Top of the new year to you all. The 24-hour news cycle is still wiping the sleep from its eyes but the world continues to deliver amazing stories: I can’t get enough of the world’s oldest cat and the world’s tidiest mouse.
The great reads are also flowing freely. If you haven’t had your first coffee of the weekend yet, maybe take a sip below first for some inspiration.
1. The miracle of coffee
The journey of coffee from plant to cup is so complex its discovery surely ranks alongside humanity’s greatest achievements. Bianca Nogrady investigates the “simultaneously fascinating and illuminating” hard science behind the brewed concoction – and convinces an expert barista to share her secrets.
Bean me up: A study published last month likened the physics of coffee grinding to what takes place on a moon of Saturn.
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
Further reading: Our supermarket vegan milk taste test decides there is one soy to rule them all.
2. ‘I had traded my sanity for milk’
By the third day of breastfeeding her firstborn, Sirin Kale’s nipples were bleeding. On the fifth day, her maternity support worker assured her it would get easier. So she pushed through, until at six weeks she was diagnosed with thrush.
Sirin’s story has a happy ending, but the debate continues: is breastfeeding or formula milk best? And why is a new mother’s mental health not top priority?
Sirin’s breastfeeding advice: “It is absolutely fine to stop, or never start.”
How long will it take to read: Six minutes.
3. The effortlessly awesome Willem Dafoe
He’s played Jesus Christ and a memorable Spider-Man villain, plus added his dependable brand of gravitas to low-budget Australian films (Daybreakers and The Hunter). Willem Dafoe is also a hell of an interview subject, as Rebecca Nelson learned while the US actor was on the promotional trail for Poor Things.
“With sheep and goats, some you know well, some have names and they really stick, but some are just sheep and goats. But every alpaca, you have a whole particular relationship with, and you know their character.” – Willem Dafoe, hobby farmer and animal whisperer.
How long will it take to read: Six minutes. Less if you just want to see the photoshoot.
Further reading: Get your celebrity interviews here: Jodie Foster, Ramy Youssef, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone on Killers of the Flower Moon.
4. NZ’s photographic history saved from landfill
When LA-based gallery owner Duncan Miller hand-delivered more than 5,000 historic photos of Māori people to Wellington in 2023 he described it as an “emotional” homecoming.
The story of how the Fairfax Media archive – featuring photos from Sir Edmund Hillary at the summit of Mount Everest to the 1969 Wāhine ferry disaster – found its way into his possession is as incredible as the images.
Why is there no photo preview? The pics in this collection are so special we only have permission to use them once. What are you waiting for?
How long will it take to read: Two minutes.
5. Why the cost-of-living crisis isn’t about the price of groceries
“Cossie livs” is already front and centre of the Australian political discourse in 2024, with inflation falling further than expected (good) and supermarkets accused of price gouging (bad). Not that the latter is necessarily the root cause of the crisis.
“The problem isn’t the cost of buying goods, but whether our income is sufficient to pay for those goods,” the economist John Quiggin writes. And income in Australia has shifted from “from low- and middle-income earners to those in the top 10% of the income scale”.
Singing the LMITO blues: The cost-of-living relief trumpeted in the last federal budget will be cancelled out by the increased taxes from the scrapped low and middle income earners tax offset.
How long will it take to read: Three minutes.
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