The Conversation

Here’s how to clean your clothes more sustainably By Judith Weis Microplastics are turning up everywhere, from remote mountain tops to deep ocean trenches. They also are in many ...

What was the mantua? By Sarah Bendall If you’ve watched many period dramas, you’ve probably seen a mantua before. Originating in France in the 1670s, this women’s ...

By Sara Byala A new book called Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African tells the story of how the world’s most famous carbonated drink conquered the continent. It’s a ...

By Clio Doyle When I started my podcast, Studies in Taylor Swift, in the spring of 2021, I felt that I was simultaneously helping to invent, and trying to catch up ...

By Chris Hann Everywhere in Europe, rituals to mark the winter solstice have long been focused on the Christian narrative of the birth of Jesus. Yet in the ancient Julian ...

By Colin John Irwin There is no peace in the Middle East because there is no effective peace process. This isn’t because the Palestinians and Israelis do not know ...

By Richard Hornsey, Anna Greenwood and Hilary Ingram Last winter, UK retailers reported record sales of hot water bottles as consumers looked to cut their heating costs as the average ...

Catherine Spooner goes from from all-black to pastels Goth is the subculture that never died – or more precisely, perhaps, remains undead. The persistence of the subculture’s style is due ...

By Shelley Brunt I was recently among a curious Melbourne audience who turned out to see a hologram of the long-dead soprano Maria Callas singing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. ...

Taste depends on nature and nurture say Nicholas Archer and Astrid Poelman You’re out for dinner with a bunch of friends, one of whom orders pizza with anchovies and ...

By Hazel Flight No confectionery symbolises the holidays quite like gingerbread. While most of us associate gingerbread with edible houses and spiced loaves of cake-like bread, it’s also increasingly ...

Disney’s ghostly new Christmas tale evokes the eerie qualities of Britain’s abandoned second world war airfields By Sam Edwards From Charles Dickens to MR James, Christmas has a ...

By Tom F. Wright The Oxford English Dictionary has selected rizz as its word of 2023. If you’ve heard of it at all, you’ll probably have heard that it ...

Here’s how parents can deal with it By Michelle Cowley-Cunningham As Christmas approaches, many children experience the “gimme-gimmes” and write a list of toys that they hope Santa will ...

By Rick Sarre, If you were, just for example, a slightly portly, older gent in a red and white suit who soon plans to travel around the globe delivering presents, ...

Armin Langer on how the keffiyeh – a practical garment used for protection against the desert sun – became a symbol of Palestinian identity After Israel declared war on Hamas following the ...

By Bradley Smith and Mia Cobb For many of us, dogs are our best friends. But have you wondered what would happen to your dog if we suddenly disappeared? Can ...

But who comes second matters By Thomas Gift Former president Donald Trump has pitched himself as the inevitable Republican nominee for the White House in 2024. So much so that he’...

By Dominic Broomfield-McHugh Eighty years ago this week, Judy Garland walked into an MGM studio and recorded Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas for the first time. It was written ...

By Yasmine Probst Brown, red, black and riceberry are healthier? Throughout history, rice has remained an important food staple. It supports the nutritional needs of more than half of the ...

By Elena Koning But more controlled research is needed. Psychedelic research has surged in recent years, sparking enthusiasm among clinicians, investors and the general public. Clinical trials are indicating transformative ...

Is it ever a good thing? By Aaron Nicholas Have you ever encountered a subpar hotel breakfast while on holiday? You don’t really like the food choices on offer, ...

By Amelia Hadfield Declarations of the end of an era are made only in exceptional circumstances. Henry Kissinger’s death is one of them. Kissinger was born into a Jewish ...

By Sean Campbell During a concert in Dublin in 2022, Bob Dylan paused between songs to pay tribute to another singer-songwriter who was in attendance that night. “I want to say ...