essay
Gender and identity
A manly divorce
Straight men rarely write about the end of their marriages. Our enduring ideas about gender explain this silence
Joshua Coleman
essay
History
Medieval babycare
From mansplaining about breastfeeding to debates on developmental toys, medieval parenting was full of familiar dilemmas
Katherine Harvey
video
Gender and identity
‘I didn’t fall in love with a couple of body pieces’ – on marriage and transition
3 minutes
video
Animals and humans
What happened when one woman raised an abandoned squirrel as her own
8 minutes
video
Life stages
At 14, Asal is excited about her engagement. Her relatives all have their own opinions
33 minutes
essay
Personality
Born that way
Confident or shy, our temperament is mostly baked-in from birth. But how that influences our lives is up for grabs
Gina Mireault
essay
Life stages
Family passages
Each new generation learns from its elders. But familial voices now compete for influence with a chorus of urgent others
Elizabeth Svoboda
video
Family life
Fifty years ago, a train collided with Jack and Betty’s car. Here’s how they remember it
9 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
From violent criminal to loving parent – a son’s story of his father’s transformation
23 minutes
video
Life stages
An unvarnished, poetic account of a new mother’s struggle to breastfeed
3 minutes
video
Ageing and death
When his elderly parents make a suicide pact, Doron struggles to accept their choice
19 minutes
video
Biography and memoir
What Akiko saw at the centre of the Hiroshima blast, and the indelible mark it left
15 minutes
video
Addiction
From back pain to addiction – one man’s struggle with opioids, as told to his sister
14 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Leave them alone
Parenting advice from D H Lawrence: don’t smother your children with love. They are more sagacious than you think
Lara Feigel
essay
Subcultures
The utopian machine
For children like me, growing up in an utopian community, life was a bewildering chaos of freedom and indoctrination
Susanna Crossman
essay
Love and friendship
The right person
Contemporary wisdom says that happiness is the measure of a marriage. But is that a harmful way of judging relationships?
Joshua Coleman
video
Gender and identity
‘When you’re done, you stay human!’ What gender transition means to John
6 minutes
video
War and peace
Before he leaves to go to war, Artem, 18, says goodbye to the man who raised him
12 minutes
video
Family life
A son of China’s former one-child policy remembers the sibling he never had
8 minutes
video
Mood and emotion
Alone on a small island in Belgrade, a father grieves his daughter in quiet solitude
12 minutes
essay
Childhood and adolescence
The parentified child
When parents cast a child into the role of mediator, friend and carer, the wounds are profound. But recovery is possible
Nivida Chandra
video
War and peace
When his grandfather won’t talk about the war, Bastien is left to his imagination
15 minutes
video
Family life
An artist grapples with the loss of his brother, and the problem of canine abduction
7 minutes
essay
Death
Is grandad on the moon?
We no longer have a clear sense of how to introduce our children to death. But their questions can help us face up to it
Pragya Agarwal