Bari Weiss has made a lot of bad decisions since being put in charge of the news division at CBS. One of her most amusing was promoting Tony “Two-Cuts” Dokoupil to be the head newscaster for the evening news. It seems the primary motivation for promoting him was his love of Israel and Judaism — he earned his nickname because he was so devoted to his version of Judaism that, despite already being circumcised, he got a second circumcision because his rabbi said the first one wasn’t good enough.

That’s one of the defining characteristics of the Weiss regime: a fervent dedication to Zionism and Israel that she’s using to shape the news program.

Dokoupil is no Walter Cronkite, the anchorman I grew up listening to in the 60s and 70s. That era is definitely over now, and Weiss is accelerating its decline. The facts and figures are in, and CBS is in trouble.

CBS Evening News has struggled to gain a foothold since relaunching with new anchor Tony Dokoupil in January.

Ahead of the end of the first quarter later this week, the news program is on track for its lowest-rated first quarter this century, across both total viewers and the crucial 25-54 demographic, Status reports, citing preliminary Nielsen ratings. The program is currently averaging 4.3 million viewers; in the 25-54 demographic, ratings are down by 18 percent at just 541,000 viewers.

To make matters worse, the network’s morning show—of which Dokoupil, 45, used to be co-host—is also failing to attract viewers, with CBS Mornings experiencing its lowest-rated quarter on record, averaging 1.8 million total viewers, down from 13 percent in the same quarter last year.

The disastrous ratings are a blow to Weiss, 41, who was installed as editor-in-chief after billionaire nepo baby and Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison acquired her outlet, The Free Press, for $150 million in October. She had no experience in broadcast journalism and reports directly to Ellison.

You should never put billionaires in charge of anything — they’re all incompetent. Disastrous ratings don’t actually matter to Weiss. She got her $150 million. The network can go into a death spiral, but she got hers.

“It’s pretty terrible. Once you’re under 4 million, you’ve got to be worried that you’re in a death spiral,” another CBS insider said. “If they can’t retain an audience in the middle of a war, God help you when the war ends.”

Other industry insiders concurred, with a TV news veteran telling Status on Saturday, “The first rule of television medicine is do no harm—and Bari has done so much harm.”

Go anti-woke, go broke, but they’ll never figure that out because once you’re rich enough, consequences don’t matter anymore.

Ed Brayton and I set up freethoughtblogs as a cooperative venture. Although we did try running ads to bring in some revenue, ads proved to be intrusive and obnoxious — blog ads tend to play all kinds of stupid games to get your attention — so we gave up on that. So right now the site runs in the red, just a little bit, and that’s OK. My Patreon account covers the server cost just fine, and I’m not interested in profit.

By comparison, take a look at the financials for Truth Social.

Trump Media & Technology Group burned through a staggering $712 million last year while bringing in a mere $3.7 million in revenue, a ratio as upside-down as Trump has turned the country.

There’s no actual business here, just a megaphone for a doddering old man.

To be fair, you could also call Pharyngula “a megaphone for a doddering old man,” but at least I’m not blowing $700 million to keep it running. I suspect there’s an interesting leak in the money pipeline that is diverting donations from billionaires to inflate that budget, and that leak is spilling money into Trump’s pocket, so it’s not a real loss to him.

I’m going to have to get a few more patreon followers if it costs hundreds of millions to run a website.

I’m also triggered by the phrase “scientifically accurate.”

It’s happening again this weekend. NO KINGS. Protest on Saturday.

I signed up to participate in the march in Morris at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. Then I saw there’s another march in Cyrus, less than 10 miles away, at 2:30, so I signed up for that one, too. I only regret that the constraints of space and time forbid me from participating in every protest march everywhere on that day.

Down with Trump!

Olga Koch is a Russian-British comedian. Her award-winning debut show “Fight” told the wild story of how her father briefly served as deputy prime minister of Russia in the 1990s, under President Boris Yeltsin, but later fled the country. She has appeared on television shows including “Mock The Week”, “QI” and “Live at the Apollo” and is working on a PhD in human-computer interaction.

Your new one-woman comedy show “Fat Tom Cruise” is touring in Britain and Australia. It’s described as “immersive” and “genre-defying”. What does that mean?

