Philosophy Science Psychology Society Culture

DonateNewsletter

Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations

Architecture Art Biography and memoir Dance and theatre Design and fashion Film and visual culture Food and drink Home Music Nature and landscape Rituals and celebrations Sports and games Stories and literature Subcultures Travel

A smiling elderly man in a cluttered electronics shop with various gadgets and boxes surrounding him.

essay

Home

The joy of clutter

The world sees Japan as a paragon of minimalism. But its hidden clutter culture shows that ‘more’ can be as magical as ‘less’

Matt Alt

Woman standing at the edge of a foggy forest valley, with dense green trees and mist enveloping the background. She is wearing a shawl and bag.

essay

Anthropology

A glimpse of the world’s heart

I wanted to visit Colombia’s sacred mountains. But there are some places we cannot go – and some things we cannot know

Nick Hunt

Silhouetted man standing by a large window with a view of Saturn’s rings in a dimly lit, elegant restaurant.

video

Future of technology

Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system

6 minutes

“Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ triptych depicting paradise, earthly pleasures, and hell with a multitude of intricately detailed figures.”

essay

Art

Earthly delights

Noticing first one then many parrots, peacocks, owls and more birds in Old Master paintings taught me to truly see the world

Leanne Ogasawara

A vintage photograph of a woman with a hookah, sitting on a couch and dressed in traditional attire, looking into the lens. The colorful image has a worn, aged effect.

video

History of technology

See the Mediterranean as it was captured in some of the earliest surviving photographs

20 minutes

A scary figure in a fur-lined hood with a skeletal face and sharp teeth, in black and white against a dark background.

video

Rituals and celebrations

Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition

13 minutes

Watercolour of two large statues in water under a pastel sky, with a small group of people in a boat and cows on the shore in the foreground.

essay

The ancient world

Wanderlust of the ancients

The Roman Empire enabled an early version of globalisation that offered travellers adventure, novelty and opportunity

Fabio Fernandes

A large eagle with outspread wings is flying over a lush green forest, showcasing its feathers in detail against the blurred backdrop.

video

Biology

Journey deep into the Philippine forest in search of the world’s largest, rarest eagle

95 minutes

Ancient glass vessel with engraved text and geometric patterns, featuring the word “OSTRIARIA” prominently. The glass is clear with a greyish tint.

essay

The ancient world

Our trip to Antioch

Ancient Romans bought mementos to commemorate their travels. These speak eloquently of their world, if we care to listen

Maggie Popkin

A large dog rests on cobblestone with three people in the background talking near a map sign and a viewing telescope under a cloudy sky.

video

Animals and humans

What the ancient city of Kars looks like from the perspective of its stray dogs

9 minutes

A black-and-white photograph of a donkey grazing near old stone by a beach, with mountains in the distance.

essay

Travel

Dashing to nowhere

D H Lawrence’s restless travels in Sardinia were a quest for self-knowledge. The real island slipped beneath his notice

William Atkins

Auto rickshaw and black taxi on a road, with drivers conversing through the windows under a clear sky.

video

Travel

A postcard from Mumbai, where there’s poetry in getting from A to B

5 minutes

Person sitting on a mountain ridge beside a backpack and a red flag on a stone cairn, overlooking snowy peaks under a clear blue sky.

essay

Travel

The end of travel

Driven by the need for a storied life, I relished the opportunity for endless travel. Is that a moment in time, now over?

Henry Wismayer

A female police officer drinks from a coconut while standing next to a vendor with a cart full of coconuts.

video

Travel

‘My people!’ A Trinidadian’s love letter to his island, just before its 1962 independence

17 minutes

Dozens of small boats filled with people row along a busy river, with a densely built cityscape and a pink tower in the background.

essay

Spirituality

Where the rivers meet

Pilgrims have long sought in India’s holiest city an antidote to the modern West, but Varanasi is more dream than reality

Manini Sheker

Elderly man playing a traditional bamboo musical instrument with another man in the background.

video

Home

The rhythms of rural Thailand, where both food and music are sourced from the ground

15 minutes

A rustic house near a lake with snow-capped mountains in the background under a cloudy sky.

video

Home

Eccentrics, artists and Luddites find community on a remote Scottish peninsula

26 minutes

An elderly woman in a blue cardigan and apron sits outside a rustic building with a mug, sign, and window box flowers.

video

Meaning and the good life

Maria’s life work is counting the pilgrims passing by on Spain’s Camino de Santiago

16 minutes

Antique Japanese map, hand-drawn and coloured, showing various regions and islands with Japanese text and illustrations.

video

Global history

‘Farcical situations’ and culture clashes – when Japan met modern Europe in 1862

18 minutes

Blurry image of aeroplanes at an airport, with a hazy, indistinct look and soft, streaked lines suggesting motion or low light.

essay

Travel

Fly with me

Jet-age glamour was more than just aesthetic: its promise of motionless movement reshaped perception of time and space

Vanessa R Schwartz

A cruise ship deck with people sunbathing on loungers around a pool, featuring a waterfall and ocean wake in the background.

video

Pleasure and pain

The ritualised excess of life aboard a cruise ship is tragic and parodic by turns

10 minutes

Period painting of a sailor sitting against a rope, holding it with one hand, with two other sailors in the background doing various tasks.

essay

Oceans and water

Who was Jack Tar?

He was a patriot and a prisoner, a delegate and a drunk; circling the globe when few Englishmen ever left their home counties

Stephen Taylor

Four people in traditional Greenlandic warm clothing walking on ice towards a massive iceberg, with snowy mountains in the background and cloudy skies.

essay

Anthropology

We are wayfinders

Navigation and spatial awareness sustained humans for tens of thousands of years. Have we lost the trail in modern times?

Michael Bond

Two older men and a group of children gathered around and on top of a dark green car with a white van in the background.

video

Travel

Postcards from Vladimirskoye – the sleepy town near the ‘Russian Atlantis’

9 minutes