Standpoint Magazine: Ironies of Ideology
On a recent visit to the Royal Academy, I noticed a tall, elegantly dressed man who spent quite some time admiring a square object attached to the wall. I wondered … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Of lesbians and constipation
Public opinion on journalists has always been influenced by how they – or should I say we – are represented in novels, films and popular culture. In her PhD-thesis-turned-book, Sarah … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: A diaspora of pain and joy
In this, his first novel, Gerald Jacobs takes us to the Baghdad of the early 20th century, where Jews made up a quarter of the population, and lived amicably alongside … Continue reading
Jewish Chronicle: Forty Autumns
Nina Willner was only five years old when she learnt that the reason she had never met her grandparents, aunts and uncles was because they were trapped behind “a curtain” … Continue reading
Money Observer: Why China isn’t too bothered by Trump’s threats
China dropped out of the headlines in the second half of 2016 as fears of a hard economic landing receded. But the nation was catapulted back into the spotlight over … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Golden Gogol
A new production of The Nose, Shostakovich’s opera based on Gogol’s mesmerisingly surreal short story, was part of this season at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. A Tarkovsky … Continue reading
Money Observer: Bull and bear perspectives following Trump’s victory
The outcome liberals and markets have feared has materialised, as Donald Trump is elected president of the United States after a vicious, personality-driven campaign. The two front-runners were the least … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: How to date a feminist
There were ten men in an audience of about a hundred at How To Date a Feminist, a new play by Samantha Ellis (the author of How To Be a Heroine) … Continue reading
Jewish Chronicle: An interview with Deborah Levy
Hot Milk, the book for which Deborah Levy has been nominated for this year’s Man Booker Prize, explores hypochondria and the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. It is … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Big flat lies
In Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science, twenty-eight academics refute some of the most pervasive myths about science. Isaac Newton discovered gravity, when he sat in the orchard and … Continue reading
Money Observer: On fine wine, rare stamps and coins
Fine wine and rare stamps have been used to pass on wealth for many generations. Janet Yellen, who cautiously keeps interest rates down at the US Federal Reserve, owns a … Continue reading
Money Observer: Pensions policy unfairly skewed towards baby boomers, says former minister
On 2 March 2016 the Work and Pensions Committee took evidence from two former ministers and experts in the ‘intergenerational fairness’ debate, David Willetts and Steve Webb. The session was … Continue reading
Standpoint: Clearing the Fog of War
“The Horror Of The Ukraine”: The man-made famine in 1932-33, part of a wider famine across the USSR, killed millions. Through conversations with the people he meets in Ukraine, … Continue reading
The Economist’s 1843: The malleability of our minds
A new show about consciousness takes a terrifying look at how scientists, philosophers and artists deal with “the hard problem” In the 17th century, Descartes famously argued that the body … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Whose London is it anyway?
Tucked away between office buildings by Euston station is where I found the Camden People’s Theatre. It’s a little place with colourful bunting, a cheerful selection of chairs and flowery … Continue reading
Financial Times: How to create a golden age
What makes a genius? Since at least the 19th century, some have said it is down to genetics, while others have argued that upbringing is decisive. More recently, the idea … Continue reading
Money Observer: Hands Off My Cappuccino
A certain piece of advice has been circulating in personal finance discussions like a pesky fly. Now that it has landed on Tube posters, it is safe to call it … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: The Story Of The Short Story
When short stories were still widely published in magazines, they had the capacity to react to unfolding events, writes Philip Hensher, the novelist and critic who edited these two volumes. … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Further Adventures
One summer afternoon in 1862, the mathematician Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) took the daughters of his dean at Christ Church, Oxford, on a boat trip down the Thames. He entertained … Continue reading
Money Observer: Is it time to invest in biotech?
Drug prices pose an ethical dilemma. On the one hand, treatments should be affordable to those who need them, but on the other, companies will have to finance many failed … Continue reading
Financial Times: ‘All You Can Lose is Your Heart’ by KayLynn Deveney
The photographs of storybook homes are a fleeting vision of an American dream that aspired to a ranch of one’s own “Storybook ranch houses”, built in the 1950s and … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Does philosophy have to be obscure?