I want to keep it as vague as I can to preserve the element of surprise. It’s a history lesson, it’s a gossip session and it’s a horror story. I’m really honing my storytelling abilities but also using a tremendous amount of tech in a way that I never have before.

There’s quite a bit of time travel. We’re going from the 70s all the way to the present day and the jumps occur constantly, so it’s a matter of creating a visual language for the audience to understand what timeline we’re in without constantly having to remind them. It’s like watching movies that do a really good job of signposting where you are at the very beginning and then later on you don’t have to be reminded what year it is. So, how do you achieve that on stage with one person who’s wearing the same outfit throughout? It’s a really interesting challenge.

Your first show explained how your dad came to play a key role in Russia’s privatisation efforts in the 1990s. Having moved to the UK when you were 14, is there anything you think the west gets wrong about Russia?

I’m very careful about not co-opting the experience of living in Russia or being Russian today because I truly don’t know what it’s like. Me and my fiancé went to Paris last weekend, and we went to Napoleon’s tomb. On the tomb is every battle he won, and one of them is Moscow. I have never in my life been so angry, because I was like “He didn’t win Moscow, we gave him Moscow! That was a strategic military decision to leave Moscow, light it on fire and then let him have it.” My fiancé was like “I’ve never seen you this angry, and I’ve never heard you refer to Russia as ‘we’ before”. I think it’s because I have as much claim on the Napoleonic wars as any Russian living today, whereas I don’t feel comfortable saying “we” when it comes to Russia now.

That being said, in some aspects the Russia that I lived in and remember was significantly more progressive than people give it credit for. I have a joke that Russia was one of the first countries to grant women the right to vote – in a single-party state. But my grandmothers were engineers and the idea that I would study computer science [Koch has a degree in the subject from New York University] was not as crazy in Russia as it felt in the US at the time I was studying. Obviously, Russia, especially in the last 10 to 15 years, has become more traditional and religious than before, but in the country that I was raised in, some things were more progressive than people realise.

In “Fight”, you mention an interesting anecdote about visiting the “Museum of Democracy” – officially the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center – in Yekaterinburg and seeing that your father had been written out of history. What did you take from that moment?

It was a matter of growing up. The thing that really struck me is how well produced the museum is. It’s a really high-budget operation. They have a recreation of the president’s study there, you walk in and they play Yeltsin’s resignation speech, and it feels very emotionally powerful. And then you leave and realise you’ve just been successfully manipulated into feeling all these things in a sort of Disney-level production.

I was in my early 20s at the time and it generally made me more cynical when it comes to museums and countries writing their own histories as a whole. You know how the domino falls for everyone at some point? That was my sort of red pill Matrix moment – although not in the context of how “red pill” is used today, of course!

In your previous show, “Olga Koch Comes From Money”, you explored what it means to come from privilege. What made you write about that?

I think socio-economically we have reached a boiling point where it’s something that we can no longer ignore. It’s something that needs to be discussed, and it felt very cruel and unfair that the only people who are forced to have that conversation are people who come from working-class backgrounds. As a person who comes from tremendous privilege, the silence of that became deafening.

But also, after 10 years of doing stand-up, I felt – maybe wrongfully so or rightfully so – that I finally had the writing and performance ability to tackle a subject like that. It was one of the most agonising processes because I wanted to do it in an aggressively objective way, but there was a constant understanding of my own inability and failure to do so, because I’m so entrenched in it. There’s a silly gag in the show, “There’s only so much self-awareness and perspective I can have. It’s like taking a selfie – my hand can only extend so far before I have to hand my camera to my butler.”

You have experience of how different countries and cultures view money, and in the show you talked about the various moral mythologies around it.

Yes, so in Russia, money is luck, in America, money is hard work – with the caveat that people can work hard doing bad things – and then in the UK, money is something you get from your dad. Every country or culture thinks that theirs is the objective and correct attitude, when in reality there is no such thing.

The other big theme in your comedy is tech, and you’re doing a PhD now in human-computer interaction. What does that mean?

Oh boy, if I knew. It started in the 80s but now that computers are everywhere, everything is human-computer interaction. You unlock a door and it’s a computer now, because we don’t use keys anymore. You use a microwave and that’s human-computer interaction because it has a microchip in it. So it used to be how you interacted with a computer at work and what the interface would look like, and now it’s literally everything because we’re putting microchips everywhere.

