video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
essay
Biography and memoir
A grief with no name
As a child, I was torn from a culture that I never knew. It is a loss that defines me, even as I struggle to define the loss
Jelena Markovic
video
War and peace
‘She is living on in many hearts’ – Otto Frank on the legacy of his daughter’s diary
12 minutes
video
Art
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece
31 minutes
video
Family life
The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations
10 minutes
essay
Film and visual culture
The risk of beauty
W Eugene Smith’s photos of the Minamata disaster are both exquisite and horrifying. How might we now look at them?
Joanna Pocock
essay
Sleep and dreams
Spinning the night self
After years of insomnia, I threw off the effort to sleep and embraced the peculiar openness I found in the darkest hours
Annabel Abbs
video
Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
29 minutes
essay
Nature and landscape
Land loneliness
To survive, we are asked to forget that our lands and bodies are being violated, policed, ripped up, silenced, sacrificed
Kelsey Day
essay
Biography and memoir
The adoption paradox
Even happy families cannot avoid the reality – my reality – that adoption is predicated on transacting the life of a child
Fiona Sampson
essay
Thinkers and theories
Paper trails
Husserl’s well-tended archive has given him a rich afterlife, while Nietzsche’s was distorted by his axe-grinding sister
Peter Salmon
essay
Pleasure and pain
Eulogy for silence
Tinnitus is like a constant scream inside my head, depriving me of what I formerly treasured: the moments of serene quiet
Diego Ramírez Martín del Campo
video
Biography and memoir
Preserving memories of a Japanese internment camp, and the land where it stood
8 minutes
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
The therapist who hated me
Going to a child psychoanalyst four times a week for three years was bad enough. Reading what she wrote about me was worse
Michael Bacon
video
Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes
essay
Family life
A patchwork family
After my marriage failed, I strove to create a new family – one made beautiful by the loving way it’s stitched together
Lily Dunn
video
Biography and memoir
The unique life philosophy of Abdi, born in Somalia, living in the Netherlands
29 minutes
video
Childhood and adolescence
Striking shadow puppetry illuminates a skater kid’s memories of Boy Scout camp
12 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A ‘virtual outing’ on Google Maps reveals a treasured image from Diego’s past
6 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
What it’s like to care for Yellowstone during its quietest – and coldest – months
13 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
On knowing who he was
Alan Watts, for all his faults, was a wildly imaginative and provocative thinker who reimagined religion in a secular age
Christopher Harding
video
Biography and memoir
As her world unravels, Pilar wonders at the ‘sacred geometry’ that gives it structure
20 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Saved by Infinite Jest
Bereft and suicidal, I lay on my sofa. Only David Foster Wallace’s novel kept me tethered to life, and still does
Mala Chatterjee
video
Biography and memoir
A gentle soul in an oppressive land – Bonnie’s story of life in America
11 minutes