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The Last Freeminers of England

William Atkins & Tereza Červeňová

‘It is a principle of freemining that you leave nothing of value on site, nothing other than the mine itself, which is of value only to a freeminer.’

William Atkins visits the Forest of Dean, with photography by Tereza Červeňová.

Drone Wars for Mexico’s Gold Mountains

Anjan Sundaram

‘More than 111,000 people have gone missing in Mexico in the past six years.’

Anjan Sundaram on cartels, conflict and the rate of disappearances in Mexico.

The True Depth of a Cave

Rachel Kushner

‘When you live underground, among the things you discover is that you are not alone.’

Fiction by Rachel Kushner.

Death by GPS

Salvatore Vitale

‘The old romantic warning not to trust a machine more than one’s own intuition has renewed urgency in the digital age.’

Photography by Salvatore Vitale, introduced by Granta.

Nettle Tea

Camilla Grudova

‘“Love is a matter of yeast,” he said.’

A story by Camilla Grudova.

The Accursed Mountains

Christian Lorentzen

‘The heart was something that healed, but the best you could do with a broken tooth was to keep it in your pocket.’

Christian Lorentzen on tooth extraction.

As They Laid Down Their Cables

Laleh Khalili

‘The Eilat–Ashkelon pipeline went into operation in 1969, on the eve of the nationalisation of oil.’

Laleh Khalili on energy politics and the ‘secret’ pipeline transporting crude oil across southern Israel.

The Darién Gap

Carlos Fonseca

‘He thinks of himself as a man who has learned to be white by living among white people, though all it takes is a look in the mirror to realize his error.’

Fiction by Carlos Fonseca, translated by Jessica Sequeira.

On Boredom

Nuar Alsadir

‘Boredom is a complicated stink of an emotion, one that is far more layered than we presume.’

Nuar Alsadir on boredom.

All Fours

Miranda July

‘We decided then to tell each other exactly how a typical fuck played out in our marriages. We couldn’t believe we’d never done this before.’

Fiction by Miranda July.

The Alternatives

Caoilinn Hughes

‘What does that mean, vegan cheese? asks a lady who’d had no query about amuse-bouche.’

An extract from The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes.

In Conversation

Amelia Abraham & Jack Parlett

‘It’s true that public sex and cruising can be complicated, but I still believe in the solidarity that a look can forge between people.’

Amelia Abraham and Jack Parlett discuss cruising, nostalgia and the privatisation of public sex.

Podcast | Brandon Taylor

Brandon Taylor

‘How far can one deviate from the accepted pieties before one is kicked out?’

Brandon Taylor on naturalism and the future of fiction.

A Flat Place

Noreen Masud

‘If all things were equal, what were we even doing here? Why weren’t we lying on our living-room floors, watching the dance of the dust, today and every day?’

Memoir by Noreen Masud.