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When wounds replace words

For the many thousands of refugees waiting in Greece, the process to establish the truth of their tragic personal histories is often extremely upsetting. But a group of medics and legal workers is working together to make the system more humane.

Sex work, stigma and whorephobia

Like everyone, sex workers sometimes need medical or mental health support. But shame and stigma seriously affect attitudes and access.

Winter blues and the story of SAD

In ‘Chasing the Sun‘ Linda Geddes reveals why for some people, winter is literally depressing, showing how we first came to recognise seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Mark O’Connell’s prescription for writing

The Wellcome Book Prize shortlisted author of ‘To Be a Machine’ answers five questions on health, inspiration and storytelling.

Smoking and the pleasure principle

Cigarettes gifted ex-smoker David Jesudason coughing, wheezing and fatigue, yet they also gave him pleasure. Here he unpicks his fluctuating attitudes towards lighting up.

Selling sex and sacrificing safety

Sex workers who report crimes against them can face a “what do you expect?” attitude. But one organisation is working to protect vulnerable people in the sex industry.

Chinese pillow history

What is the ideal pillow? In Chinese culture, the ideal shifted over time, and views on a good sleep also reveal attitudes about studying, love, food and drink.

Found items

Books leave their traces in our minds, but we leave traces of ourselves in books too, as these fascinating items found inside old works show.

Crones

Menopause can be tough when nobody talks about it and all the stereotypes are negative, but it can also be transformative, marking the start of a new stage of life - cronehood.

Confession as therapy in the Middle Ages

The line between confession and counselling has been blurred for centuries.

Thunderbolts and lightning

Fire in the sky has always exerted a hold on our imagination, even as early scientists unlocked the secrets of atmospheric electricity.

Daniel Regan on using photography to manage emotions

Artist Daniel Regan manages his emotions and stays grounded through photography, allowing him to engage in the world around him.

A nasty history of the vaginal speculum

The vaginal speculum carries the weight of generations of preconceptions about morality, blame and attitudes to pain. Lalita Kaplish explores the history of the implement and how societies shaped its use.

Children in burns prevention campaigns

Whose responsibility is it to prevent accidental burns and scalds in the home? Shane Ewen’s research shows that it’s everyone’s concern.

Titans in the landscape

Mixed feelings and milk siblings

A friend in need has a profound effect on Alev’s feelings about women sharing their milk in this final instalment of ‘The Breastmilk Market’.

A freezer full of breastmilk

When new mum Alev Scott began pumping her milk between feeds, she soon found she was freezing more breastmilk than her baby would ever need. So Alev began to investigate ways to share her oversupply.

“Disability is never an individual diagnosis”

As a 35-year-old man, I am sure that my fear of getting old is not uncommon. But for me, that fear goes deeper. I have spina bifida.

Nymphomania and hypersexuality in women and men

The history of nymphomania is closely bound with society's views on women and their sexuality.

Stigma, schizophrenia and being transgender

When he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Ashley McFord-Allister discovered that the medical world will not continue gender confirmation treatment while treating a mental health condition. Here he exposes the prejudice behind this attitude.

The ‘undesirable epileptic’

Abused in her marriage for being 'a sick woman', Aparna Nair looked to history to make sense of the response to her epilepsy. She discovered how centuries of fear and discrimination were often endorsed by science and legislation.

Parasites and pests from the medieval to the modern

Humans have been reluctant hosts to a plethora of unpleasant parasites for centuries. And medieval evidence shows our modern distaste for these little irritations is just as ancient.

Is shoegaze the loneliest genre of music?

Christine Ro explores the connection between shyness and shoegaze.

The enduring myth of the mad genius

There’s a fine line to tread between creativity and psychosis.

Witches

Many of the women persecuted as witches in the 16th-century “witch craze” were over 50 and exhibited signs of menopause. Helen Foster suggests that the stigma of the wicked witch still affects older women and how they deal with menopause.