What are you talking about?

The English is a strange and wonderful thing. The most common cause for complaint is the number of different sounds certain letter clusters seem to make in direct contradiction

01.2023 | Alistair Duff

West Cork by Audible

West Cork, named after the Irish region in which the events take place, is the latest in a series of true crime stories developed for podcast.

12.2022 | Alistair Duff

The recall of the wild city

We’ve seen our owl twice. The first time was during a winter dusk: he drifted across our vista from the balcony of our apartment in Johannesburg.

12.2022 | Carlos Amato

Because I said so

“The attacks against Trump have taught me something about myself,” one Donald Trump supporter was quoted as saying..

11.2022 | Debby Edelstein

Nigeria’s national treasure

He may have famously stated: “If you don’t like my story, write your own”, but Chinua Achebe certainly never lacked an audience and was instrumental in placing a spotlight on African literature.

11.2022 | Ingrid Wood

The future of corporate fashion after lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdowns have sent shockwaves of change rippling throughout the world.

10.2022 | Jack Calland

Populism: a human face of technological progress

Populism became one of the most widely used political terms in 2016 after Donald Trump was elected to the White House and the UK electorate voted ‘GO’ in the Brexit referendum.

10.2022 | Jon Stilwell

Central banks of the forest

It recently came as a surprise to learn that the world’s largest living organism is neither a plant nor an animal. Rather it is somewhere in between a plant and an insect.

10.2022 | Jon Stilwell

Why Korean Dramas are better than Hollywood Dramas

I was introduced to K-dramas by a friend of mine last year, but I wasn’t ready. Besides the language barrier and the tiredness from reading the subtitles, how would you understand all the different cultural nuances? Nope, not doing that, I decided.

09.2022 | Seymone Leigh Moodley

Humanity on the move

Humanity on the move

09.2022 | Daniel Heintz

London Fields

London Fields is Amis’ sixth novel and remains the most recognised of his work. The book took six years to complete, a long time by anyone’s standards.

08.2022 | Alistair Duff

Will Chile’s dark history be eclipsed by a brighter future?

For travellers with a taste for history and a curiosity about the future, this is an ideal time to visit Chile.

08.2022 | Lesley Stone

Art museums I have visited

The final study of French post-impressionist artist Georges Seurat’s most famous work, A Sunday Afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte. It’s part of the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

08.2022 | Charmain Naidoo

The future is animated

Our desire to see into the future is as old as it is obvious: with prescience comes the ability to avoid major catastrophes, as well as capitalise on boons.

07.2022 | Lee Blake

Stoicism as a business philosophy

Have you read? We have all lived through it. The locations vary, maybe in a boardroom, a cocktail party, a business pitch, even just drinks with colleagues at work.

07.2022 | Alistair Duff

The origin of the African jackal traced back 5 million years to the West Coast of SA

The discovery of fossils from a new species of canid, on the West Coast of South Africa, has unearthed the African origins of the crafty jackal - tracing its history on the continent back 5 million years ago.

07.2022 | Adrian Ephraim

The big deal about small nations

Are tiny societies happier than big ones? Plucky Cape Verde and many other thriving little nations seem to confirm that hypothesis. But the case for subdividing the world’s broken big countries is much harder to make …

06.2022 | Carlos Amato

Crowdfunding as a serious business model

An increasing number of large corporates see crowdfunding as a way to bring in extra money to finance innovation and boost their customer engagement.

06.2022 | Nicole Wills

The 4^th Industrial Revolution Series: The internet of things

“Imagine a world”, I would say, “where your bathroom scale speaks to your fridge. Your fridge then speaks to your supermarket, and they all decide to put you on diet.

05.2022 | Barry Dwolatzky

When Good Ideas Go Bad

Tesla. Edison. Bell. Turing. We know these names because these names changed the world. We place great value on innovation, technology and progress

05.2022 | RL Drake

Liespotting series: Even more lies Part 3

In the modern era, there has been the propensity to demonise lying and to judge those caught in the act of deceit. From business leaders like Madoff to truly global leaders like Clinton

04.2022 | Alistair Duff

Squid Game

Squid Game is the Korean Netflix series that has taken the world by storm. The show, centred around a game that assists in paying off the debt of those who have major bills to pay off

04.202022 | Tendani Mulaudzi

They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I started to play!

The rise of social media is only the latest Golden Gun for advertisers, and already they are looking for a new one.

03.2022 | Peter Dearlove

Unconventional laws and where to find them

As many of us marvel at the coming of the digital age, consider just how much has changed over the course of a single lifetime, even half a lifetime. We can be left feeling overwhelmed.

