All posts tagged: speak

New Scientist recommends Organ Speak, a deep dive into our organs by Giulia Enders

New Scientist recommends Organ Speak, a deep dive into our organs by Giulia Enders

Published by skeptic

Hymn, a Damien Hirst sculpture, reveals layers of our organs Chris Cooper-Smith/Alamy Organ SpeakGiulia Enders(Illustrated by Jill Enders, and translated by Jamie Bulloch), Hachette (UK); HarperCollins (US) Work, home, politics, TV sagas, juicy celebrity gossip – who doesn’t get caught up in the drama of everyday life? But there may be an equally compelling and fascinating story unfolding every second of every day inside the squishy bodies doing all that living. There, our organs do the quiet yet incredible work of providing the oxygen, energy and resilience we need to experience the joys and navigate the hardships of life. By gaining deeper appreciation of our intricate machinery, honed over millennia of human evolution, we can find fresh inspiration to lead healthier, more meaningful lives, argues Giulia Enders in her new book Organ Speak: What it really means to listen to our bodies. Enders, who is also a medical doctor and a researcher specialising in the digestive system, is best known for her bestselling book, Gut. This is an amusing account of the intestines – her …

How can you make God speak again? A 13-year-old student had the answer.

How can you make God speak again? A 13-year-old student had the answer.

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — One of my adult students recently asked me: “You know how God spoke to Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah and the rest of the prophets? Why doesn’t God speak anymore? Why did God just, well, shut up?” It is a very good question. A quick answer: After Malachi, there was no more prophecy, and God stopped speaking. But the Talmud has a different answer. Even though prophecy had officially ended by that time, the voice of God could sometimes speak to people in a bat kol, or soft, quiet tone. Literally, though, it means the “daughter of a voice.” God could speak to us in the voice of a young girl.  Which brings me to a great Jewish theologian who also happens to be among the youngest. She only had one line of theology, but I have remembered it for almost a decade.  Some years ago in Hollywood, Florida, I was very close to the family of Rebecca Adler, now in her early 20s. She became bat mitzvah under my tutelage. …

Descendants of the enigmatic Shabbatai Sevi (1626-76) finally speak

Descendants of the enigmatic Shabbatai Sevi (1626-76) finally speak

Published by Sam Flores

This is the first book of its kind written from within the tradition. Publishing on October 6, 2026, Uluc Ozuyener’s Born in Secrecy—Maaminim: The Practical Kabbalah of Shabbatai Sevi (Paperback original, ISBN 978-1966608516, 350 pages, $35.00) tells a remarkable story never-before heard firsthand. This the first book of its kind written from within the tradition.  Shabbatai Sevi (1626–76) was a 17th-century Ottoman Jewish rabbi and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, inciting a massive, worldwide messianic movement. Forced to convert to Islam in 1666 to avoid execution by Sultan Mehmed IV, his public actions then caused widespread disillusionment. Yet he maintained a clandestine following. Ozuyener tells the fascinating story of belief, culture, ritual, and the descendants—called Maaminim—who continued to carry the spark of faith in the enigmatic Sevi behind closed doors, through gestures and coded language.  Ozuyener’s book is both a personal journey and scholarly exploration—to reveal how a faith could survive, and even flourish, through exile, contradiction, and concealment. It weaves together theological analysis, archival research, Ladino hymns, Zoharic commentary, and …

How David Attenborough Helped My Non-Verbal Son Learn To Speak

How David Attenborough Helped My Non-Verbal Son Learn To Speak

Published by Sam Flores

When Kerri Cunningham’s son was around 18 months old, he could say a few words like bye, Dada and bee. But as he grew, rather than gain more words, he lost the few he’d learned. At three years old, he was diagnosed with autism. Kerri, who lives in Preston with her husband Jordan and their three children aged four, seven and 10, was unsure if she’d ever hear her son speak again. But everything changed when, one day out of the blue, her son started to utter words he’d learned from an unlikely place: Sir David Attenborough’s nature documentaries. In a heartfelt Instagram post shared a day after the documentarian’s 100th birthday, Kerri revealed how “Sir David Attenborough helped my son learn to speak”. “Until last year he couldn’t say a word,” she shared on social media. That was, until he started watching Blue Planet… How Blue Planet taught a child to speak People with autism can have special interests – according to the National Autistic Society, these are “subjects and/or activities that a person …

I didn’t speak out loud all day and it made me sad

I didn’t speak out loud all day and it made me sad

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore We’re losing words. More than 300 a day in spoken word, or 120,000 a year, according to recent research. Tech is the main reason — we’re texting over phone calls, using the self-check out lane, and ordering sugar off Instacart rather than asking a neighbor for a cup. In an effort to understand the implications of this decades-long loss of words, I decided to stop talking for a day. I am a yapper. Women speak an average of 10,000+ daily words, but between my chats with neighbors, check in with friends, and daily calls with my mother, I suspect my average is even higher. Sudden silence was going to be a struggle. Would friends and strangers think I was rude? Would they not talk to me again? Unlike a monastic vow of silence, I was able to text, email, Slack, use …

