Stories

We tell stories about health and human experience. Our words and pictures make connections, provoke new thinking and share lived experiences.

  • Article

Aphasia and drawing elephants

When Thomas Parkinson investigated the history of “speech science”, he discovered an unexpected link between empire, elephants and aphasia.

Part of Inside Our Collections

  • Long read

Our complicated love affair with light

Sunlight is essential, but our relationship with artificial light is less clear cut. It expands what’s possible; it also obscures and polices. In this long read, Lauren Collee pits light against night, and reveals the shady places in between.

  • Serial
Part6

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’.

Part of The Breastmilk Market
  • Serial
Part5

Communities of cross-feeders

A desire to help leads some women to “cross-feed” – breastfeed other parents’ babies for free. Alev Scott delves into the emotions behind this altruistic act.

Part of The Breastmilk Market
  • Serial
Part4

The work of wet-nursing

Many of us know that in the past, babies were sometimes nourished by wet-nurses. But, perhaps surprisingly, the practice continues today – and the milk recipients are not only babies.

Part of The Breastmilk Market

Exploring LGBTQ+ experiences

LGBTQ+ writers and artists examine subjects ranging from asexual joy and queer comedy to trans masculinity and lesbian aversion therapy.

  • Serial

Ace Joy

In this comic focusing on asexuality, Katie Green illustrates the queer joy of viewing one’s orientation – and oneself – as complete and whole.

  • Photo story

Trans masculinity on the record

Curator of the Museum of Transology in Brighton E-J Scott tells the story behind a few of the 250 objects from the collection, and the powerful effect they had on him as he put trans lives on the record.

  • Article

Mixed heritage lesbian couples and fertility treatment

For a lesbian couple who want to share their different cultural heritages with their child, fertility treatment can get very complicated.

  • Article

In celebration of LGBTQ+ comedy

At school, homophobic jokes made Ella Braidwood feel uncomfortable and ashamed. Fast-forward to today’s inclusive comedy scene, and her very different feelings of hope and happiness.

  • Article

The shocking ‘treatment’ to make lesbians straight

Being a lesbian has never been a crime in the UK, but 50 years ago, some psychologists experimented with treatments to try to ‘cure’ women of their orientation. Find out what this involved.

  • In pictures

Gay men in London, from persecution to Pride

Ben Gazur’s whistle-stop tour of the history of gay men in London takes us from 14th-century persecution to modern Pride events.

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Comics

Explore new perspectives on bodies, brains and health with our guest comic artists.

Books

We publish thought-provoking books exploring health and human experiences.

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  • Serial
Part3

Trading breastmilk with men

When Alev Scott advertised her milk for sale, she was inundated with messages from men keen to satisfy sexual fetishes. Here she finds out who they are, and why women sell to them.

Part of The Breastmilk Market
  • Serial
Part2

Sharing breastmilk with parents

Alev Scott donated her frozen breastmilk to a hospital milk bank, but she was curious about other routes. Here she explores commercial operations and informal private arrangements.

Part of The Breastmilk Market
  • Serial
Part1

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.

Part of The Breastmilk Market
  • Book extract

The shape of thought

Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s description of the moment in 1887 when he saw a brain cell for the first time never fails to move neuroscientist Richard Wingate to tears. Here he captures that enduring sense of wonder.

  • In pictures

Milkmaids and the image of purity

Once the ultimate symbol of both sexual virtue and product purity, the milkmaid’s wholesome image gradually became tainted as industrialisation eroded the rural idyll.

Part of Inside Our Collections
  • Book extract

Why we need to decolonise healthcare

In this extract from ‘Divided’, Annabel Sowemimo describes the way her nana’s stroke and hospitalisation heightened her awareness of the need for us all to advocate for the health of others.

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