Fight or flight

15 MINUTES

Denise finds a hard-earned freedom in Colorado’s alpine skies

As a child, Denise Joi dreamt of becoming a pilot. Today, she’s the first female pilot employed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, hugging the grand curves of the Rocky Mountains in her small Cessna as she stocks fish in alpine lakes and helps track animal populations. However, as the short documentary Fight or Flight (2022) chronicles, her journey to the cockpit was hardly a straight line skywards. Pairing Joi’s story with breathtaking views from her work high above the Colorado landscape and a serene string score, the US director Lindsey Hagen crafts a powerful story of persistence, strength and healing that aims to break stigmas around seeking help.

MENTAL HEALTH TRAUMA AND PTSD WORK AND VOCATION

Director: Lindsey Hagen

Director of photography: Chris Naum

Producers: Dan Riordan, Dana Saint, Kate Woodsome

Website: gnarly bay

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FEAR AND PHOBIA

The neural reward that makes avoiding your fears feel so good

We’re told that facing our fears can help us overcome them – but this misses the other intoxicating part of the equation

by Muhammad Badarnee & Mohammed R Milad

Black and white close-up photo of a person’s arm showing skin texture and pigment and shadows; protruding ribs are visible behind the arm.

EATING DISORDERS

A ghost in limbo

Two decades of anorexia obscured who I was beneath my sickness. Then a stranger saw me

by Miranda Gold

A woman with a headset giving a presentation. She gestures with her hand. The background is wood paneling.

PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH

Why the mental health awareness movement needs more precision and fewer vibes

Video by the Royal Institution

Close-up photo of a hand carving a pencil with a small knife, focusing on the pencil’s tip and wood shavings.

FOCUS AND ATTENTION

There’s joy in doing a job right. Just ask this artisanal pencil-sharpener

Directed by Kenneth Price

A group of office workers turned to face a colleague, clapping and smiling, in a modern meeting room setting.

WORK AND VOCATION

Are you saying ‘thank you’ too effusively?

Research suggests that people who express their gratitude more effusively are judged as lower status and less influential

by Christian Jarrett

Two people lying on a snowy road in winter clothing with a forested landscape in the background.

Frøydis faces an impossible problem – how to grieve a father she hated and loved

Directed by Frøydis Fossli Moe

A bulldozer and excavator at a quarry with a clear blue sky in the background.

NATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Scarred

The highway I’d helped build stretched before me. For the first time, I saw clearly what we had done

by JShawn Guess

Photo of a hiker with a backpack and two dogs on a mountain peak at sunset, above the cloudline and overlooking a valley.

WORK AND VOCATION

A former office worker charts his own path, herding sheep high into the Pyrenees

Directed by Jake Joynson