Family Matters

The language of play: What children say without words

Play therapy helps children process emotions that adults often miss.

Currently Obsessed

Goodbyes in tides: Grief, memory, and the music of Sufjan Stevens

In the echoes of Carrie & Lowell, grief unfolds in quiet waves, carrying memory, meaning and forgiveness.

Currently Obsessed

Childfree, but not care-free: What I learned from a parenting book

A parenting book gave unexpected lessons in healing, empathy and how to show up better for the children around me and the parents doing their best.

Wellness

Is it ADHD or the algorithm? The problem with self-diagnosing mental illness

More young people are turning to TikTok instead of therapists. Sometimes it helps, but often it misleads.

Family Matters

Divorced at night: When separate beds bring couples closer

For some married couples, intimacy does not always mean sharing a bed.

Weekend Five

Beyond ballrooms and banquet halls: When the usual wedding venues just don’t feel right

From city halls to fast food restaurants, Jakarta’s young couples are experimenting with smaller, quirkier and way more personal wedding celebrations.

Table Setting

Salted Olive: A taste of the Mediterranean, Jakarta-style

Mediterranean warmth meets Jakarta’s appetite for gathering and sharing at this rather nondescript eatery in Kebayoran Baru.

Currently Obsessed

What if smart isn’t enough? Rethinking merit in a broken system

Michael J. Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? is resonating in Indonesia, where many already sense that the meritocracy system is broken.

Table Setting

Privy’s pasta night: A love letter to carbs

From fregola to chestnut laganelle, a one-night-only collaboration at Privy proves carbs are anything but basic.

Family Matters

Inside Indonesia’s grave seekers: Tracing ancestors to find belonging

When family trees end in a lopped limb, a new generation of descendants is turning to cemeteries to recover their history, relink their lineage and rediscover what it means to remember those who came before.

Weekend Five

Phantoms of the metropolitan: Five spooky spots around Jakarta

Urban legends abound in this sprawling city, but some can serve different kinds of horror depending on who’s asking.

Weekend Five

Exquisite and approachable: Five easy French recipes from Indonesian cooks

French food doesn’t have to be complicated, as the Institut Français Indonesia’s French Recipe Competition shows.

Style

The good, the bad and the gatekeep: How gender nonconformity is for everyone

Still an alien concept to many, dressing against gender norms can bring freedom to someone no matter their identity, though not without sacrifices.

Wellness

Headphones in: How to use music to keep you moving

Music isn’t just background noise, it’s your body’s silent coach. So your headphones might just be your most underrated fitness gear.

Currently Obsessed

Smashing nostalgia: The Pumpkins bring grunge back to Jakarta

Fifteen years later, The Smashing Pumpkins returned to Jakarta with a set list that spanned their entire discography, loud, emotional and melancholic without the infinite sadness.