03.2022 | Alistair Duff

Creativity Series part 3: There’s an algorithm for everything

Up until now, this series has established that there has been a tendency to regard creativity as the product of individual genius whose great cognitive capacities alone are responsible for the products that they create.

03.2022 | Lee Blake

Behavioural Economics in action - Climate change

A qualified high school student is accepted to university but gets confused while applying for financial aid and fails to enrol. An individual with HIV is prescribed free antiretroviral medications but fails to take them consistently.

02.2022 | Joshua Gordon

Kids and violent behaviour

What has self-esteem got to do with it?

Major self-esteem issues in children can lead to unacceptable and violent behaviour in adulthood. Issues of self-esteem are the building blocks for creating caring human beings, but we need to start early.

02.2022 | Martin Scheepers

My Special Place Series: Sharon Spiegel Wagner

On a hot afternoon in Johannesburg, I follow the signs at 44 Stanley Avenue, a delightfully urban, industrial-like shopping precinct I always enjoy visiting.

02.2022 | Arja Salafranca

Have you ever felt like a fraud?

While much has been written about the mindset of very successful people, from their strategies and beliefs to their general outlook, surprisingly little has been said about a very real drawback many will face during their careers.

02.2022 | Alistair Duff

Meet the African violin

Until very recently there had never been such an instrument as an African violin.

01.2022 | Adrian Ephraim

“If I do humblebrag so myself…”

The humblebrag: what it is and why so many of us are guilty of it

“I hate that I look so young – Another 18-year-old just made a pass at me.”

“Oh no! Spilled red wine on the contract for my new book.”

01.2022 | Tiffany Markman

Opinion Polling

Why do people want to know what the future holds before it happens?

In the first place of course, there is a lot of money in it, betting and investing only on certainties, for example, is a sure-fire path to riches.

01.2022 | Peter Dearlove

Bottling water in the desert

This is an article for those of you who, like me, love trivia. As a bonus for reading this article, I’m offering you a handful of fascinating little nuggets of relatively obscure information.

12.2021 | Barry Dwolatzky

A likely successor to the information age

These days, catchphrases and conceptual hype turn any passing fads into megatrends – or attempt to. Real ‘Ages’ however, are rare.

12.2021 | LEO

Creativity series part 2: An evolving concept

The big question posed in the previous article was: “Do ideas emerge from within the person, or do people recognise ideas already present in their environments?”

12.2021 | Lee Blake

Lessons from a beauty mogul

When Elizabeth Arden created her empire, she laid the foundations of the American cosmetic industry. Her entrepreneurial spirit underpins the soul of the company today.

11.2021 | Ingrid Wood

Resilience Part 2: Shellshock, resilience and meaning

In contrast to the “ghastly mental health issues” afflicting the millennial generation, a little over 100 years ago, 60 million young peoples’ lives were moulded and defined by a world at war. 9 million died.

11.2021 | Nicole Wills

When is it Graffiti or Street/Wall Art or even Mural Art?

As a Pilgrim (Peregrino) walking the Portuguese Camino (The Way) during July and August of 2018, the title of this article became very apparent.

10.2021| John Siddall

Chatsworth

Chatsworth, the township, links the stories in this slim but powerful debut collection of short stories by Pravasan Pillay, who comes from the Durban-based area.

10.2021 | Arja Salafranca

Oversharing vs Authenticity

The ancient Greeks believed that mental and physical health were interrelated and that the body and mind should be in harmony.

10.2021 | Charmain Naidoo

Grand theft auto

For those who are not fans of video games, it is possible to never have heard of Grand Theft Auto V, possible but unlikely.

10.2021 | Alistair Duff

I’m so lonesome I could cry.

When Hank Williams turned those few words into his first really big hit in 1949 he was making capital of a sad truth - that loneliness can reduce grown people to tears.

09.2021 | Peter Dearlove

The rise of the only child

First off, allow me this disclaimer: I think only children are great. Because I am an only child and, out of choice, I have an only child.

09.2021 | Tiffany markham

The Scariest, creepiest, eeriest places in the world

No cheap thrills, here. No silly alleged ghost sightings, or exaggerated local legends, or commercialized rumours. Just creepy, eerie and scary.

09.2021 | Jeff Ohlson

The new why

WHEN Rassie Erasmus – a man whose obsession with attention to detail could be accused of taking the romance of the unexpected out of sport – began coaching the Springboks, his philosophy was “keeping the main thing the main thing”.

09.2021 | Simnikiwe Xabanisa

Creativity Series part I: A portrait of the artist

Evolutionary theorists claim that reproduction is the ultimate desire of all living things.

09.2021 | Lee Blake