Europe

The Digital Death Spiral

What happens when an influencer turns their mental illness and euthanasia plans into viral content? In this unsettling longread, Maud Effting and Haro Kraak investigate the rise of Ghanaian-British influencer...

Freedom by Numbers

More than 200 court rulings in 2024 cite an algorithm that classifies foreign prisoners without ties as high risk, even if they lack other risk factors In 1993, two beekeepers...

With food waste, the personal is political

In a personal but wide-ranging article for the Romanian online platform Scena9, the journalist Oana Filip explores the thorny issue of food waste. While the piece focuses on Filip’s home...

The Quiet Revolution of Intergenerational Care

How older Spanish hosts and migrant youth are reshaping what ‘home’ means, one shared kitchen at a time What does it mean to be seen, not as a threat or...

On the life-art of Translation

An interview with Jen Calleja—one of Britain’s leading translators—and Gregor Hens—one of Germany’s leading writers—about their new books, and their career-long collaboration Photographs by Sapphire Stewart Norman R Shapiro famously...

Le glossaire tardif: Dictionaire de l’Academie francaise

Dictionnaire de l’Académie françaiseTome 4Éditions Fayard, 2025, 800 pages Reviewed by Maximilliane Leuschner Pomp and circumstance rule the Académie française, an eminent council of forty emerald-clad French literati (“the Immortals”) cast...

Who owns baklava?

Turkish-born anthropologist Ellie Romain Ors explores the implications of gastro-nationalism through the humble sweet pastry In the rich folds of baklava – a dessert that is as intricate in construction...

The Girl Who Was Called “Everybody’s Property”

Iceland, despite its feminist reputation, systematically fails rape victims, shielding perpetrators and disbelieving survivors Widely praised as a global leader in gender equality, Iceland consistently tops rankings of the world’s...

What’s the Polish word for ‘beekeeping’?

At Lithuania’s first Mead Festival, the co-founder of the Polish-Lithuanian Beekeeping Brotherhood initiative reflects on the community-building and intercultural elements of the centuries-old tradition of honeymaking. In the pine forests...

Quiet Guardians of Venice’s Living Waters

In this intimate portrait of the sandolo and the boatmen who preserve Venice’s oldest waterborne tradition, Carola Cappellari and Lavinia Nocelli explore its fading yet resilient legacy of craft, rhythm...

Seeing red

How the crimson blazer became a status symbol in 1990s Russia What do roosters have to do with fashion? And how did Tolstoy’s perfume smell? Fashion historian Marina Skulskaya traces...

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