A list of good reads

• The Telegraph pays tribute to the great Bengali traveler who was roaming the ends of the earth long before it was fashionable.
• Wired magazine lists the best 18 upcoming series of 2022, while Indian Express has the Bollywood releases you can look forward to in the new year.
• Economist lays out the 22 emerging technologies to look out for in 2022.
• A Paste magazine writer attends ‘Two Decades of Shrek: An Online Academic Symposium’—and the results are entertaining.
• Don’t feel like immersing yourself in news just yet? How about Mint Lounge’s fiction special—an excellent collection of short stories by Manoranjan Byapari, Aruni Kashyap and others.
• Quartz unpacks the secret of having a meaningful conversation.
• The Hindu has an important read on the ecological costs of our unrestrained quest for solar energy.
• TIME magazine looks at synthetic alcohol—which promises a merry high without the health downsides—and why experts are sceptical about it.
• Is this neverending pandemic getting you down? TIME also offers five science-backed ways to help you feel better.
• Want to stick to your new year resolutions? Inverse has three psychological hacks that can help you do just that.
• New Yorker takes a deep dive into the history and technology of… popcorn!
• Is Matrix a trans film? Some critics think so, but The Conversation is not so sure.
• Economists Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera in Scroll look at six problems caused by Aadhaar—and why they need to be urgently remedied.