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- 'Big Ideas' Writing That Made Us Think in 2023
We’ve loved sharing our favourite articles, unhinged Twitter threads and analysis Tik Toks in our Weekend Recommendations every Sunday – it's become a beloved series for both you and us. With so much valuable content shared throughout the year, we want to give each recommendation its well-deserved spotlight.
If you’re looking for some great reading material over the slow summer weeks, scroll down for the links to every Big Ideas Article we recommended in 2023. Feel like something different? Why not try our fave pieces on:
We’ll continue finding the smartest stuff on the Internet for you in 2024 – subscribe to this newsletter to make sure you don’t miss ‘em.
The Best ‘Big Thinking’ Content from 2023
Your therapist shouldn’t be on TikTok on The New Statesman
"With incredible frequency, these therapists make the bold suggestion that your problems might be rooted – gasp! – in your childhood. Videos toe the line between counselling and inspirational speaking, doling out shallow and unhelpful self-help platitudes. Struggling with low self-esteem? Have you tried simply not listening to other people’s opinions?"
Aja Barber’s Twitter thread about how Shein is putting most of the fashion industry out of business
"The result of this is less choice for everyone who isn’t wealthy. Fewer high street stores which are imperfect but a little better and fewer ethical brands all together because they’re going to be harmed the most. Your choices will start to look like luxury OR Shein. Awesome.”
World's Wealthiest May Actually Be Less Intelligent Than Those Who Don't Earn As Much on ScienceAlert
Montgomery Riverboat Brawl: A Cathartic Comedy Of Justice For Black America on NewsOne
“There’s a fine line between condoning senseless aggression and recognizing that sometimes, karma takes the wheel. The Montgomery riverboat brawl wasn’t just a random act of violence; it was a powerful display of self-defense and collective solidarity against oppression.”
Toxic Influence: A Dove Film on YouTube
At the launch of Dove Australia's new #DetoxYourFeed campaign when they played this 3min film, multiple people in the room were crying. They took the audio of beauty influencers talking about botox, dieting, etc and used deepfake technology to make it look like regular mums were giving that advice... And then played the fake videos to their teen daughters. Harrowing stuff, in the same vein as my viral-ish beauty essay.
Why Uber’s CEO Says He’ll Always Find a Reason to Say His Company Sucks on Wired
This uber-wealthy CEO interview made me want to scream, but it’s important we see these people are exposed for the callous idiots they so often are. Great to see a journalist actually push back on Dara Khosrowshahi’s claims too – a rare treat!
The House That Mr. Mayer Built: Inside the Union-Busting Birth of the Academy Awards on Vanity Fair
Did you know the Oscars started as a way to distract from unethical treatment of workers in early Hollywood and stop them from forming unions? Me neither! This is a very comprehensive old piece that's relevant again once a year.
Life’s Losers by Rachel Connolly on Slate
This essay is way longer than it needs to be. The good stuff is in the second half: "As privilege discourse has really stagnated. We circle back over the same ground constantly, but don’t spend much time discussing what a good life truly means, who is getting what they want out of the world, and which of us is really enjoying ourselves."
Goodbye from gal-dem on Gal-Dem
Gal-Dem was a UK media publication owned and run by Black and brown women and non-binary people, giving a voice to those who are excluded from mainstream media. After 8 years, they had to close the business for financial reasons. We should all think about what happens if only the rich are allowed to make media (and yes, rich white men own & control almost all Australia's indie publications too...)
Asking For It on SBS
This three-part series about Australia's sexual violence reckoning is one I reckon you should watch and discuss with your family and friendship circles. It's going to be a flashpoint for conversations that truly change perspectives, for the better.
Comparing the 2008 writer’s strike to the current writer’s strike on Michel Jamin’s TikTok
Michael Jamin is a TV writer and he’s been doing some really helpful explanations about the strike on his TikTok acct. I hadn’t considered how badly streaming platforms need great content, which puts more power in the writers hands than I thought.
Raising Kids Is the ‘Best Job in the World.’ Why Is Caring for the Elderly the Worst? The Cut
“There is no “You’re doing great, Mama” discourse on Facebook for those who care for elders. We are still very much in the era where caring for old people is considered a dreadful task worthy of pity. Nobody wants to hear about it.”
