Stories

Our words and pictures explore the connections between science, medicine, life and art. Dive into a story no matter where in the world you are. (Want to write for us? Here's how.)

Lungs

The nose and lungs work in harmony, but what initiates breath?

Booze and bad behaviour

Our love of alcohol is like a party that’s lasted nine centuries. But there are signs that the demon drink is losing its appeal.

When everyday environments become anxious spaces

Social anxiety disorder isolates those who experience it. Part of the solution is to design public spaces with mental health in mind.

How I escaped my anxiety and depression through architecture and poetry

Social anxiety led him to introversion and silence. The brutalist architecture of London’s Barbican Estate inspired his liberation in poetry…

This is what changed my approach to interior design

An interior designer examines how emotions and cognitive activity influenced her designs, and argues that spaces reflect the people within.

The Hidden Persuaders

Read our six-part story centred on brainwashing and mind control, exploring how these ideas influenced and were shaped by the ‘psy’ professions.

A hand unlocks a cage with a human head, containing a Nazi eagle and a swastika.
  • Serial
Part1

Does mass media pave the way to fascism?

Part of The Hidden Persuaders

Part of The War of Nerves

A baby is offered the opportunity to vote.
  • Serial
Part2

Do good mothers make good democracy?

Part of The Hidden Persuaders

Part of The War of Nerves

Two scientists study the sexuality of a man.
  • Serial
Part3

Can our sexual desires be transformed?

Part of The Hidden Persuaders

Part of The War of Nerves

A man in his underwear floats in a pool.
  • Serial
Part4

Can isolation lead to manipulation?

Part of The Hidden Persuaders

Part of The War of Nerves

Four armed guerrillas guard a giant brain held in place with bungees.
  • Serial
Part5

Can our minds be taken hostage?

Part of The Hidden Persuaders

Part of The War of Nerves

A person's eyes have been replaced with hypnotic spirals containing facebook and instagram 'likes'.
  • Serial
Part6

How do advertisers get inside our heads?

Part of The Hidden Persuaders

Part of The War of Nerves

You may have missed

More articles

We are from here, but not from here

Novelist JJ Bola on being a refugee with a British passport and what that placenessless means for a search for identity.

The female fight to reclaim our space in the mosque

Salma El-Wardany tells of the fight to reclaim spaces for women in the mosque and further afield.

How the city lives inside me

Artist Murugiah illustrates his urban environment and the feelings of being consumed, falling, squeezed and trapped.

Hands

The presence of your hands is preserved in the things they touch

Medics and the bomb

Would a nuclear attack on the UK overwhelm the NHS? At the height of the Cold War, despite government optimism, medics predicted doom.

Reassuring ghosts and haunted houses

Explore the perversely comforting appeal of a ghost in the house.