I recently went to a public lecture at LSE hosted by the Forum for European Philosophy. The discussion was entitled “Does philosophy have to be obscure?” It struck me as … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Found In Translation
Guy de Maupassant is considered the greatest short story writer in French literature. He is often said to have defined the modern short story and influenced the likes of Chekhov, … Continue reading
MoneyWeek: Lithium use set to soar
Lithium plays a growing role in the global economy: it’s a crucial component in the batteries of our phones, gadgets and electric cars. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile hold about 70% … Continue reading
MoneyWeek: Japan’s lesson in “people’s QE” for Jeremy Corbyn
The idea of “people’s QE” has reignited interest in radical monetary policy. Marina Gerner looks at the lessons from Japan’s version of people’s QE – the voucher schemes of the … Continue reading
MoneyWeek: Scandal at Volkswagen
Volkswagen’s shares tumbled by around a third following revelations by the US Environmental Protection Agency that the German car giant cheated on emissions tests in America. The company’s diesel cars … Continue reading
MoneyWeek: Britain snuggles up to China
British Chancellor George Osborne is on a five-day trade mission to China, in the hope of turning the UK into China’s second-biggest trading partner by 2025. The US is currently … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Where there is no why
Like the tales told to Dante by the souls he meets in The Divine Comedy, literature provides us with mirrors to discover our own secret features, Alberto Manguel argues. The … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Israel’s Impish Ice-Breaker
The first time I came across the Israeli short-story writer Etgar Keret was through a comment he made about Franz Kafka. When Kafka died in 1924, he left his diaries, … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: No strings attached
In Heinrich von Kleist’s essay The Puppet Theatre, published in 1810, the character Mr C wanders through a public park, where he meets the recently appointed first dancer of the … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Engage neutral
In his previous book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr argued that the Internet diminishes our power to concentrate and contemplate. Now he turns his eye to automation: “If you want to … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Underrated – Jackie Mason
He may be America’s greatest living comedian, but if you relied on British television you might never have heard of Jackie Mason. In this country, he must be the most … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: Saul Bellow’s Introspection
Notes on a Voice: Marina Gerner pins down the work of a Nobel prize-winning novelist who revealed the inside through the outside “All I had to do was be there … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: How to be an intellectual
“Journalism and scholarship usually inhabit different planets”, Jeffrey J. Williams writes. Journalists and academics have different gods and languages. While journalists favour speed, paying homage to Hermes, scholars look to … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Wired But Not Secured
In a Simpsons episode entitled “Specs and the City”, the evil owner of Springfield’s nuclear power plant Mr Burns has a surprise for his employees. He presents them with a pair of … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: The Medium Isn’t Always the Message
“We have just seen the civilised world gathered as one family around a common sick bed, hope and fear alternately fluctuating in unison the world over as hopeful or … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Book Review of Simon Blackburn’s “Mirror Mirror”
Simon Blackburn credits L’Oréal’s slogan, “because you’re worth it”, as a source of outrage and inspiration for Mirror, Mirror: The uses and abuses of self-love. Drawing on the myth on Narcissus, … Continue reading
Media & Policy Project: In Apps We Trust?
Wading through a sea of data in Ofcom’s Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes 2014 Report, I stumbled across some surprising findings on apps. This year is the first time apps were covered … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Beards need not apply
Women who engage in public speaking are seen as “freakish androgynes”, argued classics professor Mary Beard in her recent London Review of Books speech at the British Library. Throughout the centuries … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Book Review of Martha Nussbaum’s “Political Emotions”
“The public culture needs to be nourished and sustained by something that lies deep in the human heart and taps its most powerful sentiments, including both passion and humor”, Martha … Continue reading
First Things Magazine: Taking Art Off the Street – Museums are giving street art a home, but at what cost?
“Street art—you mean vandalism? No, thank you.” That was the response of a friend when I invited him to join me at the Museum of the City of New York … Continue reading
Philosophy Now Magazine: What did Mary know?
Imagine a girl called Mary. She is a brilliant neuroscientist and a world expert on colour vision. But because she grew up entirely in a black and white room, she … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Phoney Freedom
When telephones were still a rare possession, the French artist Jean-Louis Forain decided to install a telephone in his town house. Wanting to surprise his good friend Edgar Degas with … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: The CEO and the Not-So-Smart-Quote
Sometimes a chief executive must hope that an unwise quote from a while back would just curl up and die. Seven years ago, Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: The Latest Beauty Product: Concern
On Sunday, the cosmetics company Dove released a three-minute video on YouTube called “Dove Real Beauty Sketches”. By Friday it had nearly 9m views. The video features a former forensic artist from the … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: A Women’s Library? No, Thanks
There has been a “Women’s Library” in London since 1926, but this May it moves from its own premises in Aldgate to the fourth floor of the London School of … Continue reading
Media & Policy Project: Theatre Review of “Enquirer” at the Barbican
“The motive of all journalists is very similar: all we want is for people to pick up the newspaper in the morning and choke on their marmalade,” explains one of … Continue reading
New York Observer: Interviews on student loan debt
Marina Gerner spoke with Thomas Blum, Vice President of Administration at Sarah Lawrence College and Roseanne Ackerley, Director of Financial Aid at Hebrew Union College, about the financial woes of students today and … Continue reading
The Beaver: Michael Sandel the public philosopher
The first thought that popped into my head when Michael Sandel walked onto the stage to deliver his lecture at the LSE was that he looks nothing like Mr Burns! … Continue reading
Money Observer: Here’s what Brexit is doing to our diet
As we know, inflation is upon us, and it’s on an upward trend. Once a month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) determines the price of a basket – think … Continue reading
Money Observer: How about making trainers more sustainable
I have never heard a laugh as loud as the one let out by my local cobbler when I brought him my old trainers. ‘We don’t re-heel trainers, nobody does,’ … Continue reading
Money Observer: What the travel industry tells us about the state of globalisation
Many UK-listed companies reported profits this year, but certain businesses did not: notably travel and leisure sector firms such as Easyjet. After six consecutive years, Easyjet’s growth success story has … Continue reading
Money Observer: On gold
In Greek mythology, King Midas famously craved the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. At first he was delighted to turn a twig into gold, but once he … Continue reading
Money Observer: Why our politicians should be able to price a potato
It’s often said that politicians are so detached they don’t even know the price of a pint of milk or a loaf of bread. In 1992, then-president of the United … Continue reading