The Rupert Murdoch Retirement Myth on Politico
“The Murdoch kids, like Logan Roy’s kids, are likely to go Gaboon viper on one another once Rupert takes the eternal death nap. It would take only two votes among the four to destabilize the current arrangement, and the FT predicts, quite rationally, that the kids will vote Lachlan out as soon that happens and perhaps all that the old man built will be sold off, bit by bit, for parts.”
Gurner got his start with loans from his boss, grandfather on Australian Financial Review
Tim Gurner is the inhumane almost-billionaire who went viral for saying Australian workers deserve to all lose their jobs. The truth is this: “The lump sum inheritance, or the familial guarantor. The financial backstop that’s always there in every story, though never in the headline. They are the foundational facts that are glazed over in the origin stories of Australia’s over-levered property wunderkinds.”
What Does It Mean to Be “Black Famous” — and Whose Approval Do We Need? on Teen Vogue
A really in-depth piece about Black creatives not being on Hollywood’s radar. What talent are we missing because the entertainment machine won’t push them up the totem pole?
The Optimization Sinkhole on Culture Study substack
Woah. “Remodeling is supposed to make your house feel more welcoming, just as wellness culture is supposed to make you feel more “grounded” in your body and productivity culture is supposed to feel more confident and in control at work. Instead, they just introduce you to areas of your life you didn’t even realize needed optimizing.”
Where To Now For Australian Music Festivals? on Junkee
“Changing climate conditions cause issues across the board. Over the difficult last few years, insurance premiums for Australian festivals have skyrocketed by as much as 300%… This, coupled with inflation, means putting on an event is much, much more expensive than it was five years ago.”
In China, Young Graduates Are Selling Their Knowledge on the Streets on Sixth Tone
“A political science postgraduate shared a photo of himself apparently offering one-on-one ‘political science consulting services’ on the street, with topics including Russia-Ukraine relations, populism, and identity politics. Philosophy and psychology graduates are offering discussions about mental health and existentialism in the southwestern Yunnan province.”
You Have Been Told a Lie podcast
IThinesh Thillainadarajah and Jay Ooi’s podcast tells the whole story of the Nadesalingams – the Tamil asylum seeker family in Biloela, who our govt cruelly detained. The question at its heart: What sort of people do they need to be to stay?
Sydney Wanting to ‘Rebrand’ a Bunch of Suburbs Is Everything Wrong With This City on The Latch
“Sydney’s original sprawling maze of winding streets flooded with music and good times grew organically over hundreds of years. Governments stepping in to artificially cultivate ‘culture’ – whatever that means – have a way of clipping the wings of the radical, the offensive, and the weird: the very essence of what makes nightlife unique and enjoyable.”
Transgender Representation On-Screen Is Only a Starting Point for Liberation on Teen Vogue
“But visibility for trans people, especially those Black and brown and femme, is a paradox. While seeing trans and nonbinary folks in media and culture allows us to see parts of ourselves… our glorious presence has also made us targets. We’re the most visible we’ve ever been as a community, and also the most vulnerable.”
This interesting TikTok video about psychogeography – basically, that “walking with an agenda” helps solve your problems.
The Internet Went From Playground to Minefield for Artists Like Doja Cat — So They’re Logging Off on Rolling Stone
“It comes with the caveat of audiences feeling control and ownership over the careers they’ve had a hand in building online. With that, there’s actually more of a threat that they will be washed away or replaced by the next viral artist, hit, or moment if they veer too far away from what they’re known for. And once an artist is locked into a certain internet identity, it can be hard to change it.”
How Social Media Destroyed the Tween Experience on Infinite Scroll podcast
My pals Lauren, Jordy & the incredible internet journalist Taylor Lorenz discuss how social media has meant that tweens, teens and adults now dress, look and talk the same way – it’s a problem.
The myth of inclusive beauty on Paradigm Shift substack & podcast
“True inclusion would not ask us to alter, modify and optimise ourselves, true inclusion would not ask us to be profitable… Beauty is a fundamentally exclusive attribute. It marks something distinctive or special. It cannot include everyone.”
