Yuri Rytkheu is a Chukcha who grew up on the Russian side of the Bering Strait. I admit a shamedly ignorant and orientalist fascination for nomadic shamanistic peoples in remote places. …

This is easy and quick to read, and pleasingly acerbic. The characters are loathesome, the putdowns are eviscerating, but the endless misanthropy wears thin. It’s a bit of a morality play — the nicest times are reserved for the adults who are least nasty — and I was kind of left wondering what the point of the whole thing was. Maybe that’s because I’m just not that enthralled by cruelty, fúcked up aristos, or the dark arts of throwing shade. I guess it must make more sense in the context of the series…

The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James, was published in 1902. It is a formative book for me and its metaphors have profoundly shaped several strands of my thinking. As the title suggests, James collected different accounts of religious experiences from across cultures and looked for what was common…

Last week researchers from Thomas Jefferson University published a paper that suggested that Polymerase Theta can use RNA to change DNA. What does this mean? Why is this interesting? Do you know how DNA works? Do you understand natural selection and evolution? I thought I did. But this just adds…

William Davies wrote a book called The Happiness Industry: how government and big business sold us well being. I have only read reviews, interviews, and discussion, but this is the story I take away: If people can manage their happiness through yoga, breathing, CBT, CBD, SSRIs, organic vegetables, dairy substitutes…

In the study of history there’s this idea of ‘emplotment’, or ‘narrativity’. The ‘linguistic turn’ changed the study of history from Real Research of True Things That Happened to a postmodern relativist discourse where the truth could never be known. It could not be known because we are not time…

I must confess that I have not read The Alchemist so maybe I’m about to do it an unforgiveable disservice. I have seen it lying around, though, and I have dipped into it. I have had backpackers I’ve met in hot cafés highly rated by the Lonely Planet extol its…

You may not have read the bible recently, but you know the story of the garden of Eden in Genesis. Adam and Eve are naked in a wonderful place created by God, YHWH. He tells them not to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good…

There are questions about about how private health data should be used. Data held in GP medical records will soon be collected by a new service called General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection. …