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Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations

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A stork and chicks in a nest on a metal pylon above a grassy landscape with a river in the background.

essayAnimals and humans

To build a nest

Throughout the animal kingdom, the parents of newborns must strive to create snug sanctuaries in a hazardous world

Helen Jukes

Photo of a woman in a red coat gazing out a foggy window with a contemplative expression.

videoProgress and modernity

Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities

31 minutes

Blurry photo of a townscape with unfocused colourful lights strung across buildings in the evening.

videoAgeing and death

Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England

11 minutes

Photo of a woman in a floral headscarf with a man in the background against a rural autumn landscape under a clear sky.

videoHome

Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons

13 minutes

Photo of a wicker basket with two kittens and a squirrel inside against a decorative blue and white tiled wall.

videoAnimals and humans

One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough

14 minutes

Aerial photo of a snowy town with colourful buildings and a vast frozen landscape in the background.

essayThe environment

On unstable ground

A ‘great reshuffle’ of the land is underway. It will force us to reconsider traditional ideas of property and ownership

Michael Albertus

Colourful, whimsical house with ornate details and greenery in foreground, photo taken outdoors in daylight.

videoHome

How an artist transformed a dilapidated hunting lodge into a house made of dreams

8 minutes

Close-up photo of a textured surface with vibrant purple, orange and blue abstract patterns.

videoFilm and visual culture

Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen

8 minutes

Coastal erosion showing a collapsed road beside the sea with houses nearby, a person walking a dog on the beach.

essayHome

How to lose your home

In a changing climate, the instinct is to save everything you can. But maybe letting go is braver – and better for the future?

Dan Hancox

A smiling elderly man in a cluttered electronics shop with various gadgets and boxes surrounding him.

essayHome

The joy of clutter

The world sees Japan as a paragon of minimalism. But its hidden clutter culture shows that ‘more’ can be as magical as ‘less’

Matt Alt

A brick house with a tiled roof, surrounded by a well-maintained garden with bushes and colourful flowers.

essayHome

Falling for suburbia

Modernists and historians alike loathed the millions of new houses built in interwar Britain. But their owners loved them

Michael Gilson

Aerial photo of a beach at dusk with a spotlight illuminating sand tracks seagulls waves and a person walking with luggage.

videoHome

Tracing circles with her suitcase, Yuge mourns seasons of separation from family

5 minutes

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

essayHome

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.

videoLove 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.

videoNature 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.

videoPersonality

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.

videoHome

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.

videoSubcultures

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.

videoRituals 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.

videoArt

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.

essayHistory

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 the Ecuadorian Amazon river surrounded by dense forest.

videoAnthropology

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

17 minutes

A hand placing a chess pawn among other pawns on a chessboard.

videoHuman rights and justice

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

17 minutes

Elderly man playing a traditional bamboo musical instrument with another man in the background.

videoHome

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

15 minutes