Nature

Armadillos: Armour as a Lifestyle Choice

Armadillos wander through the natural world like quirky little mistakes that nature fully intended. They look part medieval armoury, part garden pest, part misunderstood…

Absinthe Conspiracy: The Green Fairy Myth

Culture

Absinthe Conspiracy: The Green Fairy Myth

Asado: Argentina’s Slowest, Loudest, Most Serious Meal

Food

Asado: Argentina’s Slowest, Loudest, Most Serious Meal

Start Here

New to Interessia? These stories explain what we do.

Nature

Anglesey’s Secret Survivor: Limnephilus pati Caddisfly Returns

Anglesey’s Secret Survivor: Limnephilus pati Caddisfly Returns

Extinction usually sounds rather final. A species disappears, scientists search for it, nobody finds it, and eventually someone reaches for the biological equivalent of…

6 min read

Culture

How Broadway Became Broadway

How Broadway Became Broadway

Broadway is a street, a neighbourhood, an industry, a dream factory and, occasionally, an extremely efficient machine for turning several million dollars into absolutely…

7 min read

Culture

Wabi-sabi: The Art of Wearing Less and Meaning More

Wabi-sabi: The Art of Wearing Less and Meaning More

There’s a quiet rebellion going on in Japanese closets. It doesn’t shout from glossy shop windows or glimmer under runway lights. It whispers. And…

7 min read

Britain

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

There are historical dates, and then there is 1066. British schoolchildren once learnt it almost before learning their own birthdays: William the Conqueror, Harold…

6 min read

Britain

The institutions, customs, places and peculiarities that made Britain what it is.

Britain

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

There are historical dates, and then there is 1066. British schoolchildren once learnt it almost before learning their own birthdays: William the Conqueror, Harold…

6 min read

Run, Minister, Run: Inside Westminster’s Division Bell Ritual

Imagine that you are an MP. You have spent the afternoon discussing tax policy, planning regulations or some amendment whose title requires more stamina…

5 min read

Eton College: Where Britain Learns to Rule

On 8 September 2026, a thirteen-year-old boy walked through the gates of a boarding school in Berkshire. Normally this would interest his parents, perhaps…

6 min read

The Order of St Patrick: The Knighthood Ireland Left Behind

There are institutions that disappear with a bang, and there are institutions that simply stop receiving invitations. The Order of St Patrick belongs firmly…

7 min read

A Curious Story

Extraordinary people, places and ideas from a changing world.

You probably didn’t know

Anglesey’s Secret Survivor: Limnephilus pati Caddisfly Returns

Extinction usually sounds rather final. A species disappears, scientists search for it, nobody finds it, and eventually someone reaches for the biological equivalent of…

History

Not dates and kings. The stories that explain how the modern world happened.

Culture

How Broadway Became Broadway

How Broadway Became Broadway

Broadway is a street, a neighbourhood, an industry, a dream factory and, occasionally, an extremely efficient machine for turning several million dollars into absolutely…

7 min read

Britain

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

There are historical dates, and then there is 1066. British schoolchildren once learnt it almost before learning their own birthdays: William the Conqueror, Harold…

6 min read

Culture

The Origins of the Burqa: What the History of Veiling Really Tells Us

The Origins of the Burqa: What the History of Veiling Really Tells Us

Ask most Europeans where the burqa came from and there is a reasonable chance that the answer will contain two words: Afghanistan and Taliban.…

5 min read

Food & Origins

Why we eat what we eat.

Food

Rutabaga: The Vegetable That Survived Everything Except Fashion

Rutabaga: The Vegetable That Survived Everything Except Fashion

Rutabaga may have one of the worst marketing departments in the vegetable world. It is large, heavy, slightly lumpy and usually dressed in an…

6 min read

Food

Fish and Chips: From Immigrant Food to British Institution

Fish and Chips: From Immigrant Food to British Institution

Fish and chips feels so thoroughly British that questioning its nationality seems almost impolite. It belongs with seaside promenades, vinegar-soaked paper, grey skies and…

7 min read

Food

Pumpernickel: The Bread That Takes All Night

Pumpernickel: The Bread That Takes All Night

Most bread tries to make life easy. Mix flour with water, persuade some yeast to cooperate, leave everything alone for a while and put…

6 min read

Science & Nature

Things worth understanding, without needing a PhD.

Nature

Anglesey’s Secret Survivor: Limnephilus pati Caddisfly Returns

Anglesey’s Secret Survivor: Limnephilus pati Caddisfly Returns

Extinction usually sounds rather final. A species disappears, scientists search for it, nobody finds it, and eventually someone reaches for the biological equivalent of…

6 min read

Nature

The Strange Love Life of the Emu

The Strange Love Life of the Emu

Romance among emus begins with a rather important reversal of expectations. The female does much of the pursuing, she competes for access to desirable…

7 min read

Nature

The Elephant Bird: Bigger Than an Ostrich and Stranger Than the Legends

The Elephant Bird: Bigger Than an Ostrich and Stranger Than the Legends

Madagascar has never shown much interest in producing ordinary wildlife. It gave the world lemurs that dance sideways, primates with skeletal fingers, carnivores resembling…

6 min read

People & Ideas

The people who changed how we see the world.

Culture

Why John Coltrane Still Sounds Radical at 100

Why John Coltrane Still Sounds Radical at 100

On 23 September 2026, John Coltrane would have turned 100. This feels slightly improbable, because Coltrane belongs to that peculiar category of artist who…

7 min read

People

Michael Faraday: From Binding Books to Rewriting Physics

Michael Faraday: From Binding Books to Rewriting Physics

Michael Faraday never went to university, struggled with advanced mathematics and began adult life binding other people’s books. By the end of his career,…

6 min read

People

Marco Polo: The Traveller Who Saw Too Much to Be Believed

Marco Polo: The Traveller Who Saw Too Much to Be Believed

Marco Polo had a credibility problem that feels surprisingly modern. He returned to Venice with stories so extravagant that sensible people struggled to take…

7 min read

Places

The stories behind the world’s most interesting places.

Travel

Ceuta: The Spanish City in Africa

Ceuta: The Spanish City in Africa

Ceuta looks like the sort of place created during a particularly competitive evening of mapmaking. It sits on the North African coast, shares a…

7 min read

History

Is the Great Wall of China Really What You Think It Is?

Is the Great Wall of China Really What You Think It Is?

Picture the Great Wall of China and your mind probably creates a familiar image. You see one enormous stone ribbon winding across misty mountains.…

8 min read

Travel

Mallorca: More Than Just a Pretty Beach

Mallorca: More Than Just a Pretty Beach

Everyone has a mate who’s been to Mallorca. They come back with a tan, a bottle of Hierbas, and the same story: “Oh, it’s…

5 min read

Travel

Eternal question of Baboon

Eternal question of Baboon

Rome rarely names a street after something flattering. It prefers saints, emperors, martyrs, or at least a respectable family with a coat of arms.…

7 min read

From the Interessia Archive

Timeless stories, still worth reading.

Nature

What makes bioluminescent seas glow like spilled stardust?

What makes bioluminescent seas glow like spilled stardust?

Bioluminescent seas lure travellers the way bonfires charm moths. Anyone who has stood on a quiet beach at night and suddenly seen the shoreline…

5 min read

Culture

Baroque: It’s Never Too Much

Baroque: It’s Never Too Much

Baroque. Even the word sounds like it’s wearing an embroidered waistcoat. This was an era when music curled like tendrils of incense, architecture puffed…

6 min read

Nature

Immortal Jellyfish and the Secret of Living Forever

Immortal Jellyfish and the Secret of Living Forever

Somewhere off the sun-drenched coast of the Mediterranean, barely visible to the human eye, drifts a creature that has outsmarted one of life’s most…

6 min read

Health

Ozempic: The Miracle Weight Loss Shot or Just Another Health Gamble?

Ozempic: The Miracle Weight Loss Shot or Just Another Health Gamble?

For years, weight loss has been a never-ending saga of fad diets, overpriced detox teas, and gym memberships that collect dust. Then, along came…

5 min read

History

The First Sputnik

The First Sputnik

On 4 October 1957, the world changed with a beep. Not a speech. Not a gunshot. Just a beep. A cold, metallic, rhythmic blip…

6 min read

Food

Pumpernickel: The Bread That Takes All Night

Pumpernickel: The Bread That Takes All Night

Most bread tries to make life easy. Mix flour with water, persuade some yeast to cooperate, leave everything alone for a while and put…

6 min read

Britain

London’s Crystal Dream: The Great Exhibition of 1851

London’s Crystal Dream: The Great Exhibition of 1851

The Great Exhibition of 1851 burst into London like a Victorian fever dream made of iron, glass and unshakeable optimism. Everyone expected a polite…

8 min read

Nature

Penitentes: When Snow Evaporates

Penitentes: When Snow Evaporates

Penitentes appear in places where snow has no intention of behaving politely. High in the Andes, where air thins, skies stay brutally clear and…

6 min read