Alan Cumming refused to speak to BAFTA after John Davidson incident

Alan Cumming refused to speak to BAFTA after John Davidson incident

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Baftas host Alan Cumming has revealed he refused to speak to leaders at the organisation after this year’s film awards, describing the controversy that unfolded after John Davidson could be heard shouting the n-word in the BBC’s broadcast as a “s***show”. Tourettes campaigner Davidson was attending the ceremony to celebrate the success of I Swear, which was based on his extraordinary life and efforts to raise awareness of the condition. Davidson, who has completely uncontrollable tics, could be heard shouting the slur as actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special effects after the BBC failed to edit it out. A furore soon unfolded as the BBC also failed to remove the incident from its iPlayer version of the broadcast, while both the BBC and Bafta scrambled to apologise to the actors involved, disability communities and Davidson, …

The moment I knew: ‘We didn’t speak the same language but somehow we understood each other’ | Relationships

The moment I knew: ‘We didn’t speak the same language but somehow we understood each other’ | Relationships

Published by Sam Flores

In 2013 I moved from Milan to work as a pastry chef in Marano Vicentino, a tiny town in the region of Veneto. My new boss was the youngest chef to be awarded a Michelin star in Italy and I was excited by the opportunity to work at El Coq, living in the staff sharehouse and learning everything I could. I’d been there a year when Oskar arrived on the scene. A fellow chef and friend of my boss, he had been working on a boat somewhere and was going to stay with us in the sharehouse for a few weeks and spend some time in the kitchen helping us develop the menu. Federica and Oskar in Venice a few months after they first met. Photograph: Guardian Design/Federica Andrisani The first day we met he had lunch and dinner at the restaurant. I barely remember looking at him as I was brought table side to explain my desserts, I only remember being confused by his blue eyes and fair skin – I thought my boss …

Nalini Malani Lets the Walls Speak with a New Installation in Venice

Nalini Malani Lets the Walls Speak with a New Installation in Venice

Published by José Betancourt

Entering the cavernous Magazzini del Sale in Venice, viewers encounter Nalini Malani’s animations, which are projected directly onto the uneven brick walls of the former salt warehouse. Her images flicker, dissolve, and reappear as they are cast across architecture shaped by centuries of trade. The installation feels both contemporary and archaic: moving images that seem less like digital projections than pigment placed on stone, recalling cave paintings set in motion. This tension between past and present runs throughout Of Woman Born, Malani’s latest project, which was commissioned by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and is being presented during the opening of the Venice Biennale next month. Drawing on tens of thousands of hand-drawn images translated into animation, the installation brings together mythology, literature, and sound in a layered environment that unfolds as the viewer moves through the space. Beyond the exhibition itself, Malani has also extended one of her recurring figures—the “Skipping Girl”—across Venice, where she appears on posters and public signage, guiding viewers to the work. Long engaged with questions of violence, displacement, and …

American Psychological Association’s Actions Speak Louder Than Its Apology

American Psychological Association’s Actions Speak Louder Than Its Apology

Published by Jenni Sidey

Written by Germine Awad, Ph.D. and Kevin Cokley, Ph.D. This week, the American Psychological Association (APA) informed members of the Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training in Psychology (CEMRRAT) that it has been disbanded. This recent action calls into question APA’s commitment to increasing the recruitment, retention, and training of psychologists of color. The Significance of CEMRRAT CEMRRAT was established in 1994 after the APA designated ethnic minority education as a priority, with the goal of improving the recruitment and retention of ethnic minorities and addressing systemic barriers to their participation in psychology. CEMRRAT has been important because it devoted resources toward the advancement of ethnic minority issues. For example, historically, CEMRRAT has awarded implementation grants and seed funding to organizations, institutions, and individuals to support projects related to (a) recruitment and retention, (b) multicultural training, (c) mentorship and development, (d) innovation projects, and (e) data and research. CEMRRAT was also known for producing several popular documents designed to support, recruit, and retain faculty of color. These documents included “Surviving and Thriving in …

What Shapes Your Words Before You Speak

What Shapes Your Words Before You Speak

Published by Jenni Sidey

There are moments when something is said, or something happens, and you feel the response almost immediately. It frequently arises before a thought is formed, noticeable as a slight shift in your body. Perhaps a tightening, a change in breathing, a sense of movement in one direction before you’ve consciously chosen it. Often, the words begin to form just as quickly. I’ve noticed this most clearly in conversations that matter to me, where I can feel the response bubbling up before I’ve decided what I want to say. Most of us are familiar with this experience, but what we tend not to notice is how little time we spend with it. We move from that first internal shift into speech or action almost seamlessly, and only afterward, minutes or sometimes hours later, do we recognize that what we said did not quite reflect who we are or how we would have chosen to respond if we had been more fully present. It is tempting to think of this as a problem of language, and for …