I love a good long-form article that teases apart not only the multiple factors that contribute to an issue – which is why The Atlantic is one of my favourite sources for a good read (along with Wired, The Economist, Mother Jones, Meanjin). Of course, I don’t have to agree with an article to enjoy it; to paraphrase Malcolm Gladwell the point of writing is not to supply the answers but to make the readers think.
A look at clinicians prescribing treatments that don’t work – a complicated issue involving fast-tracked regulations, KPIs for procedures and an influx of data that doctors can’t keep up with.
A simple, thorough explanation on the differences between cardiac arrest, heart attack and heart failure.
A discussion of the evolution of what constitutes wisdom, as philosophy and poetry once considered the height of intelligence has been overtaken by modern science and technology – and what they still have to offer each other in present day.
The highlight of this piece was the discussion on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its origins in conversations she had overheard between her husband Percy Shelley and the poet Lord Byron.
Jane Friedman’s blog hosts a guest post from Welz about her response to a diagnosis of early-onset Parkinson’s. A natural creative, she threw herself into more projects to cope with the distractions of medical treatments and symptoms – and then she discovered the characters of what would become her novel, Circus of the Queens.
Journalists are expected to go head-first into the worst parts of life – natural disasters, war zones, domestic violence incidents, murder trials, protests, wars – and yet they receive very little psychological support in dealing with this trauma. Even those who rarely leave the newsroom are subject to cyber abuse that can spiral into IRL danger. A confronting look at what it’s like to work in a traumatising job where you have to supply your own support.