Links to interesting things

Your attention is precious but I think the following are all worth spending a bit of time with, so maybe take a look?

Heavyweight

A brilliantly original – and brilliantly human – podcast that shows what can be gained by trying to make sense of the past
> gimletmedia.com/show/heavyweight

The Empathy Museum

A series of inventive participatory projects designed to promote empathy: hear someone’s story while wearing their shoes, read a book recommended by a stranger, borrow a person to talk to
> empathymuseum.com

The Blindboy Podcast

This bag-disguised son of Limerick riffs on anything that interests him, drawing connections between one random fact and another in mind-tickling stories that really draw you in
> theblindboypodcast.ie

The Marginalian

With The Marginalian, Brooklyn-based digester of good things Maria Popova offers weekly servings of thoughtful, inspiring and consoling content from across the arts and beyond
> themarginalian.org

Tim Clare

A Norwich-based writer who generously offers galvanising help to the Not Yet Writing community, free of charge. Tim’s two podcast series – 100 Day Writing Challenge and Couch to 80K Writing Boot Camp – can help you break free of doubt and put words on the page
> timclarepoet.co.uk

Humans of New York

Street-shot photographic portraits of passing strangers in NYC; the content of the ‘straight in there’ mini-interviews is reliably compelling
> humansofnewyork.com

The Book Hive

The Norwich bookshop where I buy most of my reading material – proud to Do Different, and full of the kind of book that unexpectedly jumps onto your reading list
> thebookhive.co.uk

Things magazine

A digest of links to interesting content on objects and their meanings – prepare to be diverted
> thingsmagazine.net

Eat the Seasons

No, in the UK we shouldn’t be eating strawberries in February: useful information on when to eat what – and on helping reduce your food’s air miles
> eattheseasons.co.uk

The School of Life 

Intelligently delivered advice on how to do better with work, relationships and other areas that challenge us; the content of their newsletters can be thought provoking enough to entirely shift your mood
> theschooloflife.com

Public information films

The National Archives’ evocative portal into the (familiar but often now pretty weird-seeming) past: lots of ‘We Know Best’ kind of stuff, including 1945’s Coughs and Sneezes through to the iconic ‘Charley Says’ films of the 1970s and the Terrifying Headstone of the 1987 AIDS campaign
> nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/

English idioms

Daft as a brush, Two peas in a pod, Good as gold: an academically rigorous delve into the origins of expressions, sayings and idioms, those non-literal phrases that add so much texture to the English language
> phrases.org.uk

The Black Narcissus

My friend Neil Chapman’s blog, featuring his unapologetically subjective thoughts about perfume, as well as interesting insights into his life working as an English teacher in Japan – his book, Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent, is an excellent digest of smells worth trying in any quest to find The One
> theblacknarcissus.com