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135 results
  • Article
  • Article

The pain that punished feminists

| Jaipreet VirdiAnne Howeson

In a society that viewed getting the vote, and pursuing an education and career, as unnatural goals for women, the pain of endometriosis was viewed as nature’s retribution.

  • Interview
  • Interview

Inside the minds of A R Hopwood and Honor Beddard

| Gwendolyn SmithThomas S G Farnetti

The curators of ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ reveal the stories behind the exhibits, and the intriguing truths the show confronts us with.

  • Interview
  • Interview

Inside the mind of Somewhere in Between’s curator, Laurie Britton Newell

| Gwendolyn Smith

The exhibition's curator shares her secrets.

  • Article
  • Article

Devilry and doom in 1666

| Charlotte SleighGergo Varga

Disastrous events and a significant combination of numbers signalled the end – or perhaps a new beginning – in 1666. But for some, this feverish period fuelled unprecedented inventiveness and development.

  • Article
  • Article

Death and our digital ghosts

| Chris MuganSteven Pocock

When we die, our data lives on. And as companies are increasingly spotting money-making opportunities from digital legacies, now could be the time to think about – and control – yours.

  • Article
  • Article

Manipulating the evidence with deepfake technology

| A R Hopwood

How can you be sure that the person speaking on the screen is genuine? Find out how sophisticated digital manipulation is blurring the boundaries between real and ‘deepfake’.

  • Article
  • Article

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.

  • Article
  • Article

When you can’t return home

| Gail TolleyMaria Rivans

Migrants and refugees cannot choose to return home, so homesickness becomes a profound and long-lasting feeling. This powerful force infuses migrant cultures, and is rarely given the serious attention it warrants.

  • Article
  • Article

Lonely bodies are hungry for more than turkey

| Dr Fay Bound Alberti

At Christmas, many charities provide dinners for homeless or isolated people. Food is central to festive celebrations, but it can also satisfy our hunger for belonging and community.

  • Article
  • Article

Synaesthesia, or when senses overlap

| Lydia Ruffles

What’s it like to see heartbeats, taste Tube stations or hear paintings?

  • Book extract
  • Book extract

A dispatch from the frontiers of man and machine

| Harry ParkerSteven Pocock

Harry Parker’s life changed overnight when he stepped on a bomb and lost his legs. He argues that being an amputee doesn’t make him an outlier; we are all hybrid.

  • Article
  • Article

Reassuring ghosts and haunted houses

| Christine Ro

Explore the perversely comforting appeal of a ghost in the house.

  • Article
  • Article

Keeping death close

| Lauren EntwistleShay Azzari

Scattering her father’s ashes, Lauren Entwistle found herself longing for something physical that proved he once was a living, breathing person. Here she reflects on the objects that help us to grieve and remember.

  • Article
  • Article

Diagnosed bipolar, prescribed lithium

| Laura Grace SimpkinsAlice BoydMatjaž Krivic

In the first part of a series looking into lithium, Laura Grace Simpkins recounts the beginning of her troubled relationship with this mysterious drug.

  • Article
  • Article

How homesickness inspires art

| Gail TolleyMaria Rivans

Gail Tolley looks at homesickness through the eyes of three contemporary artists and finds powerful new themes of identity and connection.

  • Article
  • Article

Where hoarding and dementia meet

| Georgie EvansNicole Coffield

As Grandma’s dementia advanced, the things she’d amassed became more important: they consoled her. Clearing safe walkways through the piles became the first – though unwelcome – compromise.

  • Article
  • Article

Native Americans through the 19th-century lens

| Allison C Meier

The stories behind Rinehart's photographs may not be as black and white as they first appear.

  • Article
  • Article

Do you see what I see?

| Kirsten Riley

Is reality actually what you see, or just an elaborate illusion?

  • Article
  • Article

The boundaries that shape my writing

| Caroline ButterwickKimberley Burrows

While writing about her life can be enormously helpful, Caroline Butterwick needs to regularly reassess her boundaries. Here she explores the line between what’s public and what’s private, and how porous that can be.

  • Article
  • Article

When contemporary dance meets dyspraxia

| Emma WarrenCamilla Greenwell

Discover why a rare neurological condition meant an enthusiastic club-night dancer struggled with formal dance classes. And how persisting with those classes paid off.

  • Article
  • Article

How shame makes us sick

| Lucia Osborne-CrowleyEduardo Rubio

The fight-or-flight response can have long-term consequences for our bodies if left unchecked. Lucia Osborne-Crowley investigates how shame and trauma are connected, and how both can lead to chronic ill health.

  • Article
  • Article

The anatomy of a brain dissection

| Moheb CostandiBenjamin Gilbert

Dissecting the brain after death not only helps confirm a diagnosis, but it can also teach us so much more about the symptoms and causes of brain diseases and how to treat them.

  • Article
  • Article

Notes upon arrival

| Bhanu KapilMaïa Walcott

In an effort to feel at home back in the country of her birth, poet Bhanu Kapil recognises the small revelations of nature in a chilly UK spring as a way to reconnect.

  • Article
  • Article

My mother, and metaphors of a pandemic

| Sandy Di YuSteven Pocock

A pandemic. Two members of one family, living thousands of miles apart. And months of calls and messages that helped them grow closer.

  • Article
  • Article

A quick guide to drugs, the brain and brain chemistry

| Barry J Gibb

Discover some of the major chemicals that govern activity in our brains, how they work, and why certain drugs have the effects they do.