Society & Culture

How do you say “apostasy” in Polish?

A magazine in Poland explores the increasingly common phenomenon of believers formally abandoning their Catholic faith While some media outlets in Western Europe talk of a “quiet revival” of the Christian faith,...

Ashes to ashes

Read how the discovery of 17 tombs from the Iron Age has sparked the curiosity of archaeologists in a small village of rural Navarre We are used to thinking of...

A Christian book boom in Norway

A new wave of writing reflects rising interest in Christianity amid uncertainty and political contestation In a reported feature for the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen, journalist Mylena Kifle explores a sharp rise...

When greed erases cultural memory

A battle over the fate of the iconic Théâtre de Beyrouth has laid bare a broken legal system that consistently privileges investor greed over the cultural memory of a city that...

Where stars are made

How decorative star-shaped piñatas sustain livelihoods and ritual life in Mexico In this reported piece for Contralínea, journalist Fernanda Monroy takes us into the family workshops and neighbourhood markets of Mexico...

The “knowing child” against the cult of innocence

A meditation on how socialist Yugoslavia’s radical tradition of children’s literature was erased after 1990, and why reviving the figure of the “knowing child” matters urgently today. Written by cultural...

A lament for Yemen’s cultural renaissance

How a rich civic culture was built in Yemen in the 1970s and after, and how that legacy has been dismantled since the Houthi takeover, as archives, institutions, and freedoms...

Who moved my job?

As global tech giants shed jobs and AI transforms workflows, India’s IT industry faces a historic reckoning India’s once unshakeable IT industry, the country’s largest private employer and a backbone...

Jakarta: The price of belonging in Indonesia’s restless city

When a mother and daughter discover their local cemetery expanding for profit, their grief unearths a grim truth: in restless Jakarta, every breath—and every burial—exacts a heavy toll....

Hanoi: The scent of memory in Vietnam’s river-nested capital

Here, memory isn't seen; it is inhaled. As concrete swallows ancient rivers, one writer maps her vanishing motherland through the thick, fleeting fragrances of a city in constant flux....

Guadalajara: The shifting hearbeat of Mexico’s neighborhoods

The scent of barbacoa mingles with the glow of nomad laptops. As foreign dollars flood the streets, a vibrant kaleidoscope of Mexican tradition faces its quiet demolition....

Yakutsk: Soft communal resistance between talks, ghosts and fake Labubus

The frost arrived early, foreshadowing the quiet end to public education. Resistance here isn't shouted; it's whispered through counterfeit Labubu toys and the wry irony of survivalist memes....

Sign in

Join our movement

Become a member now to access exclusive content and get each new issue straight to your door.

Open-Minded

Register to receive:  

Language Curious

Everything in Open-Minded plus:

Polyglot

Everything in Language Curious plus:

Founding Member

Everything in Polyglot plus:

+ The opportunity to support journalism, writing and translation around the world (let us know if you want to give more!)