For six months in 2023, I worked as an ambulance call-taker at Triple Zero Victoria, then known as the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Esta). I had always been deeply curious about the job and my own experiences taught me that one kind, reassuring voice – or its opposite – can change the way you process…
The game on the pitch at Super Bowl on Sunday night was only half the story. As the Philadelphia Eagles led 24-0 over the Kansas City Chiefs, a pair of jeans worn by the American rapper and Pulitzer prize winner Kendrick Lamar for his half-time performance commanded their own crowd online. Variously identified as bootcut,…
A lot of patients who come to see Dr Jocelyn Fitzgerald – an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services at the University of Pittsburgh in the division of urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery – didn’t know that her specialty even existed. “I like to joke, but actually I’m very serious, that the reason…
In 2023, I was in the top 0.05% of Spotify listeners of Manic Street Preachers. It was one song on repeat. I would bet good money that there is no one in the world who has listened to their cover of Burt Bacharach’s and Hal David’s Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head as much as me….
In my continued quest for self-optimisation via silly wellness stuff, I was intrigued by a Vogue article on a new morning routine: 30/30/30. That’s 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking, then 30 minutes of “low-intensity” cardio. Apparently, it has “gained serious traction on social media”. Why not try it out? Well, for a…
While I rearranged my T-shirt drawer instead of writing this newsletter, I mulled over a couple of gently relevant stats: more than a million tonnes of new textiles are sold each year in the UK, while at the same time, almost 730,000 tonnes of textiles are sent to landfill or incinerated. Looking at my swill…