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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
Aerial view of a large pipeline construction site with machinery and vehicles cutting through green fields and hills under a partly cloudy sky.
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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

Black and white snowy mountain scene with vehicles, overlaid by a large smear of vivid blue paint in the upper right area.
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video

Knowledge

An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place

4 minutes

A person with light blonde hair, wearing a dark hoodie, stands on a cliff by the sea, holding a bird. The sea is rough with waves crashing against the rocks, and several rock formations are visible in the misty background.
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video

Childhood and adolescence

The unique fellowship between teens and young puffins on a remote Icelandic island

20 minutes

A serene landscape of snowy trees and hills set against a backdrop of a yellow sky and blue mountain range, with a bird flying by.
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video

Stories and literature

Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone

5 minutes

A person is sitting on the edge of a traditional Japanese building, looking out at a lush garden. Sunlight illuminates the foliage, creating a serene atmosphere.
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video

Architecture

The celebrated architect who took inspiration from sitting, waiting and contemplating

29 minutes

A person stands in a sunlit forest, holding a compound bow, and wearing outdoor gear with a backpack.
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video

Death

A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal

6 minutes

Modern white tower building amidst green landscape with winding path and trees, hills and a clear sky in the background.
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video

Architecture

‘I listen to the land’ – poetry and greenery intertwine in Emilio Ambasz’s architecture

9 minutes

A colour illustration of a pool of water in which many people are swimming, glimpsed through trees, against a city skyline background
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essay

Mental health

The right to bathe

Water is a great healer. Can New York’s public pools and ‘blue spaces’ be engineered for collective hydrotherapy?

Rebecca Hayes Jacobs

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

German man wearing sunglasses and a black cap standing among tall, green cacti, with a serious expression on his face.
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video

Beauty and aesthetics

The grit of cacti and the drumbeat of time shape a sculptor’s life philosophy

11 minutes

Aerial view of a snowy forest from a helicopter, with a person in a helmet and green jacket pointing downwards.
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video

Ecology and environmental sciences

From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf

8 minutes

Two sphinx-like statues foreground an intricate formal garden of geometric hedges and a square pond. In the background are cherry trees in bloom
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essay

Nature and landscape

The mystic art of gardening

In an era of 20th-century suburban sprawl, the great designer Russell Page infused soulful philosophy into his gardens

Caleb Smith

A flock of birds fly over a wide expanse of marshland and a river at dusk.
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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

Close-up of tree roots and rocks on a forest floor, covered with moss and surrounded by dense greenery.
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video

Nature and landscape

Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece

6 minutes

Four-panel sequence of a sunset with vibrant green and yellow hues on the horizon, transitioning across various stages of visibility against a darkening sky.
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video

Physics

Why does the Sun occasionally flash green as it eclipses the horizon?

7 minutes

“Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ triptych depicting paradise, earthly pleasures, and hell with a multitude of intricately detailed figures.”
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essay

Art

Earthly delights

Noticing first one then many parrots, peacocks, owls and more birds in Old Master paintings taught me to truly see the world

Leanne Ogasawara

A digital illustration of an ancient, twisted tree with sparse green leaves, set against a misty, green landscape and a bright, cloudy sky.
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video

Ecology and environmental sciences

The grassroots project that’s restoring an endangered Hawaiian ecosystem

22 minutes

An aerial view of a swampy area with scattered patches of brown vegetation and reflective blue water.
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video

Earth science and climate

A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse

6 minutes

A group of horses running across a dusty, open plain during sunset, with distant mountains visible under a partly cloudy sky.
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video

Animals and humans

Laura fights to protect the magnificence of wild horses running free

6 minutes

A close-up of a green and brown maple leaf with distinct veins, set against a black background.
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video

Biology

Flicker through the eclectic beauty and biological diversity of 2,400 leaves

3 minutes

A vast, green valley with rolling hills under a partly cloudy sky, featuring a prominent ridge extending into the distance.
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essay

Deep time

The Rift

Splitting the African continent, it is the only place where our human story can be read continuously from the very start

Tristan McConnell

Painting of a garden party with people chatting near a yellow house, some holding drinks. Trees and more guests in the background.
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video

Art

At 95, an artist paints swiftly to capture the fugitive light

6 minutes

A farmer stands by a rice paddy, surrounded by greenery and houses, under a clear blue sky.
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essay

The environment

Our contaminated future

In Fukushima, communities are adapting to life in a time of permanent pollution: a glimpse of what’s to come for us all

Maxime Polleri

A large flock of birds fills the sky above a rural farmhouse surrounded by fields and trees under a pale blue sky.
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essay

Nature and landscape

Home and the birdsong

In the dark, sylvan villages of medieval England, people named places after the birds that filled the night with music

Michael J Warren