Culture
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
essay
Love and friendship
Loved, yet lonely
You might have the unconditional love of family and friends and yet feel deep loneliness. Can philosophy explain why?
Kaitlyn Creasy
essay
Biography and memoir
Flat places
Whenever I stand in a flat landscape, I feel myself becoming weightless, taken out of my childhood full of painful nothing
Noreen Masud
essay
Music
To the tune of dystonia
One day, my hand stopped speaking to my brain. As a doctor and flute player, I had to understand this strange affliction
Lynn Hallarman
essay
Illness and disease
More than pink
The culture around breast cancer is full of positivity and femininity. But it comes at the expense of the marginalised
Philippa Hetherington
essay
War and peace
Chorus of testimony
Anne Frank’s diary is one of thousands of desperate, secret and vivid journals each bearing witness to the reality of war
Nina Siegal
video
Biography and memoir
The busboy who comforted Robert F Kennedy as he lay dying shares his story
3 minutes
video
Biography and memoir
A young autistic man’s heartfelt letter to the beloved mother he lost
12 minutes
video
Family life
The extraordinary story of a Black Holocaust survivor, as told by his daughter
21 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
The diaries of Kafka
By day an insurance official, by night he was an incessant, insomniacal scribe of the space between waking and dreaming
Ross Benjamin
essay
Thinkers and theories
A philosophy of secrets
Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves
Peter Salmon
video
Family life
In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy
21 minutes
video
Wellbeing
Through a poetic account of childhood trauma, one woman reclaims her past
28 minutes
essay
Mental health
Under the mkone tree
When I returned to Kenya, where I grew up, I found biomedicine and traditional medicine in conversation about mental health
Priya Basil