One of my biggest pet peeves in life is putting a microchip in something that doesn’t need it. A door doesn’t need it, a scale doesn’t need it – there’s even electronic toothpaste dispensers. You can’t squeeze out your own toothpaste? Come on, buddy. The amount of tech waste we are creating with all these micro things, it makes me so angry.

What’s the focus of your PhD?

Parasocial relationships [one-sided relationships that people develop with someone they don’t know, such as a celebrity or social media influencer]. I used to think that parasocial relationships were an anomaly or almost pathological. But then when I met people who have all these intense parasocial relationships – for example, people who have one-sided conversations with celebrities constantly on social media – I realised it was the most normal thing in the world. If you are exposed to personal information about a person, which we are every day on Instagram stories, it is totally normal for your brain to short circuit and think you know this person. I got interested in it because I started experiencing it myself in some small way. People have seen the inside of my house, people have seen me without make-up, in settings that 30 years ago only a close friend or family member would have seen me in. Of course your brain thinks you know me.

It’s a weird phenomenon, but is it a problem?

The problem isn’t people developing any of those feelings or attachments; the problem is the technology that is actively encouraging it in order to increase screen time and addictiveness. People experiencing the effects of the technology aren’t to blame, it’s the architects of the technology. I don’t know if they know the true repercussions [of what they’re doing].

After your PhD, I hear you have plans to go into tech communications?

That’s always been the dream. I think that comedy is the best way to learn things. As children and young adults, we’re okay being patronised when it comes to learning things, but the older we get, the more sensitive we get to feeling like somebody’s patronising us or teaching us something. Comedy is a great way to sneakily teach people.

I read this paper that I keep coming back to. It said that people who watch satirical news shows are actually as, if not more, informed than people who watch the news. But satirical news shows do something that the regular news doesn’t do, which is give context. If John Oliver or Jon Stewart explain something happening in Congress, on The Daily Show or Last Week Tonight, they’re never just giving you that piece of news in isolation. They’ll go through the rigmarole of explaining “This is how the Congress works”. But because they’re doing it in a comedy setting, you don’t realise you’re being taught. I mean, Horrible Histories – what’s that? If you’re laughing, you don’t realise that you’re learning.

“Fat Tom Cruise” is touring until 4 December.

This article is from New Humanist's Spring 2026 edition. Subscribe now.

I have recently received emails about my work into the pace of life, and so I thought that it would be a good time to reflect on the topic.

I’ve always been fascinated by the work of the late, great psychologist Robert Levine. In the early ‘90s, Robert pioneered a brilliant way to measure the pace of life in cities by secretly timing how fast pedestrians walked.

His findings were startling. People in Western Europe were sprinting through life, while those in Africa and Latin America took a more measured pace. Within the US, New Yorkers were the speed-demons, while Los Angeles leaned into a slower groove.

But this wasn’t just about getting to lunch on time. Levine discovered that a faster pace of life was a double-edged sword. Higher speeds were linked to higher income and increased happiness, but also more coronary heart disease and a decrease in helpfulness.

In 2006, I teamed up with British Council to measure walking speeds across the world. On August 22, our research teams went into city centres and found busy streets that were flat, free from obstacles, and uncrowded. Between 11.30am and 2.00pm local time, they secretly timed how long it took people to walk along a 60-foot stretch of the pavement. All the people had to be on their own, not holding a telephone conversation or struggling with shopping bags. The results are shown in the table below.

City (Country)
Fastest
1 Singapore (Singapore)
2 Copenhagen (Denmark)
3 Madrid (Spain)
4 Guangzhou (China)
5 Dublin (Ireland)
6 Curitiba (Brazil)
7 Berlin (Germany)
8 New York (USA)
9 Utrecht (Netherlands)
10 Vienna (Austria)
11 Warsaw (Poland)
12 London (UK)
13 Zagreb (Croatia)
14 Prague (Czech Republic)
15 Wellington (New Zealand)
16 Paris (France)
17 Stockholm (Sweden)
18 Ljubljana (Slovenia)
19 Tokyo (Japan)
20 Ottawa (Canada)
21 Harare (Zimbabwe)
22 Sofia (Bulgaria)
23 Taipei (Taiwan)
24 Cairo (Egypt)
25 Sana’a (Yemen)
26 Bucharest (Romania)
27 Dubai (UAE)
28 Damascus (Syria)
29 Amman (Jordan)
30 Bern (Switzerland)
31 Manama (Bahrain)
32 Blantyre (Malawi)
SLOWEST

We compared the 16 cities that were in Levine’s work and our own and determined that the pace of life had increased by 10%! The pace of life in Guangzhou (China) increased by over 20%, and Singapore showed a 30% increase, resulting in it becoming the fastest moving city in the study. Projected forward, the results suggest that by 2040, they will arrive at their destination several seconds before they have set-off.

