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I’m gassing myself up to say agarra la barra, the Spanish phrase for “grab the barbell”. It’s a nightmare: the double rolled Rs, the “a” sounds that should sound identically light, the soft “g” and “b”. I’d never attempt such an ambitious sentence with a human, but Christian, an AI chatbot, gets me. “I’ve grabbed … Read more

Name: Dinner plate sunnies. Age: People have been protecting their eyes from the sun’s harmful rays for yonks. Inuits made slitted goggles from flattened walrus ivory, the Chinese developed smoked glass to reduce glare in – or before – the 12th century and Louis XIV watched the 1706 solar eclipse through a telescope with a … Read more

Make the most of free trials You can normally only sign up for free trials once, but there are lots of them to work your way through, especially when it comes to music, audiobooks and TV and film streaming. For example, Spotify Premium offers a month free (normally £11.99 a month), Apple TV+ a week … Read more

I’m sitting in my kitchen, a pot of coffee by my side and the remnants of yesterday’s passion fruit and saffron creme caramel taunting me (I’ve already convinced myself that it is an acceptable breakfast, so should probably put it away before it becomes an acceptable lunch). When I was younger, I wanted to race through … Read more

When people learn that my job as a sexual wellbeing specialist involves reviewing vibrators for the Filter – as their official Vibe Rater, if you will – they assume I’ve got it easy. That my work, in every conceivable way, must be a pleasure. But I get my hands dirty, probing everything from sustainability to … Read more

An easy weeknight stir-fry that comes together in just 10 minutes. I love the subtle, mouth-numbing effect of Sichuan peppercorns, but be aware that more is not more when you’re adding them to a dish – a half-teaspoon is all you need, otherwise you’ll get the culinary equivalent of a bowl of clove oil for … Read more

I have lied to people. Last year I read twice the amount of self-help books than I logged on Goodreads. The number would raise serious concern and some of the titles would, too. I say I’m a culture journalist, but I couldn’t share my Spotify Wrapped because my most listened-to music was healing ambient tracks … Read more

I contacted you a year ago after you wrote about teachers not receiving their pensions because of assumptions that they were dead. I had received six letters essentially informing me that my payments would be stopped unless I confirmed that I was still alive. Recently the payments did stop, only this time I had not received … Read more

I put in months of hard sleep to test Simba’s flagship “bed-in-a-box” mattress, and for the most part, I found it so comfortable that I told everyone it was the best mattress I’d ever reviewed. It ultimately lost that crown to the Otty Original Hybrid but, goodness me, it gave me some glorious sleep along … Read more

My lunch companion is a living institution. Self-taught cook, traveller, recipe collector, historian and anthropologist Claudia Roden has reshaped how we think about food, its cultural heritage and social meaning. It’s not just celebrated chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi and Moro’s Samantha Clark who pay tribute to her pioneering work. The historian Simon Schama once observed … Read more