A list of good reads
- The Cut unpacks one of the ‘least believable’ tabloid rumours—that Barack Obama has split up with Michelle, and is now dating Jennifer Aniston!
- Caity Weaver in New York Times (splainer gift link) provides an in-depth look at how her bid to quit sugar became a journey into hell.
- Having trouble sleeping this month? Bustle suggests you may have ‘winter insomnia’.
- Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) analyses how our understanding of minor injuries is evolving. The secret ingredient for treating sprains, strains and bruises? Natural healing.
- Vanessa A Seifert in Aeon pens an essay challenging the dismissive attitude towards the ‘poor cousin’ of the sciences—chemistry.
- Washington Post (splainer gift link) offers a passionate defence of ‘sad beige’, ‘millennial grey’ and other neutral colours that are commonly used and yet derided.
- Charlotte Rogers in Public Books breaks down the communication disorder aphasia, asking what is gained when one loses the ability to speak, write or understand language.
- Fergal Keane in BBC News has a powerful personal account on living with PTSD and his 30 years’ search for the secret to happiness. Hint: there’s no secret…
- Vox deconstructs the term ‘act of God’, offering a bleak reminder of how human activity influences natural disasters—in light of the Los Angeles wildfires.
- Scroll has a fascinating history lesson on a lesser known front of the 1971 India-Pakistan war—Brasilia!
- The Guardian has a cool deep dive on the ‘eccentric geniuses’ behind the world of tarot—including secret societies.
- Also in The Guardian: an illuminating photo album on Ladakh’s ice stupas acting as an ingenious solution to water scarcity.
- Good Food Movement ponders on the past, present and future of foraging in Sarjapura—a small town outside Bangalore affected by urbanisation.
- JSTOR Daily enters the ladies’ loo, arguing that gender-segregated bathrooms tell a story about who is and is not welcome in public life.