A few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Robert Levine about this work. I believe it may have been his final interview. You can listen to him discussing the “Geography of Time” below.

Finally, what is your pace of life? Are you moving too fast? Here are four questions to help you to decide.

– When someone takes too long to get to the point, do you feel like hurrying them along?

– Are you often the first person to finish at mealtimes?

– When walking along a street, do you often feel frustrated because you are stuck behind others?

– Do you walk out of restaurants or shops if you encounter even a short queue?

Today is the day the Trump administration is sending ICE into our airports, to help reduce long lines. Does anyone actually believe that?

Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have followed through on promises from the president’s administration to send in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to US airports beginning on Monday to assist with security amid extremely long lines – and to help airport security agents who have been working without pay since 14 February because of a partial government shutdown.

I fail to see how adding more overbearing security to a system that is already packed with pointless security theater will help the lines. I also wonder if these ICE goons will be armed and masked? It sounds like a recipe for greater chaos and inefficiency to me, and that it’s really a strategy for increasing fear and tension.

Take a look at the current situation. Will ICE actually help?

To amplify the problem, check out this video on Bluesky.

Incredible scene: Travelers wait on hours-long security line at George Bush International Airport in Houston while Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” blasts through the speakers.

Yeah. Long lines plus Lee Greenwood? This is precisely what Hell would look like.

My experience with air travel in the last few years has been absolutely miserable and convinced me that I never want to fly anywhere ever again…and it’s gotten even worse.

About the opportunity

New Humanist is looking for a freelance designer to produce a suite of marketing materials for the magazine.

We're keen to hear from people who can bring some flair to traditional advertisements (both print and digital), inserts, banners and social media cards.

These will mostly be promoting our subscription packages, building on existing images such as magazine covers.

Requirements

We're looking for a professional with experience of designing ads for magazines or journalistic publications, combining design and marketing expertise.

Ideally, you'll have design experience across print, digital and social media.

Rate

£250 a day, for an estimated 3-4 days' work.

How to apply

Please apply with your CV and examples of relevant work, to editor@newhumanist.org.uk with the subject line DESIGNER in all caps.

Please apply as soon as possible or by 26th March at the latest.

This post contains a video, which you can also view here. To support more videos like this, head to patreon.com/rebecca! Transcript: Recently, the actor Hugh Jackman made the gossip rag headlines for performing a song and dance routine at the 95th birthday party of Logan Roy…sorry, I mean Rupert Murdoch. I must have been confused …

Job title: Art Director, New Humanist

Hours: Up to 6 days for an initial redesign project, followed by 5 days each quarter on an ongoing basis

Location: Largely remote, with 2 days each quarter in our central London office

Rate: £250 per day

Contract: Freelance

Start date: ASAP but no later than 20th April

We're looking for an Art Director for the beautiful print edition of our magazine. The role involves creativity and a keen eye for magazine design, a good understanding of story presentation, knowledge of legal issues surrounding the use of images in an editorial context, and experience of collaborating with editors in a magazine or journalism environment.

The role will kick off with a partial redesign project, which is expected to take 4-6 days of design work. This will involve creating new InDesign templates and producing designs for new article formats, with lots of opportunity for creative input.

After this, you'll work five days per quarter (3 remote, 2 in the office) on each edition of the magazine, on an ongoing basis. The Art Director takes the lead on layout design, picture research and image permissions, commissioning the cover illustration, managing image library accounts and overseeing the picture budget. There is also a small amount of work each quarter creating social media and other digital assets.

About New Humanist

New Humanist is a quarterly non-profit magazine covering politics, human rights, science, technology, philosophy and culture, and has been published since 1885.

