How the state runs business in China
A story examining the intersection between business and politics in China.
‘State capture’: the corruption investigation that has shaken South Africa
A look at a major corruption scandal in South Africa.
The invention of Essex: how a county became a caricature
A story about Essex, seen through the lens of social and political change in post-war Britain.
The Anthropocene epoch: have we entered a new phase of planetary history?
An assessment of whether human intervention on planet Earth now merits it’s own geological epoch. The 23 billion chickens living on the planet at any one time have a part to play.
Who killed the prime minister? The unsolved murder that still haunts Sweden
The Swedish prime minister was gunned down with a single shot to the back whilst walking in the street with his wife. The murder took place in 1986, but has never been solved.
The real story behind Harper Lee’s lost true crime book
The story behind Harper Lee’s unpublished project The Reverend, a true crime book about a serial killer from Alabama. The piece outlines Lee’s keen urge to get to the truth of matters, and separate that truth from opinion. This was a concern that amongst other things led her to lament Truman Capote’s approach in a letter to The New Yorker’s fact-checker – “Truman’s having long ago put fact out of business had made me despair of ‘factual’ accounts of anything.”
Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands
The tale of the epochal, fierce business war between increasingly sophisticated hand dryers and paper towels for primacy in the public bathroom.
‘It’s genuine, you know?’: why the online influencer industry is going ‘authentic’
Behind the scenes in the world of influencers, where “authenticity” is the new watchword.
How to move a masterpiece: the secret business of shipping priceless artworks
Behind the scenes in the business of fine art shipping.
The Aldi effect: how one discount supermarket transformed the way Britain shops
A look at the rise of the German discount supermarket chain that has disrupted Britain’s grocery market.