Food

An elevated warteg, a table of strangers and a reason to love this country again

Adelia Anjani Putri

Somewhere between Senopati and Madura, I found myself lost among strangers and a table of unfamiliar dishes, before finding my way back to a complicated love for home.

Little Big Things

The art of war and peace, at home

Pallavi Aiyar

After more than two decades of marriage and countless arguments, an unconventional lesson on how to disagree deeply, fight with passion, and still choose one another.

Food

What does an Italian summer taste like?

Aqraa Sagir, and Kiran Louis

At AWkitchen Pasta House, Chef Toru Yomoda’s seasonal lineup is built almost entirely around beef, handled the way classic Italian kitchens always have.

Warm Takes

Gang’s all here

Sheena Suparman

Eleven years after college, six friends reunite for a wedding in Greece. Amid the dancing and laughter, one woman confronts the invisible grief, and unexpected gifts, of being chronically single.

Little Big Things

You can't argue a child into loving books

Pallavi Aiyar

Instead of fighting screens, a mother learned to wrap books in rituals her son would come to love and anticipate with joy.

Little Big Things

Non-transactional kindness: What schools should teach in the age of AI

Pallavi Aiyar

If AI can increasingly handle memory (delete recall) and even analysis, schools must ask a deeper question: what remains uniquely human?

Little Big Things

Make way for the Al-Raj

Pallavi Aiyar

Corrupt, self-serving and increasingly despised — what if politicians were simply replaced by AI?

Warm Takes

Why we run

Jet Damazo

From bucket list goals to Sunday morning long runs, a runner unpacks the strange appeal of voluntarily doing something so difficult again and again … and again.

Little Big Things

The need for generosity of listening

Pallavi Aiyar

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

Pallavi Aiyar

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

Pallavi Aiyar

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

Maggie Tiojakin

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

Pallavi Aiyar

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

Lutfiya Tussifah

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

Pallavi Aiyar

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

Dedari Arane Wibowo

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?’

Kezia Laurencia

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

Michelle Anindya

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

Josa Lukman

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

Warm Takes

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

Felix Martua

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.)