Outside the system
Column / Investigation: The Upside Down
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Upside Down
John Mitchinson explains why Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is the wrong role model for Big Tech
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The Upside Down – Citizen Ben
Any attempt to calculate the specific gravity of America at 250 should take time out to reflect on the life and legacy of Benjamin Franklin.
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The Upside Down – Eye of Newt
Most of us know that animals such as ibis, jackals, and crocodiles were venerated by the Ancient Egyptians as avatars for their deities. But the pre-eminence of Heqet, the frog-headed bringer of life, comes as a surprise.
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The Upside Down – Smart Moves
One of the things that grates about the obsessive media opinionising over artificial intelligence is the general lack of knowledge about our own actual human intelligence.
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The Upside Down – Fiat Lux
In contemplating the mysteries of light, modern science and mysticism share some interesting convergences.
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The Upside Down – Not-So-Simple Gifts
The turbulent sex-fuelled origin story of the Shaker aesthetic
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The Upside Down – Moonstruck
The moon loomed large in my Christmas, hanging above the frozen fields like a luminous icy disc.
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The Upside Down – Small is Beautiful
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to see and describe bacteria – one of the key moments in the history of science, with implications that are still being unravelled.
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The Upside Down – Mad, Sad and Glorious to Know
Despite the longstanding belief that our mental health takes a dive in the run-up to Christmas, the published evidence seems to contradict it.
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The Upside Down – The Bear that Wouldn’t Die
Do the tiny aquatic creatures called tardigrades hold the secret to eternal life?
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The Upside Down – Old Nick’s Game
The Upside Down – Old Nick’s Game John Mitchinson considers whether theDevil still has some lessons to teach us Perhaps it’s the times we’re living through, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the Devil of late. I’ve always been intrigued by the number of times the Devil appears in English place names: once you…
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The Upside Down: Death Metal
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores how the long slow history of lead poisoning teaches us a salutary lesson
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The Upside Down: For Whom the Bell Tolls
John Mitchinson explores the strangely complex method behind the music of the bells
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The Upside Down: Vegetable Leather
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores the unnatural history of natural rubber
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The Upside Down: Mummers The Word
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores why so many Christmas rituals boil down to fun and money
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The Upside Down: The War We Never Mention
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores how a country house party in Oxfordshire helped invent democracy
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The Upside Down: The Surprisingly Racy History of Lettuce
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson reflects on why the old lettuce leaf is not so dull (Liz Truss aside)
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The Upside Down: Confessions of a Pig-Keeper
John Mitchinson explores why he chooses to raise and then consume man’s second best friend
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The Upside Down: Bee the Change
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores why we should be listening to the honey bees
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The Upside Down: Jeremy Bentham – Auto-Icon for the People
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson remembers the original social justice warrior
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The Upside Down: ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’
John Mitchinson explores how a 600-year-old poem by an unknown poet can reset our moral compass
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The Upside Down: The Song of the Nightingale Carries A Deeper Message
To sit and listen to a nightingale is to be transported to somewhere that is both quintessentially English but also impossibly rich and exotic, writes John Mitchinson
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The Upside Down: That’s The Way to Do It!
John Mitchinson explores why are we so fascinated by the odious, uncancellable, Mr Punch
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The Upside Down: Seeing Is Predicting
John Mitchinson explores why perception is as much about what we know as what we see
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The Upside Down: History Is More than Its Set Pieces
John Mitchinson explores how the lessons of the Crimean War still resonate today
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The Upside Down: A Tree for Life
John Mitchinson explores why the dark and mysterious yew tree is a symbol of both life and death
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The Upside Down: Why We Should Raise a Glass to the Real Father Christmas
John Mitchinson explores the attributes of the character that long pre-dates ‘Santa Claus’
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The Upside Down: Saint Cuthbert – Wonder Worker
John Mitchinson reflects on why the life of Saint Cuthbert still has important things to teach us
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The Upside Down: Operation Shylock
John Mitchinson on why Shakespeare’s most problematic play still has plenty to teach us
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The Upside Down: Why Our Rituals of Death Need Re-Thinking
John Mitchinson reflects on what he learned about the ‘baffling presence of absence’ when his father died in his arms
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The Upside Down: Perchance to Dream
John Mitchinson explores why we need to spend a third of our life asleep
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The Upside Down: The Ruffian on the Stair
For this month’s column, John Mitchinson pens a personal reflection on why knowing about what kills us makes it no less mysterious
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The Upside Down: The 18th Century’s Ultimate #BookToker
John Mitchinson explores what the novelist behind a 1759 masterpiece can teach us about the importance of marketing as a publisher
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The Upside Down: Why We Get the Green Man Wrong
John Mitchinson explores a presence not a character, lurking on the edge of our technology-addled consciousness…
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The Upside Down: Homo Loquens – Why We Learned to Talk
It’s not hard to see how the evolution of cooperation and the evolution of language are mutually reinforcing, writes John Mitchinson
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The Upside Down: Why We Underestimate Fungi at Our Peril
Perhaps it is the atavistic fear of something growing inside us and consuming us from within that makes us feel so ambivalent towards fungi, writes John Mitchinson
