Lew Blink is perhaps the world’s only ‘dumpster archeologist’ – especially since he coined the term himself. More than just a dumpster diver, using and repurposing items others have throw away, Blink’s passion is assembling people’s stories from the items they leave behind. The short documentary Dumpster Archeology follows Blink as he trawls through dumpsters in his home city of St Louis, Missouri in search of discarded objects that might help to reveal their former owners’ stories, and guides viewers through the paintings, books, disco balls and dog collars that have found a new home in his apartment. While, in the eyes of many viewers, Blink’s methods may blur ethical lines, his unusual pursuits seem to be born of a genuine affinity for the people he researches, and a reverence and respect for their stories. Through his eccentric subject, the US director Dustie Carter crafts a stylish and clever exploration of waste, privacy and the poetry of everyday life.
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Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
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Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
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Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes