Emma Watson, Mr Darcy, Bilbo and Katniss, plus the pizza-store study that changed how psychologists see quiet people. Why introverts never needed to come out of their shells.
Emma Watson, Mr Darcy, Bilbo and Katniss, plus the pizza-store study that changed how psychologists see quiet people. Why introverts never needed to come out of their shells.
Mr Beaver said Aslan wasn’t safe, only good. C. S. Lewis, Confucius and modern psychology on why being liked by everyone is the wrong thing to aim for.
A philosopher’s reading of Spirited Away: the kanji Yubaba steals, the Shinto soul in names, Winnicott’s true and false self, and courage one kindness at a time.
The 90s felt happier, and psychology can say why: fewer choices, real waiting, productive boredom, forgotten mistakes, longer time. Most of it is recoverable.
TikTok’s burnt toast theory is 2,100 years old. On the Chinese farmer, the Indian king, the Talmudic sage, a Persian fairy tale and Steve Jobs, all telling the same story.
Huxley taught Orwell French, then wrote him a letter saying he was wrong. On Big Brother the game show, soma, your phone, and why the French army hires novelists.
Tsundoku’s real 1879 origin, the science of why unread books still shape a mind, and why a home library means you never run out of wonder.
JOMO, the right to disconnect, and what interruption actually costs. On solitude as a discipline rather than a deprivation, and the privilege of being unreachable.
Tolkien’s king weeps openly, heals the wounded, and kneels to hobbits. On Aragorn, the science of male silence, and the masculinity modern men have forgotten.
Autumn colour is a reveal, not a change, and trees need cold hours to bloom. On mono no aware, the reading season, and why book lovers wait all year for this.
