Culture

Our curated articles offering new takes on the big themes and questions in our culture. Plus reviews of books, film, media and experiences. Culture is one of four key themes covered by Seen & Unseen.

Review
  1. Culture
  2. Economics
Gold bars stacked in the Bank of England vault.

Money’s hidden meanings in a contactless age

Susan Gray
The Bank of England Museum reveals the symbolism, morality and power woven into the history of money
5min read
Column
  1. Culture
  2. Migration
Shabana Mahmood speaks in Parliament

From MI6 to migration: the tangled legacy of empire

George Pitcher
Britain’s security dilemmas, from LinkedIn spies to post-colonial legacies, reveal a deeper global story
4min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Film & TV
An Edwardian choirmaster conducts.

Life is complicated, and Alan Bennett knows it

Roger Standing
Beneath The Choral’s cosy nostalgia lie some discordant truths
6min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Film & TV
Characters from a Wes Anderson film sit in a stylish plane interior.

The Phoenician Scheme - opening the mind to wider horizons

Oliver Wright
Wes Anderson's new film widens our vision to a bigger world
6min read
Review
  1. Aliens
  2. Culture
A young woman pets the head of an alien

Alien, Nietzsche and the death of dread: why the franchise lost its fear

Jonathan Rowlands
Alien: Earth forgets what made the original so terrifyingly profound
5min read
Article
  1. Culture
  2. Economics
An illustration of a family around a table looking at graph on a laptop.

Be generous: pass on values and vision, not just wealth

Annika Greco Thompson
Millennials may not earn more—but they could steward more wisely
5min read
Review
  1. Art
  2. Culture
Van Gogh's painting of a sower, walking across a field as the sun sets.

The dot and the dash: modern art’s quiet search for deeper meaning

Jonathan Evens
Neo-Impressionism meets mysticism in a quietly radical exhibition
5min read
Article
  1. Care
  2. Culture
A seated Celine Dion, leans forward, head to the side, holding a mic.

Stillness is not always peace: how wellness and illness intertwine in silence

Helen Cowan
Stillness invites clinical insight—and a deeper kind of presence
5min read
Explainer
  1. Attention
  2. Care
An emoji-style brain divided in two with active emojis one side and calm ones the other.

How to help someone with ADHD to live well

Henna Cundill
Overstimulation, inner critics, and the quiet power that restores balance
5min read
Article
  1. Character
  2. Culture
Sarah Mullally and Jemimah Rodrigues

Rodrigues and Mullally: rewriting history with bat and mitre

Henry Corbett
A match-winning innings and the rise to Archbishop both speak of the quiet power of possibility
4min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Film & TV
An actor playing Bruce Springsteen walks down a dark street, hands in jacket pocket.

Deliverance in the dark: Springsteen’s Nebraska and the scars that shaped it

Giles Gough
His starkest album emerged from a season of pain, where family, faith, and music collided
4min read
Review
  1. Books
  2. Culture
A reader sits on a sofa with a raised leg and holds a book

The book, the ritual, and the reader

Tom Rippon
Season 7 of Re-Enchanting explores how books shape our habits and our search for meaning
5min read