Making hard choices
Zan Boag: When you first started out making decisions about what you were going to do with your life, you had to make a difficult choice as a young student: law or philosophy. You chose law but then…
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Cultural connections
In 1842, after a series of military defeats through the course of the First Opium War, the Chinese Qing dynasty signed the Nanjing Treaty…
13 questions: Vincent Cespedes
What is your demon? My demon is digital distractions, serving as a modern mind’s junk food, masking the deeper malaise of societal indifference and…
Taking risks
Zan Boag: You said that one regret in your life that you hadn’t taken enough risks, that you’d been too cautious in your career…
From Being Human
The age of noise
“The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise, mental noise, and noise of desire – we hold history’s record…
Received wisdom
It’s difficult to say when and how my children first became aware of the concept of a prison. It was certainly very early, well…
The price of immortality
The Continental adventure was not going to plan for John Polidori. A young English doctor dreaming of literary acclaim and resentful of his father’s…
Winners of the 50 prizes for our 50th edition
To celebrate the publication of our 50th edition, we're giving away 50 prizes to subscribers, with first prize a 50-edition subscription (up to our…
Taking flight
Zan Boag: You have spent many years of your life on the road, moving from one country to the next. What does ‘travel’ mean…
Travelling identities
Over the last few years Scott had vacationed to countries like Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other destinations in Asia. He hunted out new vistas…
Lessons from stupidity
It is unclear just how the “Man from Song” (Songren) acquired his reputation, but classical literature is replete with stories of his stupidity. These…
Invisible experience
In our current cultural moment, when the boundaries between public and private have been largely erased, Calle’s investigations are prescient. In…
NFN: Seeing
“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn vos Savant A botanist and a…
