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87 results
  • Article
  • Article

Homes for the hives of industry

| Emily Sargent

By building workers’ villages, industry titans demonstrated both philanthropy and control. Employees’ health improved, while rulebooks told them how to live ideal lives.

  • Article
  • Article

Wonder years

| Chris North

The confusion and secrecy surrounding his condition seriously affected Chris’s mental health, blighting his teenage years. But somehow he began to hope and plan for the future.

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  • Article

Born different

| Chris North

For Chris North, being born intersex in the 1940s meant his many childhood hospital visits, tests and operations were not explained or discussed. As he reveals, doctors encouraged strict secrecy.

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Ways appear

| Chris North

While his sense of body shame meant the personal side of his life was unfulfilled, Chris’s career was rewarding. His own childhood experiences gave him profound empathy for the children he worked with.

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Dying at home and the doctor’s role

| The Secret GP

Our anonymous GP talks about the bittersweet rewards of supporting a patient when he chose to die at home.

  • Article
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Doctor in the house

| Ishani Kar-Purkayastha

A house is not always a home – sometimes it’s impermanent, impersonal. But other aspects of the itinerant life can be the source of a sense of home.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

A short history of wellbeing through exercise

| Kate Carter

During the current pandemic, billions of people around the world are confined to home, making mood-boosting daily exercise indispensable. Discover how humans from the ancient Greeks onwards have realised the benefits of physical activity.

  • Article
  • Article

Acting, disableism and inclusive theatre

| Jamie HaleKirsten IrvingPatrick Baldwin

Deaf theatre director Jenny Sealey discusses inclusivity, community and the resilience of disabled actors.

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  • Article

Disability, education and prejudice

| Ruth BlueHollie Chastain

In the 1960s and 1970s, thalidomide survivors had to fight for a proper education. If they weren’t brought up in institutions, they were often viewed as objects of curiosity, encountering verbal and sometimes physical abuse, both at school and in the world beyond.

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We are from here, but not from here

| JJ Bola

Novelist JJ Bola on being a refugee with a British passport and what that placenessless means for a search for identity.

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  • Article

Homesick for planet Earth

| Gail TolleyMaria Rivans

Find out how homesick astronauts spend their free time, and how recreating home cooking from freeze-dried ingredients can cheer them all up.

  • Article
  • Article

What Black women do when the NHS fails them

| Sabrina-Maria AndersonMaïa WalcottBlack Ballad

Sabrina-Maria Anderson explores misogynoir – hatred of Black women – within the NHS, and how women like her are consequently turning to other sources of medical support.

  • Article
  • Article

Social isolation and the search for sanctuary

| Furaha AsaniGhazal ZargarBenjamin Gilbert

Threatened with deportation, Furaha Asani turned to her church for support. Met with silence and disinterest, she walked away, but argues that churches should do much more for migrants.

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  • Article

Caring for our Disabled daughter in lockdown

| Jane HolmesCarrie Ravenscroft

Jane Holmes talks about the challenges of caring for her Disabled daughter while working and trying to stay safe during the pandemic.

  • Article
  • Article

Fleeing fear, defying prejudice

| Sedra Al-Yousef

As teenage refugee Sedra Al-Yousef grappled with rebuilding her life and education in another country, at the same time she used compassion and humanity to demolish populist anti-refugee myths.

  • Article
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The art of soundproof design

| Kristin Hohenadel

Too much noise is more than annoying – it has serious negative effects on health and cognitive ability. Find out how designers and architects are mitigating the downsides of sound.

  • Photo story
  • Photo story

Obesity and Britain’s boys

| Abbie Trayler-Smith

Six young men and six experiences of being overweight. Find out how these boys and their loved ones feel about this stigmatising issue.

  • Article
  • Article

The evil eye and social anxiety

| Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh

The ‘look’ of the evil eye is believed to bring bad luck, illness or even death. This ancient curse might be deliberate, inflicted with an envious glare, or it could be accidental, the result of undue attention or excessive praise.

  • Article
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Intelligence testing, race and eugenics

| Nazlin BhimaniGergo Varga

Specious ideas and assumptions about intelligence that were born during the great flourishing of eugenics well over 100 years ago still inform the British education system today, as Nazlin Bhimani reveals.

  • Article
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The shifting shape of language

| Jessica AndrewsRuaridh Lever-Hogg

Author Jessica Andrews explores how her brother’s deafness has influenced her relationship with words and the world.

  • Book extract
  • Book extract

Why make-believe matters

| Michael RosenSteven Pocock

Michael Rosen explores the point of play, and reveals why we should all do a little more daydreaming.

  • Article
  • Article

My rainforest upbringing

| Nataly Allasi CanalesCat O’Neil

In the introduction to her serial, research biologist Nataly Allasi Canales charts the influences that led her to passion for preserving the species of the Peruvian Amazon, where she spent her childhood.

  • Article
  • Article

Written on my body

| David JesudasonFranklyn Rodgers

Scars mean David Jesudason has never enjoyed seeing his reflection. Recounting the stories behind the marks on his face and body, he finds the only one that symbolises hope and happiness.

  • Photo story
  • Photo story

‘My Hair Is Not…’

| Inés Yearwood-Sanchez

Eight Black people talk about their relationship with their hair – their hairstyle history, their experiences, and how they decided to have natural hair.

  • Article
  • Article

Nurturing my autistic, gender-questioning child

| Jude LaxJack Lax

As mother of an autistic child who questions her gender, Jude Lax describes cherishing her growing daughter as she explores her identity.