Political leaders need a grand narrative – Rishi Sunak’s is a story of decline: During a January 2023 speech on “building a better future” the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, insisted that “we can change our country’s character. We can reverse the creeping acceptance of a narrative of decline.” Months later, this narrative has manifested in …
Siya Kolisi: the South African rugby star’s story offers valuable lessons in resilience: In the world of sports, some stories transcend the boundaries of the game and become symbolic of something greater. Siya Kolisi’s journey from an adverse upbringing to becoming captain of a World Cup-winning South African rugby team, the Springboks, is one such …
The Canterville Ghost: Oscar Wilde’s ghost story gets new life in this funny and stylish animated adaptation: Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost feels quite ghostly itself, doomed to walk the earth through its many adaptations. There have been at least 14 television versions, the most recent in 2021, and it has not been long since …
Wegovy has arrived in the UK: the story of the weight-loss jab so far: In February 2021, The Conversation reported on a trial for a new weight-loss drug, called semaglutide, that was being hailed in the media as a “gamechanger”. Gamechanger is a word used far too often by journalists to describe things that are, …
Totally Wired by Paul Gorman is a deft potted history of the music press – but it doesn’t tell the whole story: Musicians have long had their careers captured for posterity by the music press. Yet, the spotlight has rarely been turned around to the journalists who write these stories. Totally Wired is a vivid …
Beyond The Story: BTS biography is a humanising, literary portrayal of K-pop’s world-leading stars: In a climate of ever-increasing competition, it’s a real feat when any band makes it to their tenth anniversary bigger than ever. Such is the case with K-pop group BTS (short for bangtan sonyeondan, “bulletproof boy scouts” in Korean). The band …
City liveability rankings tell a biased story — our research in Dhaka explains why: Like many fast-growing megacities in Asia and Africa, Dhaka, in Bangladesh, is often stigmatised as one of the most unliveable cities on earth, due to overcrowding, slums and substandard housing. The Bangladeshi capital boasts around 23 million residents. In the 2023 …
Would better buildings help fix the NHS? The story of Britain’s hospitals, from grand designs to counting the costs: When St Helier Hospital in Carshalton opened just before the second world war, it was regarded as the last word in modernist design. Imperial War Museum Archives via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC Outpatients at St James’ …
Unicorns in southern Africa: the fascinating story behind one-horned creatures in rock art: One-horned rain-animal from a site near Indwe in the Eastern Cape province. Image courtesy David M. Witelson One-horned creatures are found in myths around the world. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations …
Women’s secret war: the inside story of how the US military sent female soldiers on covert combat missions to Afghanistan: US marines with a female engagement team in southern Helmand province, Afghanistan, in May 2012. Cpl. Meghan Gonzales/DVIDS A US Army handbook from 2011 opens one of its chapters with a line from Rudyard Kipling’s …
How archaeologists reconstructed a Roman gateway to tell the story of Britain’s invasion: Visitors to Richborough Roman fort near Sandwich in east Kent will now find a major new addition to the site: a reconstructed Roman fort gateway in timber, flanked by stretches of an earthwork rampart. The gate has been built on the site …
The Super Mario Bros. Movie: don’t watch it for the story but for how it successfully represents gameplay: The first videogame I ever played was the arcade game Donkey Kong. Released in 1981, it took us into a blocky-looking world where a carpenter in overalls raced along platforms and up ladders in a building site …
Tetris movie: why the story of the game’s origins is legendary: There have been numerous iterations of Tetris since the game was first introduced but the iconic shapes never change. Downloadsource.es/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA On my bedside cabinet, next to my alarm clock, is a jar holding my cufflink collection. One set contains seven odd cufflinks. …
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AI will soon become impossible for humans to comprehend – the story of neural networks tells us why: Shutterstock/Valentyn640 In 1956, during a year-long trip to London and in his early 20s, the mathematician and theoretical biologist Jack D. Cowan visited Wilfred Taylor and his strange new “learning machine”. On his arrival he was baffled …
How sport became the new religion – a 200-year story of society’s ‘great conversion’: 'Cradle-to-grave indoctrination': West Ham United fans before an FA Cup match at Kidderminster Harriers in February 2022. Carl Recine/Reuters/Alamy “Jesus Christ was a sportsman.” Or so claimed a preacher at one of the regular sporting services that were held throughout the …
‘When he’s not on drugs, he’s a good person’ – one community’s story of meth use and domestic violence: Meth, control and violence have shaped, but not defined, the lives of women like Misty. Photo by Jared Ragland One night, after five days of smoking meth, Misty* heard a voice. It just said ‘BOOM! Get …
The incredible story of how east African culture shaped the music of a state in India: Siddi children performing Dance Dhamaal in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. Courtesy Sayan Dey, CC BY-SA The term Siddi refers to Afro-Indians – Africans who mixed with Indians through marriage and relationships. Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in …