This issue, we revive the tradition of highlighting the world’s greatest thinkers. And throughout the magazine, you’ll find writers determined to make sense of senseless times

The Poet laureate answers 11 of Prospect's quick-fire questions

The potter reflects on how art can change the world

The main immediate cause is "deaths of despair." Will the trend one day cross the Atlantic?

The writer on her memories of childhood, the fight against populism—and why she writes to metal

Global warming is not the kind of phenomenon that the human mind has evolved to regard as a clear and present threat