This is an exciting time to join an award-winning magazine, with an exceptional reputation for its design. Since January 2025, we have been published by the charity Humanists UK, and our readership is growing. Join our small, passionate team at New Humanist, producing ethical journalism to the highest standards.

To apply, please send your CV and portfolio to editor@newhumanist.org.uk, with the subject line Art Director. Applications must be received by midnight on 30th March 2026.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Frontline Poets (River Books) by Joe Freeman and Aung Naing Soe

Talk of male anatomy was the last thing I expected as I walked into a book launch at Bangkok’s foreign correspondents’ club. Yet there it was, beaming across the projector screen: a poem about a political penis tattoo. “On my manhood rests a tattooed / portrait of Mr. President / My beloved found that out after / we wed / She was utterly gutted / Inconsolable.”

This is the most reserved translation of a terse, subversive piece written by Maung Saungkha, a poet in Myanmar. When he posted his work to Facebook in October 2015, he “dropped the poetic equivalent of a bombshell,” according to a new book by journalists Joe Freeman and Aung Naing Soe – a bombshell that led to six months behind bars for online defamation of the president. It was while covering this bizarre court case that Freeman and Aung Naing Soe first met Maung Saungkha. A decade on, he is one of five poets they have profiled in a deeply moving, often humorous book that repeatedly defies expectations.

While it includes several works translated from Burmese to English for the first time, this is not a poetry anthology. Rather, it is a history of Myanmar told through the lives of poets who have not only chronicled but actively participated in decades of political upheaval, resistance and conflict since the end of colonial rule. Yet its main goal is not to explain Myanmar’s many deep divisions, or why the 2021 military coup and subsequent civil war unfolded. Instead, at its core, the book is an exploration of why poetry is still such a powerful force in Myanmar, where the literary form continues to be a vehicle for resistance and identity. Writers evade military censorship with obscure metaphors, short works become rebel anthems, and poignant poems allow people to reflect on all that they have lost.

“I abandoned everything after I had abandoned everything” is one especially gut-wrenching line, in a long, tumbling poem by Yoe Aunt Min that depicts the mind of a rebel fighter. After the coup in February 2021 and the junta’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, Yoe Aunt Min followed Maung Saungkha into war. Maung Saungkha had become the leader of an armed opposition group called the Bamar People’s Liberation Army, and Yoe Aunt Min was one of his first recruits. Their journey from poets and activists to armed fighters living in the jungle hits on another theme in the book. Yoe Aunt Min’s vivid, meandering poem points at this shift in her own life, before concluding: “What kind of wisdom is necessary for those who hold / lethal weapons? / I don’t know how to solve this. / Please answer.”

The book asks what it means to be a frontline poet – whether that frontline is Maung Saungkha and Yoe Aunt Min’s battlefield, the street protests that cost another poet, K Za Win, his life, or the displacement camps where two others, Lynn Khar and A Mon, fled to safety. Yet despite the palpable sense of loss, the narrative balances heartbreak and horror with humour, humanity and – much like the penis poem – the unexpected.

The book evokes a vivid picture of life in Myanmar, and of the poets who remain determined to better their country against extraordinary odds.

This article is from New Humanist's Spring 2026 edition. Subscribe now.

This post contains a video, which you can also view here. To support more videos like this, head to patreon.com/rebecca! Transcript: Last week I saw a news story going viral on social media: “U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus”! And I thought, yep. Obviously. I was an adult for …

Darya Afanasyeva remembers sitting at a sewing machine, in the factory of a penal colony in south-eastern Belarus. In front of her was a round cushion, which she had studded with three pins: two white and one red. The three dots of colour were tiny, but looking at them filled her with joy. “To me, it was a form of inner protest,” she says.

During the summer of 2020, Belarus was flooded with red-and-white flags, symbolising people’s opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko. Hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestors took to the streets following a disputed election that brought the authoritarian strongman and close ally of Russia’s President Putin to office for the sixth time, making him the longest serving leader in Europe. Afanasyeva was jailed for two years for taking part.

Today, she lives in exile, and wants to tell her story, and the story of the many women imprisoned in Belarus for resisting the regime. Hundreds of dissidents were jailed after the mass protests – including politicians, journalists, activists and students. And while US-led negotiations secured the release of more than 100 political prisoners in December, people continue to be arrested for as little as liking social media posts critical of the president or supporting the opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Of these, many are sent to penal colonies – a legacy of the Soviet-era gulags. But despite the government’s attempts to crush their spirits, the women who have emerged from these colonies tell stories of defiance and solidarity.

