All rivers led to Rome

The expression “All roads lead to Rome” encapsulates the might of the Roman Empire, but the arteries which carried its lifeblood – food, fuel, livestock and luxuries – were not roads, but rivers.

Very superstitious

As Stevie Wonder once observed, people are ‘very superstitious’ despite our unprecedented ability to reason. Indeed, the more sophisticated a society get, the more superstitious it may become.

Back to the future with the Jetsons

The Jetsons ran for just 24 episodes between September 1962 and March 1963 but the cartoon had a huge impact on popular culture and, like all vintage science fiction, got some things right and some things wrong about the world we inhabit today.

Why Easter still resonates today

While the iconic imagery of the death and resurrection of Jesus has been hijacked by many different groups over the years for their own purposes, the power and hope of the Easter story continues to inspire people around the world today.

From chicken to chocolate

A lot of Easter traditions – including hot cross buns and lamb on Sunday – stem from medieval Christian or even earlier pagan beliefs. The chocolate Easter egg, however, is a more modern twist on tradition.

The future of content quotas

The arrival of international streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime have changed the television landscape in Australia, and the government is now looking to enforce domestic content quotas on them.

Aussies abandon free-to-air TV for streaming services

Australians are abandoning advert ridden free-to-air TV to watch a range of streaming services.

A world of women

The current debate about gender roles and identity in modern society has deep historical roots, with numerous societies around the world proving that other ways of imagining human hierarchies are not only possible but productive.

The lost art of letter writing

We’ve lived in an age of email and text messages for the last twenty years, and AI powered chatbots will now write and read our emails for us in the future, but for all we’ve gained in terms of convenience we’ve lost in terms of the care, thought and lasting emotional resonance of an old-fashioned letter.

Fact and fiction

Any large human corporation, be it state, church or tribe is rooted in common myths which exist only in our collective imaginations.

Mediocre artists also steal

Australian author John Hughes has been exposed as a serial plagiarist, stealing chunks of numerous other author’s work without attribution or apology – a fact which apparently went unnoticed by his editors, publishers and readers for years.

Roald Dahl and the woke censor

Rewriting children’s books written over 40 years ago to conform to overwrought modern sensitivities is disrespectful to authors and readers alike.