticising Islam in northern Nigeria: imprisonment or death – Freethinker, 6 June 2022
What I believe – interview with Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK and President of Humanists International, Freethinker, 10 May 2022
A view from Kyiv: Ordinary life during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – interview, Freethinker, 16 April 2022
Free speech in Britain: a losing battle? – Freethinker, 31 March 2022
Mubarak Bala: update on a ‘blasphemer’ in Nigeria – Freethinker, 19 March 2022
‘The best way to combat bad speech is with good speech’ – interview with Maryam Namazie, Freethinker, 12 March 2022
Bishops in the Lords: Why are they still there? – Freethinker, 10 March 2022
Porcus Sapiens, Freethinker, 5 March 2022
Letter from the Editor, Freethinker, 5 March 2022
2021
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám – The Idler, No. 80, September–October 2021
Blasphemy in the classroom – on teachers’ lack of response to the Batley Grammar case and how to teach ‘blasphemous’ materials, New Humanist, Vol. 136, No. 3, Autumn 2021. Selected as one of the New Humanist’s top 20 articles of 2021.
Lessons from Britain’s first atheist MP – on Charles Bradlaugh, blasphemy, and the Scottish Hate Crime Act, New Humanist, 20 May 2021
We Must Cultivate Our Gardens – review of John Sellars, The Fourfold Remedy: Epicurus and the Art of Happiness; Sarah Sands, The Interior Silence: 10 Lessons from Monastic Life, Literary Review, March 2021
2020
Porkers & Pissheads: The Pig War by John Placentius; How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing, by Vincent Obsopoeus (both translated from Latin by Michael Fontaine) – Literary Review, April 2020
Should lessons on sex and religion take parents’ wishes into account? – Spectator Life, 12 March 2020
2019
Three Voices of Mauritius – a literary experiment in The Fortnightly Review, 3 August 2019
Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher, by Armand D’Angour – The Spectator, 30 March 2019
2018
Metamorphica, by Zachary Mason – The Spectator, 29 September 2018
Latin: Dead or alive? – the sad state of classics in schools, from a former teacher’s perspective, The Spectator Schools Supplement, 8 September 2018
The Best Food Festivals in 2018 – Spectator Life, 19 July 2018
Gods, Guys and Guns. A review of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – National Secular Society website, 14 June 2018
Mary and the Witch’s Flower – Review (anime by Studio Ponoc), The Flaneur, May 2018
2017 and earlier
How classics can teach about teaching – brief piece on my approach to teaching, Bright Young Things blog, 2016
Time to brush up the public image? – on the shipping industry’s relationship with the media, Maritime Risk International, 2016
Blow Up Media Studies – review of Toby Miller, Blow Up the Humanities, in The Oxonian Review, 17 February 2013
‘A Book By Its Cover’ series, for The Oxonian Review: on the self-presentation of books, judging by cover alone, including Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth, and Alex Danchev’s On Art and War and Terror.
2009 – an editor of ORbits, The Oxonian Review’s new online section
Academic
E.C. Park (2014). Review of ‘Modernity and Plato. Two Paradigms of Rationality’, Classical Review (New Series), 64, pp. 610-612
Plato and Lucretius as philosophical literature, DPhil thesis, 2012
Emma Park 