Yothu Yindi’s Tribal Voice
The songs of Tribal Voice offered hope and strength to generations of Yolŋu people and gave audiences elsewhere a rare insight into the resolve and aspirations of Indigenous Australia.
Racist supernatural myths about African architecture
The belief that ancient Egyptians needed help from supernatural beings to built the Giza pyramids relies, unavoidably, on racism and colonial attitudes.
South Africa’s first generation of free jazz
When they arrived in Europe in the early 1960s, South African jazz outfit the Blue Notes revolutionised the London scene. Half a century later, their music is coming home in several new projects.
Your organic T-shirt is doomed to end up in a dump
Climate change needs to be front and centre in fashion, which is one of the most polluting industries. Fashion magazines can help consumers to embrace more sustainable lifestyles.
How Nazis twisted the swastika into hate symbol
The swastika, an ancient and innocent symbol in many cultures for hundreds of years, now represents racial hatred. Should the swastika be banned in North America as it is in Germany?
IT haunts with unbridled terrors of childhood
Clowns were even scarier when you were young.
Why Spike Lee’s 25th Hour is the most enduring film about 9/11
Lee's film about a drug dealer facing jail started shooting before the World Trade Centre attacks – and it captures New York through its period of trauma.
How fashion adapted to climate change – in the Little Ice Age
While today we sweat, early modern Europeans froze. Furs to the rescue.
In defense of HBO’s counterfactual ‘Confederate’
Those calling it slavery fan fiction are ignoring the long, nuanced tradition of articles and films that wonder what would have happened if the South had won.
Musical ‘crate digging’ across Africa
The search for old or new African sounds is based around a nostalgia culture that is endemic to Anglo-American popular music.
Why crime writers irk forensic scientists
If only DNA samples and microfibres made crimes as easy to solve as on CSI.
Musine Kokalari: a lost story of defiance
Musine Kokalari was imprisoned and tortured by the communist regime in Albania in 1946 for standing up for free speech.
My favourite album: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love
In Hounds of Love, Kate Bush’s extraordinary vocal performances are the musical equivalent of speaking in tongues. There are few more thrilling, literate, and ambitious works of popular music.
From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Hellboy: the problem of Hollywood ‘whitewashing’
Why whiteness became the 'norm'.
What creativity really is - and why schools need it
Technology requires humanity to innovate at a faster pace, but it also hampers true creative thinking. The good news? Nurturing creativity in children is easier than most people think.
Growing old disgracefully: DC comics’ Harley Quinn turns 25
She started life as a bit-part sidekick to The Joker but is now a multi-platform anti-hero.
Worth reading: Bananas, dwarves, salt and love
A fly scientist ponders the genetics of bananas and dwarves, women and love in reviews of his favourite fiction and non-fiction books.
Why S-Town invites empathy not voyeurism
The podcast S-Town has been both rapturously reviewed and described as 'morally indefensible' for its intrusion into the life of a mentally ill man. But it validates, rather than violates, a fierce, flawed life.
Beyond Atomic Blonde: Cinema’s history of violent women
From Kill Bill to The Hunger Games, women have been kicking butt in films (and in real life) forever. But we still act surprised when they do, because deep down we still see women as the passive sex.
Inconvenient truths about An Inconvenient Truth
Eleven years after its release, An Inconvenient Truth, the iconic climate documentary, has spawned a sequel. But did the original do more harm than good by polarizing Americans on climate change?
