Little Big Things

The need for generosity of listening

We spend a lot of time learning how not to offend. A cross-cultural communication expert argues we should spend more time learning how not to be offended.

Little Big Things

Your national dish is lying to you

From the croissant to ketchup, a tour of the surprising, border-crossing origin stories behind the dishes nations love to call their own — including one that traces back to Sumatra.

Little Big Things

Boredom is the new luxury

As the distraction economy steals our ability to think and focus, the most radical thing we can do could be nothing at all.

Warm Takes

The way we live

A personal reflection on Jakarta’s contradictions and unfinished ambitions — and why, despite all its failings, the city continues to ground us.

Little Big Things

Hindu epics in a Muslim majority nation

Nothing captures Indonesia's pluralism better than wayang kulit. This essay explains how the Ramayana and Mahabharata continue to shape the country’s society, politics, and everyday life.

Warm Takes

Jakarta: A city of stations, a city of selves

Jakarta's train stations don't just take you places, they make you someone different at each stop.

Little Big Things

The caste system of travel

From embassy queues to airport holding rooms, a personal journey through passportism and the hidden privileges of global mobility.

Warm Takes

On leaving and returning: The map of a divided heart

Living in more than one place means loving more than one home, and becoming more than one self.

Warm Takes

Every time I say I study journalism, people ask me ‘why?’

A journalism student reflects on newsroom pressure, public scrutiny, and the uncertain future of the media industry.

Family Matters

The parents who learn Roblox before their kids do

Screen time limits are the easy part. Parents today are doing something much harder to keep their kids safe.

Warm Takes

Confessions of a quasi-nepo baby

As it turns out, not all nepo babies are created equal.

Warm Takes

'Friends' doesn’t prepare you for adulthood. 'Ally McBeal' does

Rewatching two defining shows from the late ‘90s as a thirtysomething, it turns out one is far more honest about adulthood than the other. (Spoiler: It's not the one about friends.)

Warm Takes

Linked in to left behind

The pressure to have a personal brand before you have a career is real. On LinkedIn, being young and still figuring it out can feel like a public failure.