Afanasyeva told me about her life in the Gomel colony, one of two that hold women prisoners. She said they were put to work doing strenuous manual labour and only allowed to take a short shower once a week. One of the guards “enjoyed punishing” them by not even permitting this chance to clean themselves. “She was a young woman, about 25 years old,” Afanasyeva said. “I wanted to say to her, ‘Damn it, imagine doing this yourself: spend the whole day working at the sewing factory; then lift heavy sacks filled with metal off a truck; then sweep the [colony] streets; and then finally go to the cafeteria, where your clothes will soak up the smells – knowing you can’t change them. And after all that, you can’t take a shower!’”

But Afanasyeva also told me how she and other women were determined to resist, and to support each other wherever they could. They came up with handy inventions – for example, they would cut up a plastic bottle and use the bottom section to wash their body parts, one by one.

The women campaigning for president

Along with many of her fellow political prisoners, Afanasyeva wants Belarus to be rid of Lukashenko, so that the country can move on. He is the country’s first and only president, having held the office since 1994, following independence from the Soviet Union. In the 2020 election, he claimed to have secured over 80 per cent of the vote, but a lack of scrutiny, with no observers present, led to widespread allegations of vote-rigging.

Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed that she had actually won the election. Tsikhanouskaya had launched a presidential campaign alongside two other women – Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo – after their husbands and partners were imprisoned or exiled due to their own intention to run. In a country where politics has tended to be male-dominated, thousands of women came out onto the streets, calling for change and opposing the authoritarian and patriarchal culture.

When the crackdown began, Tsikhanouskaya and Tsepkalo fled the country. Kolesnikova was jailed – and only released as part of the December 2025 deal, after more than five years in prison – while Tsikhanouskaya was sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia. Many other women who participated in the protests and women’s marches are also now in exile. Even after the December release, 175 female political prisoners remain in jail, according to the Belarus Women’s Foundation.

Journalist Ksenia Lutskina was released in 2024, after more than three and a half years of imprisonment on charges of “destabilisation of the political, social, economic and informational situation” in Belarus. When I talked to her, she also recalled how united political detainees were. “We lived as a community. The conditions were very hard, but solidarity made up for that,” she said. “If food was sent to one of us [by family and friends], we shared it. And when a new political prisoner was brought in, we knew what we needed to do, right away: give her clothes, hygiene items and food; make her tea or coffee; and if she smokes, give her cigarettes.”

Acts of solidarity

Viktoria Zhukouskaya – a Belarusian researcher with a PhD in management and sociology, who lives in exile – has interviewed many former political prisoners. She confirms the stories of solidarity. Several women have told Zhukouskaya that prison authorities would throw homeless people into the cell with them, “using the bodies of other women” to increase their discomfort. They would have to endure “the smell, the lice, and so on, in a cell designated for four people – but where eight to 12 were held.” But the political prisoners said they rejected this tactic of division. From the moment a homeless woman entered their prison cell, they would start cleaning her up: “One of them took off her clothes, another washed her, while a third extracted the lice.”

However, there was a price to pay for these acts of solidarity. In the penal colonies, they could be harshly punished.

“The [prison] system is aimed at dividing people, and not only political prisoners,” said Alana Gebremariam, who spent two years behind bars for student activism. Sharing anything – even toilet paper – could lead to punishment, such as being held in an isolation cell with no access to letters from the outside world. “You’re kept in this small, damp, dark cell, where all you can do is keep walking around to avoid freezing [to death] if it’s winter and there is no heating,” said Gebremariam.

The women were also subjected to high levels of surveillance. Gebremariam told me that, in the Gomel penal colony, authorities set up a “network of informers” among inmates. As a result, she said, people were “very suspicious of one another” and “scared of telling each other things”. Afanasyeva added that political prisoners were under particularly high levels of scrutiny, and were more likely to be labelled as “maliciously breaking the rules” – an official term that could often lead to punishment. They were made to wear yellow tags on their uniforms, which set them apart from non-political prisoners, who had white tags. Afanasyeva was once denied a visit from a loved one because she had shared “a small piece of ice cream” with another inmate.

