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As armies of white-collar workers funnel out of office buildings at the close of their working day, many janitors are just beginning theirs, preparing for long shifts that must be finished while their cities sleep. Lessons from the Night follows Maia Wallner as she reflects eloquently on the nature of her low-paying, under-appreciated and often solitary job, and the particular window it gives her into the psyches of those she cleans up after but rarely sees. Once an Arabic translator in her native Bulgaria, where she worked with world leaders, political turmoil forced her into exile while on assignment in Melbourne, Australia. Still living in Melbourne, she now gets through the lonely nights by finding humour and quiet dignity in her work.
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Animals and humans
What happened when one woman raised an abandoned squirrel as her own
8 minutes
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Art
The female Abstract Expressionists of New York shook the world of art
15 minutes
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The future
What’s the healthiest way to handle a creeping feeling that the world is ending?
15 minutes
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Archaeology
From Roman pots to glass eyes, the shore of the river Thames teems with surprises
8 minutes
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Psychiatry and psychotherapy
Pondering the peculiar one-sided intimacy of the client-therapist relationship
3 minutes
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History of science
Bat-people on the Moon – what a famed 1835 hoax reveals about misinformation today
8 minutes
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Human rights and justice
Thirty years after one teenager shot another, is it time to forgive?
28 minutes
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Medicine
What is it like to be a paramedic, navigating human emergency?
17 minutes
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Demography and migration
How the world’s harshest lockdown hit India’s millions of migrant workers
27 minutes