Blueberry milk nails and the illusion of choice under capitalism on Dazed
"We can choose between being blueberry milk nails girls or tomato summer girls or latte make-up cozy soft life girls. But in reality, it is only the illusion of choice. Capitalist society is invested in offering us these glimpses of choice and naming them freedom, in the hopes that we will remain distracted enough not to realise that… We spend most of our lives at jobs we keep to survive.”
Slim pickings: the state of fatness on Australian stages on Arts Hub
“In the absence of fat stories told by fat people, we’re left with a massive elephant in the room: a belly-sized hole where a fat canon should be. Without telling stories that grapple with body politics, we’re left to understand fatness through the scraps of thin storytellers. Through their lens, fatness can only ever be the starting point on a journey to a different body: theirs.”
Real mindfulness would transform the economy on Vox
“Calm Business’s landing page reads: “The future of work relies on a mentally healthy workforce.” What if a mentally healthy workforce isn’t a workforce at all and people were simply free to do something other than exchange most of their lifetime for work they don’t particularly enjoy?”
Listening to the Voices of Young People From Gaza on TIME
"‘We are alive’. But what conditions are you alive in, I wonder. What destruction do you see around you, are other family members and neighbors alive, can you sleep at night with the bombs overhead, how are you handling your fear, do you have water and food?"
A Cease-Fire in Gaza Can End the War on Civilians. A “Humanitarian Pause” Will Not on Jacobin
“At first glance, it’s not clear why this should bother us. “Cease-fire,” “humanitarian pause” — don’t these phrases mean the same thing, just expressed in different words?… [It] doesn’t mean an actual pause in the war, but the cessation of attacks in only some parts of Gaza. Those “pauses” could, in practice, be mere hours.”
Rupi Kaur’s Moral Clarity Has Been Consistent. Does it Change How We View Her Artistry? on The Swaddle
“So far, the idea of separating the art from the artist has applied to situations where previously beloved artists are disgraced. Here is a situation, however, in which a widely mocked artist is re-evaluated in light of a progressive position.”
What is the rule of proportionality, and is it being observed in the Israeli siege of Gaza? on The Conversation
“The aerial campaign has left a heavy death toll – the health authority in the Hamas-run enclave has put the total number of Palestinians killed in excess of 10,000 – leading to questions over whether the response by Israel has been proportionate.”
We’re All Burning Ourselves Out to Keep Money Flowing Up to the Rich on Jacobin
“Increased productivity has failed to translate into fair compensation, and we’re all working ourselves to death. Not having time to rest or think is not just terrible for human beings — it’s terrible for democracy.”
We Won’t Get Real Equality Until We Price Breastmilk, and Treat Breastfeeding as Work on Women’s Agenda
“Breastfeeding ought to be counted as non-market production in the national accounts so that when assessments are made of productivity, or of what increases or decreases in gross domestic product, breastfeeding is seen as productive.”
Witnessing Gaza Through Instagram on Intelligencer
“At what stage do we become voyeurs? Are people just watching and not witnessing? To watch is to consume; to witness is to acknowledge, to bestow some degree of legitimacy. But what does it do to see it? Is empathy ever enough?”
Australia is in a domestic violence crisis, so why can’t men go to therapy? Bon Fashion Journal
“If men felt therapy was a safe, normal, non-judgemental option to express and talk through their thoughts and feelings before they evolve into something darker, this would be a great first step.”
Who will shine a light on the atrocities in Gaza if all the journalists are wiped out? on The Guardian
“The reporters and photojournalists of Gaza are the bravest of all, and a death sentence hangs over many of them: if the truce collapses, more journalistic careers will be violently terminated.”
Mothers, of course, have abortions. And it’s time to accept they are the experts in their own lives on Guardian Australia
“There are mothers and then there are women who have abortions. It might be the most powerful and pervasive myth anti-abortion lobbyists, politicians and their disciples have ever authored. When every termination becomes a decision to reject motherhood, moralising becomes simple. [But] Mothers of course have abortions.”
Hey tech billionaires, if you want to talk about radical change, let’s abolish venture capitalism on Guardian Australia
"The future that tech elites imagine looks remarkably similar to the one we’re in: unchecked power, consolidated wealth, low regulation and minimal consequences when technology proves to be harmful… When elites misrepresent techno-scepticism as dangerous or backwards, they are trying to direct attention away from rational concerns about manifestations of power and profit.”