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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
Aerial view of concentric snow tracks around a phone booth and street light. The artist walks in circles away from the center, dragging a suitcase behind her.
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video

Home

An artist endeavours to bring the Moon down to Earth in a ritual of yearning

5 minutes

An early morning view across an old bridge towards the spires of a historic medieval city partially obscured by fog
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essay

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Return of the descendants

I migrated to my ancestral homeland in a search for identity. It proved to be a humbling experience in (un)belonging

Jessica Buchleitner

Close-up of a person lighting a cigarette with a lighter in a dim, smoky environment.
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video

Love and friendship

Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment

11 minutes

Person on a roof, using a shovel to clear deep snow while more snow falls off the edge, against a snowy, cloudy sky backdrop.
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video

Nature and landscape

What it’s like to care for Yellowstone during its quietest – and coldest – months

13 minutes

An elderly man with a white beard and blue cap stands on a rocky beach with ruins in the background on a clear day.
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video

Personality

Why one man spent 15 years in ‘self-imposed’ island exile

7 minutes

A shopfront with “O’DEA’S” in gold letters, two windows above with flower boxes holding pink flowers, and the number 66 on the right side.
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video

Home

Whether above a pub or in a castle, our childhood homes leave an indelible mark

15 minutes

Person in a hooded coat walking through a labyrinth of stones on a grassy landscape, with ferns and distant hills under an overcast sky.
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video

Subcultures

Living off-grid on a remote Scottish island is a mix of rejection and acceptance

13 minutes

Person holding molten metal with tongs near a furnace at night.
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Rituals and celebrations

From roaring fire and molten glass an artist creates a healing ritual

13 minutes

Drawing of a bearded person with eyes closed and two hands above their head, gently touching their hair.
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video

Art

An ageing artist’s unguarded thoughts on what it takes to be great – and why he lacks it

12 minutes

Narrow cobblestone street lined with old stone buildings, shuttered windows, and hanging lanterns, curving towards an archway.
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essay

History

Slavery en famille

The story of Marie Aymard and five generations of her family tells an intimate history of slavery in a small French town

Emma Rothschild

A child in a green shirt and shorts lying in a wooden canoe on a river surrounded by dense forest.
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video

Anthropology

On the run from COVID-19, an Indigenous family treks deep into the Amazon rainforest

17 minutes

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Human rights and justice

The buzzes, clanks and whirrs of prison life form a meditation on freedom

17 minutes

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Home

The rhythms of rural Thailand, where both food and music are sourced from the ground

15 minutes

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video

Architecture

Cultural wisdom begets cozy temporary homes for the Nenets of the Siberian Arctic

32 minutes

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Home

Eccentrics, artists and Luddites find community on a remote Scottish peninsula

26 minutes

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video

Home

How our rooms shape our world, and vice versa

3 minutes

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video

Love and friendship

Can you find ‘home’ in another person? What it’s like to follow love across borders

5 minutes

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video

Architecture

A world of shacks and shanties is a place of makeshift beauty on England’s margins

12 minutes

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essay

Gender

Angels in the market

The heart-tug tactics of 1950s ads steered white American women away from activism into domesticity. They’re still there

Ellen Wayland-Smith

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video

Cities

Sketches from a Barcelona square offer an elegant celebration of people-watching

5 minutes

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video

Home

A street-level view of homelessness from a woman living through it

11 minutes

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video

Architecture

The best home is a joyfully inhabited one – doubly so if its residents are design legends

11 minutes

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idea

Nature and landscape

How pottering about in the garden creates a time warp

Harriet Gross

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essay

Art

Ways of living

John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ exploded a discipline. But his greatest legacy might be a quieter project of re-enchantment

Joshua Sperling