Sean Thomas

Is Ukraine heading towards a Korean-style demilitarised zone?

7 December 2024 9:00 am

It is the strangest place, the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates South Korea from North Korea. It is simultaneously a…

How debauchery turns to tragedy in places like Vang Vieng

24 November 2024 6:28 pm

I still remember the first time I saw Vang Vieng, in Laos. It was many years ago, before the Chinese…

My glimpse into a childless world

9 November 2024 9:00 am

If you are looking for a pointer for the future of the world, the free-diving fisherwomen on the matriarchal, shamanistic…

Has AI just killed the podcast bro?

6 October 2024 5:00 pm

It’s a well-known psychological phenomenon: that time seems to slow down if you experience lots of new and unusual events.…

Why Cambodia returns to joy in October

1 October 2024 8:00 am

In Cambodia, everybody is looking forward to Bon Om Touk. If your Khmer is a bit rusty, this means the…

Keir Starmer and the evil of banality

28 August 2024 11:30 pm

First, a little story. About three years ago I was given an eccentric but fun assignment between Covid lockdowns –…

It’s time to get rid of your pet

24 August 2024 4:00 pm

Around the tolerant British dining table, there are few opinions which will see you shunned, instantly. ‘Bring back the birch’…

Keep Michelin men out of our hotels!

20 July 2024 9:00 am

It’s probably escaped most people’s attention, what with the football, the election, the Ukraine war, the horrors of Gaza, the…

My day in Le Pen land

7 July 2024 4:00 pm

At first glance, for the visitor driving by, Guingamp in northwest Brittany looks idyllic. It is a typically lovely stone-built…

The day I met a sun priest

29 June 2024 9:00 am

Palomino, Colombia I’m in a truly wonderful place: the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It’s got more bird species than most…

AI will change everything – so why is the election ignoring it?

16 June 2024 4:00 pm

Imagine if you somehow knew a war was coming in the next few years. Imagine if you knew this war would…

Tourists are the new pariahs

8 June 2024 9:00 am

Think of Majorca and what do you picture? Maybe it is elegant tapas bars in the Gothic quarter of Palma,…

Sam Altman is not evil

26 May 2024 4:00 pm

It’s a classic trajectory. You start as a likeable and geeky tech tyro, you morph into a squillionaire with disagreeable…

No tips please, we’re British

18 May 2024 9:00 am

I hate tipping, not because I am intrinsically mean but because of the anxiety it induces. You pitch up at…

Paris, city of blight

4 May 2024 9:00 am

You know that feeling when you haven’t seen someone for several years and when you do, you really notice the…

The world would be a better place without Facebook

4 February 2024 4:31 pm

It’s sometimes difficult to remember a time before Facebook, isn’t it? It’s like trying to remember a time before the…

AI just changed the world. Again

21 January 2024 4:00 am

Argentine President Javier Milei’s recent speech, to the World Economic Forum in Davos, has caused a stir for several reasons.…

Why wokeness really is like fascism

27 December 2023 10:41 pm

If you had to choose a political word of the decade you could do worse than ‘woke’. Because these days…

Why the world loves Margaret Thatcher

4 December 2023 8:52 pm

There are many rituals surrounding the placement of a new Japanese Emperor on the Chrysanthemum Throne. Perhaps the most peculiar…

Why I love terrible towns

18 November 2023 9:00 am

Why is Suella Braverman doing so well on social media?

17 November 2023 9:22 pm

As phrases go, ‘Twitter analytics’ is not the most exciting, especially now we are, apparently, meant to say ‘the social…

What BLM and the Remembrance Day protests had in common

12 November 2023 8:51 pm

Back in June 2020, I attended a quasi-legal Black Lives Matter protest in London, and a widely reviled counter protest,…