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SubscriptionsSection: Culture
History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity.
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‘The Strangers’ Case? The Government’s Approach to Human Dignity, Asylum Seekers and a Lesson from Shakespeare’
We must all examine our values and actions in relation to vulnerable populations, writes Iain Overton
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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
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‘Hanif Kureishi and the Touch of Forced Intimacy’
Stefano Goodman explains how impairment can lead to sudden physical reliance on strangers – and how this shapes our personalities
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Disabled Life: Crippled by Confusion, Banished by Barriers
Penny Pepper wears her bloody, beaten heart on her tattered sleeve in this powerful snapshot of the constraints imposed upon disabled people
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Six Ways Ukraine is Winning – Clubbing in a War Zone: Kyiv’s Music Scene
In a country at war, the simple club night has become a symbol of resistance, a source of mental rejuvenation and even a way to help bring victory closer. Violence often visits the capital Kyiv, in short bursts maybe once or twice a week in the form of cruise missiles and kamikaze drones that send…
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Six Ways Ukraine is Winning: Ukrainian Culture Now Means More than Sport, Eurovision or Chornobyl
Having spent the last year here as a refugee, Maria Romanenko sees Ukrainian music, literature, sport and drama booming in the UK, but wonders when academic recognition will come. Published in conjunction with the Kyiv Post
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Manufacturing Discontent: The 15-Minute City Conspiracy
Otto English takes a deep dive into the chilling world of a big new theory that has caught the eye of libertarian influencers, extremists and members of the public alike
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‘The Roald Dahl Affair is a Lesson in the Culture War of Nostalgia’
If voters can’t be scared by the threat of the ‘woke left’ devaluing their house – they might be scared by it devaluing their childhood, writes Graham Williamson
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Debate Over AI in Journalism: ‘Can Machines Replace Human Reporters?’
In a dialogue with ChatGPT, Iain Overton explores whether truth and meaning can really be left to machines
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‘Kipling Out, Hemingway In? Why the Dahl Edits Fails on Diversity’
The decision to alter Roald Dahl’s texts to make them more inclusive misses the mark – and ignores wider failures of diversity in children’s publishing, writes Sian Norris
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The Upside Down: Why the Tuskegee Experiment Still Resonates
John Mitchinson explores the lasting impact of a controversial American study steeped in the institutional racism which continues to permeate the country today
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The Fundamental Right to Intimacy
Do disabled people have sex? Of course we do, writes Penny Pepper. Why are you so surprised?
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The Weakness of Strongmen: Do We Want Charisma or Competence?
Matthew Gwyther looks at the public’s contradictory ideas of leadership and how women are (on the whole) confounding them
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Let’s Continue to Talk About Crimea
At the heart of any resolution of the war in Ukraine is the issue of the Crimean Tatars. Maria Romanenko explains how a play, part of the UK/Ukraine season of culture, explores their subjugation and resistance
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The Upside Down: Why Folk Songs Still Mean Something
The longer we look at this traditional music, the more we see that its very malleability is its strength and its challenge, writes John Mitchinson
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A Letter to Nowhere: ‘Like Many Disabled People, I’m Fearful’
Penny Pepper pens an open letter to her Conservative MP, explaining why the NHS crisis is personal and political for those ‘living in the real world’
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The White Knuckle Ride of 2022
From Partygate to Trussomics, the death of the Monarch, and the humiliation of Vladimir Putin, OttoEnglish’s review of the year takes us on a roller coaster of major fails and meteoric falls
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In Neo-Dickensian Britain Politicians Should Heed the Ghost of Marley
There’s a reason Dickens’ Christmas Carol is a perennial festive favourite, says A V Deggar – the Malthusian ideas of Scrooge are still with us
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‘Who’s Virginia Woolf Afraid Of?’
Stephen Unwin explores how the famed author’s views about disability were typical of a growing intellectual endorsement of the dangerous ideology of eugenics in the early 20th century
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‘Behave Properly, Papa is Around’: The Relationship Indian Women Share with their Fathers
Shreya Bansal explores how patriarchy in Indian households impacts the experience of growing up as daughters in the country
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The Upside Down: Why We Still Celebrate Christmas with Dickens
John Mitchinson explores the enduring relevance of the “little Christmas book” the author penned in 1843
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‘Pity Porn on Santa’s Knees’
Penny Pepper reflects on what the festive season means for her, as politicians and the media continue to marginalise the creation of new cultural narratives around disability
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‘Swamping’, ‘Cockroaches’, ‘Invasion’: How Language Shapes our View of Migration
Dan Clayton looks at a rising tide of martial, dehumanising and manipulative metaphors over asylum seekers and migrants in the UK
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Irony: The Velvet Glove of Colonialism?
