"I write what I like."
– Steve Biko

Nov 13, 2020
5 min

Quantifying the Gift

If commodities create boundaries, then gifts abolish them. Lewis Hyde's seminal work, The Gift, is a map to get us back to what matters.

340 views

Aug 23, 2020
4 min

In search of the explicit

Learn to say what you mean and mean what you say. It will change your life.

302 views

Nov 23, 2019
6 min

Life Lessons from Data Science

If your life were a statistical model, what would it look like?

168 views

Aug 5, 2019
5 min

Senamile Masango – Not Your Everyday Nuclear Physicist

From teen mom to nuclear physicist – meet Senamile Masango, the first African woman to conduct an experiment at CERN.

163 views

Jul 11, 2019
5 min

We Need to Get Comfortable with (Real) Failure

The failure I’m talking about is the outright, embarrassing, you-haven’t-got-a-hope kind of failure.

254 views

Jul 6, 2019
5 min

The Deeply Personal Politics of Reading

We’re happy to embrace one-night-stands of back-to-back episodes, but ask us to commit to just 300 pages? Who on earth has time for that?

103 views

Jun 30, 2019
6 min

Tales from India – Rewriting the Story

Living in India for five months will transform the narrative you have about yourself and the world around you.

122 views

Jun 23, 2019
7 min

This Podcast Made Me Question Everything

"The winners of our age must be challenged to do more good. But never, ever, tell them to do less harm." – Anand Giridharadas

343 views

Jan 10, 2019
4 min

Bachata by the Han

Salsa dancing in South Korea has never been this magical.

347 views

Oct 17, 2018
7 min

Notes from Seoul: The Cost of Being the Visitor

You can't ignore the effect you have on the places you visit. When is cultural immersion harmful?

203 views

Aug 9, 2018
4 min

Farewell Japan

Two months of living in Tokyo

205 views

Jul 1, 2018
4 min

A Difficult Conversation on Fear

Why do we avoid talking about certain kinds of fear? In South Africa, it's a conversation intermingled with race.

219 views

Apr 30, 2018
6 min

Jerusalem: Ten Days in the Holy City

Explore ten days in the Holy City, filled with sounds, poetry and the contradictions of old-meets-new.

25 views

Nov 27, 2017
9 min

On Storytelling, Ancestors and Algorithms - A Conversation with Ernesto Reyes

Discover the power of storytelling and the narratives that make up our world in this exclusive interview with Ernesto Reyes.

235 views

Oct 16, 2017
3 min

Notes from SF: the Emergence of Beauty

Beauty keeps us sane. When the world is a ceaseless rush of competing claims on our attention, art reminds us of what it means to be human.

11 views

Aug 20, 2017
6 min

Beyond the Rhetoric of Transformation

Transformation, even in political terms, is a matter of mind and spirit.

3 views

Jul 14, 2017
8 min

Overdue Ramblings on God

Why do we struggle to include spirituality in everyday conversations? The question is not whether God exists, but what God is like.

229 views

May 4, 2017
7 min

Homo Deus

A book review of Yuval Noah Harari's dazzling prediction of the future.

120 views

Mar 26, 2017
5 min

Striving and Being: The Road Less Travelled

How helpful are self-help "gurus"?

87 views

Mar 21, 2017
6 min

A Man of Good Hope

Follow the story of one man, Asad, who joins thousands of Somali migrants in their diaspora to the south in search of a better life.

8 views

Let's take things to the next level

Let's take things to the next level

Let's take things to the next level

Let's take things to the next level

"I write what I like."
– Steve Biko

Sunday Times

Cultural preservation: the black tax that enriches

Nothing But The Wax

Don't call me a "global citizen" – I am a global African

Sunday Times

South Africans persist in being foreigners in their own continent

Grassroots Economics

When a woman saves, a community wins

Year On

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Taking a Gap Year

Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters of our lives won't have a title until much later.

– Bob Goff

© Rebecca Mqamelo 2021

"I write what I like." – Steve Biko

Sunday Times Cultural preservation: the black tax that enriches

Nothing But The Wax Don't call me a "global citizen" – I am a global African

Sunday Times South Africans persist in being foreigners in their own continent

Grassroots Economics​ When a woman saves, a community wins

Year On 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Taking a Gap Year

"I write what I like."
– Steve Biko

Sunday Times

Cultural preservation: the black tax that enriches

Nothing But The Wax

Don't call me a "global citizen" – I am a global African

Sunday Times

South Africans persist in being foreigners in their own continent

Grassroots Economics

When a woman saves, a community wins

Year On

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Taking a Gap Year