Marina Benjamin

Senior Editor, Aeon+Psyche

Marina is a former arts editor of the New Statesman and deputy arts editor of the Evening Standard newspaper in London. Her books include, Living at the End of the World which looked at end-time cults, Rocket Dreams, an off-beat elegy to the Space Age, and Last Days in Babylon, the story of the Jews of Iraq. Marina specialises in the culture of science, developmental psychology and strong personal narratives. Her acclaimed memoirs The Middlepause and Insomnia have been translated into 9 languages. Her latest memoir A Little Give will be published in 2023. She can be found on Twitter @marinab52.

Edited by Marina Benjamin

Photo of a pregnant woman in a pink vest and white skirt, holding a red bag, walking in an urban area.

PARENTING AND FAMILIES

Moving through the world pregnant, my body became everyone’s

And I knew that, once I became a mother, I would be only more visible, more public, more available for scrutiny

by Katie da Cunha Lewin

Black and white drawing of stylised smoke or clouds rising from the ground in swirling patterns.

THE SELF

Why bad doodles can reveal more about you than good drawings

For Marion Milner, ‘not being able’ is a valuable state – one that allows for new and unexpected forms of learning

by David Russell

Photo of a woman using a phone by a sunny window with a city view. She is next to a suitcase and a red chair.

PLACE

The divided self: does where I live make me who I am?

At home in Delhi, I am a more social, interactive person. A quiet balcony in Frankfurt gave me space to be by myself

by Anandi Mishra

Photo of a red double-decker bus in a city at dusk with a person reading inside pedestrians on the pavement.

FREEDOM AND CHOICE

Why not driving is my own form of resistance

As romantic petrochemical-fuelled narratives slip into the past, I’ve found my own kind of freedom in a life without a car

by Vicky Grut

A painting of a man and woman holding hands indoors with a small dog at their feet. The room is richly decorated.

PHILOSOPHY OF ART

To master the art of close looking, learn to hold time still

Visual literacy is a skillset that’s rarely taught, but it begins with learning how to look – and how to hold time still

by Grace Linden

Photo of a rocky path winding through a grassy landscape with cloudy skies and distant hills in the background.

SACRED PLACES

Nan Shepherd delved into a queer erotic kinship with nature

In the Highlands, Nan Shepherd found an erotic kinship with nature: ‘The Living Mountain’ a core text for queer ecology

by Melissa Matthewson

Black and white photo of a couple kissing outside a café at night with a waiter sweeping the floor.

VALUES AND BELIEFS

What if my lessons in existentialism were in bad faith?

When I’m teaching existentialism in the classroom, how can I tell where bad faith ends and enlightenment begins?

by Robert D Zaretsky

Painting of a woman seated on a chair reading a book, with her hair in a bun, wearing a dark dress against a plain background.

STORIES AND LITERATURE

Forget ‘Little Women’. How did girls learn to be grown women?

How might 19th-century novels for adolescent girls help us find healthier models of what it means to grow up female today?

by Julie Pfeiffer