Did the Greeks invent irony? Rahila Gupta makes the case for Britain’s mastery and ownership of the device
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Red Tory to Blue Labour – How Spiked and Unherd are Keeping National Populism Alive
Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar look at the reach and influence of an unlikely coalition of ex-Trotskyites, traditionalist Tories and communitarian Labourites
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Why We Are Not ‘Albanian Criminals’ Arriving On Your Shores
Albanian citizen Gresa Hasa explains why she wants an apology from the UK Government
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Brexit’s Global Trade is Fit for Georgian England: Devoid of Ethical Responsibility
Iain Overton reflects on the Government’s policy of Free Trade Deals with countries regardless of their human rights
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Peter Tatchell: ‘We Do Now Have the Right to Love Who We Wish But there Are Still Battles to Fight’
The career of the civil rights activist is celebrated in a new Netflix documentary. To mark its release, he spoke to Adrian Goldberg for the Byline Times Podcast
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The Upside Down: Men Are From Earth, So Are Women
John Mitchinson explores how our brains reflect our lives not our genitals John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus was the highest-selling non-fiction title of the 1990s. With sales of over 15 million copies across 40 languages, it created its own publishing ecosystem: Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps;…
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Nadine Dorries at War with Channel 4
The former Culture Secretary’s plans for privatisation of the self-funding public service broadcaster have already cost £2m, but they appear to be based on a mountain of misunderstandings
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The Toxin of Televisuality
As the democratic dangers posed by social media are exposed, the degradation of our politics by the small screen should not be forgotten, writes AC Grayling
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The Identity Trap: No One Narrative Can Encompass the Different Dimensions of Diversity
As Britain welcomes its first Asian Prime Minister, Hardeep Matharu explores how our pluralistic society is reflected in the multiplicity of its migrant experience – as demonstrated by the different reactions to Rishi Sunak’s rise
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‘A World Cup Like No Other’
The whiff that lingered at the announcement that Qatar would host the 2022 tournament has never faded, writes Gary Gowers
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‘Where’s the World Cup Fever?’
As the famous tournament kicks off this weekend in Qatar, Adrian Goldberg explores why this year’s event is attracting a more muted excitement
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‘Whose Opera is it Anyway?’
Composer Howard Goodall unpicks Art Council England’s announcement that it will be redistributing £50 million of funding for the English National Opera outside of London and the south-east
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Being An Employer of Your Own Care
Penny Pepper has spent more than 20 years balancing the books, hiring and firing, and eyeing up spreadsheets – like many disabled people, all in the name of ‘Direct Payment’
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‘Musk’s Twitter Buy Makes No Sense – Unless It’s Part of Something Bigger’
Brexit and Trump were initially seen as jokes, but the new owner of the social media giant could pose a serious threat to democracy – and a boon for Vladimir Putin, writes David Troy
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‘I Hope the Rise of Sweden’s Right Won’t Normalise Aggression Against Black Women’
Novelist and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström talks to Sian Norris about the rise of Sweden’s far-right, and the experiences of women of colour in the Nordic country
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The Upside Down: Why Apples are Odder than they Look
John Mitchinson explores the diversity within the fruit of knowledge
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Bogged Down with the Eternal Fight for the Perfect Convenience
Why is it still not widely understood that disabled people have the right to decent toilet facilities just like anyone else? asks Penny Pepper
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How Russia Feeds the Factory of Unthinking
From Ukrainians being mainly Jewish to allegations of black magic, hypnotism and colonising Africa, Oleksiy Pluzhnyk explores the Kremlin’s exploitation of the conspiratorial mindset
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British Identity: The Empire’s Spectacle
The mourning of the Queen’s death has been, largely unconsciously, a nation in a state of ‘appearing’, writes Joe Haward
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Royal Ideology and the Future of Monarchy
Florence Scott reflects on why it is time to discuss the underpinnings of the British monarchy – Christianity, wealth, class, imperialism
