We came to Lyon because we had to. There was a hospital appointment for my wife. That was the reason for the trip. But before any of that, there was the hotel. My entrance was dramatic. I needed a bathroom. Immediately. The receptionist pointed me in the right direction, and that was my introduction to…
From supermarket trolleys in Brazil to temple lines in India and government offices in South Africa, waiting reveals something surprisingly human: our rules matter most when we are tempted to break them. By Atlantic Corridor A queue looks simple. One person stands behind another. Everybody waits their turn. Eventually, everybody gets where they are going….
I sat down at my desk, genuinely amped to write and dive straight into the day’s work. And then I hit a wall. A total blank screen. What do I even write about today? Where do I start? I looked over at my husband and asked the first thing that came to mind: “What is…
Have you ever looked at something and thought, “Well, this is completely useless”—only to turn around a moment later, look at something else, and think, “This is absolute brilliance”? We live surrounded by logic that we rarely bother to question. Take our smart devices, for instance. We buy laptops, smart TVs, and phones that can…
Some inventions make life easier. Others simply take up space. And then there are the ones we use every day without really understanding them. Before our conversation even started, I had already used several inventions without thinking about them. My phone. My laptop. My coffee machine. The coffee machine is a good example. It is…
When the weather becomes colder and colder, this is the kind of soup I want: rich lentils, slowly cooked beef, smoky bacon and sausage, fresh vegetables — and then, right at the end, that little surprise of vinegar and sweetness. This is not a light summer soup. For me, this belongs to the colder months,…
Created by Fruitloop, celebrated by The Mayor as we enter our end-of-working-week ritual. At Fruitloop University, dancing chickens, volcanic spa treatments, militant coconuts and a broom with helicopter ambitions lead me towards a rather human mystery: why we do the things we do, and why being different matters. There is a moment when the record…
Where the Questions Hide. In this issue, we dive headfirst into a simple, baffling question: Why do we do that? Sometimes we do strange things. We keep the empty ice cream tin just in case. We leave WhatsApp messages unanswered, panic over Sunday night speeches, and let junk drawers collect dust until they refuse to…
Rosie in Sao Paulo, Fruitloop in South Africa, The Mayor in Cleebourg. Monica, who found the fjords of Norway more attractive, sent her regards. From mystery cables and faded receipts to old radios, corks and instruction manuals, one ordinary drawer reveals a surprisingly human reason why we struggle to let things go. There is a…
