Lockdown has exposed how deeply embedded fatphobia is in our society
Panicked comments over gaining weight and toxic #Quarantine15 memes plaguing social media since the pandemic began reinforce an incredibly troubling narrative. It only takes a few seconds of scrolling through social media at the moment to come across a meme complaining about the possibility of weight gain during quarantine. ‘Gaining...
Current in People
#DrawFor: the new charity helping artists and key workers
Spun out of the coronavirus pandemic, DrawFor is a new non-profit organisation that’s giving back to NHS key workers through artist donations, and anyone can get involved. Do you fancy yourself as a bit of an up-and-coming artist? Have some work you’d like to share on social media? Would...
Mental Health Awareness week: ex-footballer discusses media bullying
Luke Chadwick's retrospective candidness on the effects of bullying has drawn attention to how our times have changed. If you don’t know who Luke Chadwick is then I can hardly blame you. If you weren’t a big fan of football or born before 1995 (neither of which I was)...
Migrants struggle to send money home during COVID-19 crisis
The rate of global remittance is set to decline sharply thanks to the harsh COVID economy. This could have dire consequences for the world’s poorest communities. Looking at the worldwide coronavirus statistics, it’s easy to see the virus as a western issue. Deaths and rates of infection are, if...
‘A people’s vaccine’ – 140+ global leaders call for virus vaccine to be free
Global leaders pre-empt efforts of the wealthiest corporations and governments to privatise the eventual coronavirus vaccine. Over 140 global leaders and experts issued an open letter on Thursday this week urging all world powers to unilaterally guarantee that, once scientists discover a cure for the COVID-19 virus, it will...
Online dating during lockdown- can love thrive while we’re apart?
Lockdown has accelerated the transition of online dating apps to purely online hangout spaces. Should this trend continue beyond quarantine? If modern communication falls broadly into two categories – the online and the offline – then where do we place online dating? Pre-COVID, it occupied some strange liminal place between...
Quality of life indicators more important than GDP, says UK poll
Economic indicators have fallen out of step with our lived values, and according to a recent poll the UK has noticed. This week the UK’s latest GDP figures will be published, covering the period from January to the end of March. GDP is calculated by taking the sum total of a nation’s spending, investment, and trade balance (imports minus exports) then representing this as a single number. Essentially, it shows...
Meet ‘The Twenty Minute VC’ that has shaped the industry since his teens
Harry Stebbings has managed to crack into the world of venture capital and create the field’s biggest podcast, ‘The Twenty Minute VC’, at just 23-years-old. You may not have heard of Harry Stebbings, but he’s a big deal in the world of venture capital. At 18 years old he set up his own podcast titled ‘The Twenty Minute VC’, a short form interview series with leading venture capital figures and CEOs....
Social Activism: six steps to get you started
When Gandhi said ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’ this is what he was talking about. Welcome to Social Change 101. Social change is a concept that is a little tricky to grasp for some, but it’s something that has always had prevalence in society. Put simply, social change is what happens with likeminded people get together in order to alter social institutions, social behaviours, or...
COVID-19 will transform the workplace Gen Z is entering
As humanity comes to redefine its social structures in the wake of a global shakeup, the concept of a 9-5 adulthood might be blinking out of existence. Throughout history there have been pockets of time where people have unwittingly become part of a social experiment. In ancient Sparta, society asked what would happen if every person was trained in the art of battle from birth. The Indus civilisation asked...
