Newsletter Version: Meet the Attention Activists
Can I have your attention, please? Professor D. Graham Burnett would like it, too. Graham is an historian of tech and science… and through his research has become so passionate about reclaiming our attention from the grip of tech giants and addictive digital media that he has started a new movement. Alongside some colleagues, friends, […]
Meet the Attention Activists
Can I have your attention, please? Professor Graham Burnett would like it, too. Graham is an historian of tech and science… and through his research has become so passionate about reclaiming our attention from the grip of tech giants that he has started a new movement. Alongside some colleagues, friends, artists, activists and other researchers… […]
The Story: how Darren and Dell could change British politics
Darren doesn’t much care for people like me. He doesn’t trust the mainstream media, and although he was happy to have a chat with me, he did wonder how I might misrepresent our conversation. I met Darren on the terraced street he calls home, in Gorton, in Greater Manchester. At the end of the street […]
Why do we feel nostalgic? Newsletter version
Last night, after bathing Molly and putting her to bed, I got stuck into one of my favourite pastimes: taking the bins out. What was once a grubby chore has become a rare moment of solace. It’s just me and the night sky… and the bins. I pause for a moment after I’ve delivered the […]
Why do we feel nostalgia?
Have you spotted this trend online of people reminiscing about, and pining for, 2016? People have been posting pictures of themselves a decade ago, getting back into the music, and using filters that have a 2016 feel about them. It’s curious on a few counts: 2016 wasn’t really that long ago, with much of characters […]
Inside the Freemasons HQ
A few weeks ago, I got an unexpected invitation. I was talking on my Times Radio show about Freemasons – one of the oldest fraternal organisations in the world. Membership is secretive, but high profile Masons have included members of the Royal Family, Prime Ministers, business leaders and least fourteen Presidents. The Freemasons have often […]
Introducing… History Undone
I have a new show to introduce you to. Well, it’s not new. It’s well established. Very well established. In fact it’s so well established, with such a loyal and dedicated fanbase, that I have been more nervous about taking on this show than almost anything I have done before. It’s called History Undone, and […]
Inside the religious sect that believes Trump was anointed by God
Times Radio’s Jo Crawford travelled to Nebraska to investigate a fringe evangelical sect that believes the US is in the midst of a spiritual war and Donald Trump was anointed by God. She joined me on Times Radio to take us into her story.
Charlie Veitch and the New Media
“Grab your popcorn and enjoy your front row seat to the collapse of modern Britain” Last week, I wrote about how a dystopian view of modern Britain is thriving on TikTok. Some people are being served video-after-video on their heavily curated For You feed that depicts a world where everything is broken and everyone is […]
Newsletter Version: TikTok’s Dystopian Britain
Last week, on a trip to North America, I had some strange conversations. On more than one occasion, I spoke to somebody who seemed to pity that I had to live in Britain. They were concerned for me. They were anxious about my safety. They told me they’d heard that Britain was a lawless hellhole… […]