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The Grokkist letter Once a month. Danu's letter, what's alive in the community, the Snackables. The Press New writing as it's published, and letters from the editor.

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Move meSoma IslesSnackables

🦁 Animals Talk About David Attenborough

The BBC gathered vox pops from the public about why they love David Attenborough, then handed them to Aardman Animations, who put the sentiments in the mouths of the animals who appear in his nature documentaries. Very cute — a small, warm tribute to a life spent helping us love the living

Danu Poyner

5 May 2024 · 1 minute

The BBC gathered vox pops from the public about why they love David Attenborough, then handed them to Aardman Animations, who put the sentiments in the mouths of the animals who appear in his nature documentaries. Very cute — a small, warm tribute to a life spent helping us love the living world.

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Surprise meWild Margin

🗞️ The Myth of the Informed Citizen

Nicholas Carr traces a recurring fantasy of modern life: that each new communication technology, from the telegraph to the internet, would produce wiser citizens and healthier democracies — and how each expansion of information instead bred new forms of confusion and overload. At its centr

Danu Poyner · 1 min

GroundedSoma Isles

🎨 Sculpting with Tree Sap and Time

A 15-minute documentary following Kyoto artist Mine Tanigawa as she creates sculptures from urushi lacquer, a material used in Japan for over 7,000 years. Less a 'making of' than a portrait of attention: raw tree sap transformed through layer upon layer of colour, polishing and curing, eac

Danu Poyner · 1 min

GroundedEntangled Vale

👁️ Iris Murdoch and Love as a Way of Seeing

Matthew Crawford revisits Iris Murdoch as a philosopher pushing back against thin, hyper-rational models of human life. For Murdoch, morality isn't mainly abstract reasoning but attention — the difficult practice of seeing the world, other people and oneself more clearly. Her radical claim

Danu Poyner · 1 min