Who Pulls the Strings
We say we live in democracies, and claim to cherish our liberties, but the institutions, the algorithms and the money that shape our days, largely sit beyond our reach. “The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist,” wrote Murray Bookchin, “is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.” These are stories about who really holds power and the mechanisms they use to exercise control over our lives. In doing so, they ask why do we often feel helpless to change our circumstances or direction of travel, and what might genuine agency look like?
The Five Threads
The threads are connected. So are the answers.
Knowing Ourselves
Have we lost our sense of fun and adventure? Our inner and outer worlds are reflections of each other. These are stories about why we are increasingly unwell, both mentally and physically, and what healing might actually ask of us. From our personal psychologies to the workings of our bodies, from the philosophies we adopt to our approach to work and rest, this is less of a wellness section than a look at a much bigger question: what does it take to flourish, and what stands in the way?
The Five Threads
The threads are connected. So are the answers.
Who Owns Tomorrow
We aren’t born equal, but should we strive for a world where future generations might be? Our access to resources ultimately determines our quality of life; and our use of them, the lives of those to come. These are stories about who owns and has access to the “commons” of the 21st century: land, water, and air, but also education, information and technology. From wealth piling up in fewer hands to the right to roam and the data taken from us by corporations, they ask what can be sold off, and what should belong to all of us?
The Five Threads
The threads are connected. So are the answers.
Who Pulls the Strings
We say we live in democracies, and claim to cherish our liberties, but the institutions, the algorithms and the money that shape our days, largely sit beyond our reach. “The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist,” wrote Murray Bookchin, “is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.” These are stories about who really holds power and the mechanisms they use to exercise control over our lives. In doing so, they ask why do we often feel helpless to change our circumstances or direction of travel, and what might genuine agency look like?
The Five Threads
The threads are connected. So are the answers.
The Tribes We Make
We are tribal creatures, but do the systems we live in – or under – make us more prone to conflict and division? Often our ability to peacefully coexist alongside others depends less on what we argue about, and more on how we go about arguing. These are stories focused on the divides we draw between ourselves. By looking at what it means to belong to a certain class, generation, identity, faith, sexuality or gender, they also explore the deeper question of what unites us in our shared humanity – and who profits from us forgetting it?
The Five Threads
The threads are connected. So are the answers.
Knowing the Earth
“I know the Earth, and I am sad,” wrote Pablo Neruda. To know is to re-member, and so knowing the Earth implies make it whole again. These are stories about our relationship with nature, how we came to imagine ourselves apart from it, and what that estrangement has cost us and the planet. From our interactions with other animals to our own consciousness, from our nurturing instincts to toxic masculinity, they ask can a species that to grieve for the destruction it has wrought go on to save the natural world?