Yet these women still found ways to connect with each other. After work at the factory, many formed “interest clubs”, Afanasyeva said. “We would tell [other women inmates] about modern art, or about our hobbies, such as hiking in the mountains, and so on. As for me, I spoke about feminism and femicides.” For example, she explained to other prisoners what domestic violence is – and that being beaten by one’s husband or partner “is not the norm”. Some of the women had been jailed for murdering their husbands or partners, she pointed out, when many of them were acting in self-defence.

'Defiance drove the authorities mad'

Gebremariam added that political prisoners tend to have a higher level of formal education and can pass on their knowledge and skills. She said that they were able to help other inmates understand the political and social situation in Belarus, as well as supporting them practically with actions such as appealing their convictions. She said it was important to educate these women about the outside world. They might have spent 10 to 20 years behind bars. For some, “the last thing they saw was a push-button phone,” so they needed to catch up with developments in Belarus and internationally, including being told about the 2020 protests and the women’s marches.

Gebremariam said you could always spot a fellow political prisoner, because they refused to be victims. “They were recognisable by their smile, their straight posture and their appearance, including hair and makeup; and by the way they carried themselves as they walked through the [colony] streets, with their heads up high,” she said. Zhukouskaya, the researcher, noted the importance of maintaining this attitude. “In a situation of absolute control, domination and violence, where people are reduced to the status of animals, the very fact of preserving one’s dignity is an act of resistance,” she said.

Red lipstick became a symbol for supporters of Maria Kolesnikova, mimicking the opposition figure’s signature style. “This [kind of defiance] drove the authorities mad, because they wanted to see prisoners broken and humiliated. Instead, they saw beautiful women in front of them,” said Zhukouskaya. The prisoners were later forbidden from wearing red lipstick.

The political prisoners would also try to lift the morale of their fellow inmates by organising their morning routine with an emphasis on helping each other out – such as making coffee for everyone instead of just themselves – and finding opportunities for creativity and generosity. “We drew together, we made things with our hands; we gave gifts to each other for birthdays, and New Year’s Eve,” Gebremariam said. They hand-made gifts from materials that were permitted, such as paper for origami. “We gave one of the girls a heart made from old red fabric, which we filled with feathers from a pillow.”

Secret acts of protest

There was also something else that prison guards couldn’t prevent women from sharing with one another: laughter. Ksenia Lutskina recalled how they would find humour even in the barbaric prison conditions. One of the cells was comically small – maybe nine square metres for the beds, toilet and the table where they sat to eat their food. “And so, we used to joke that while sitting on the toilet, we could put our feet on the table!”

Gebremariam told me that some of the guards couldn’t help but feel moved by the dignity and integrity of the political prisoners. She remembers one who worked in the detention centre where they were sent before trial. He was “a very simple man, who spent 15 years working in the [prison] system”. At first, he looked at political prisoners “suspiciously”, she recalls, but “little by little”, he became “intrigued” by them. “He would come near our cell and ask us what we were doing and how we were feeling.”

During their trial in court, she and other defendants had to stand next to a wall with their hands tied behind their backs “for an hour and a half, or two hours”. But the guard must have decided that this was not right, because he let them have breaks – taking them to the restroom or to have a smoke.

“When the trial was over, he said he was very tired of working in the system,” Gebremariam said. “He said its cruelty and absence of humanity was killing him, and that he wanted to live a simple life and didn’t care what became of him – whether he worked as a taxi driver, or went back home to help his father in the countryside.” I asked her what became of the man. “As far as I know, he did quit.”

But that was more of an exception, rather than the rule, she emphasised. Some guards, on the contrary, “wanted to hurt people, mentally and physically, in very perverse and sadistic ways”. Afanasyeva agreed – many of them were “overly proactive” in punishing prisoners. That’s why she often chose secret, small acts of protest, like studding the sewing cushion with red and white pins. Of the guards she said, “there is no sense in trying to prove something to them.”

The female-led government-in-exile

But with fellow prisoners it was different. She told me about making bouquets of three autumn leaves, to resemble the red-and-white opposition flag. Another form of hidden protest was doing work poorly at the sewing factory, which for her wasn’t hard to achieve. “It happened naturally because I’m not very skilled at sewing!” she laughed.

She was skilled at decorating, though. She told me how, in the colony, they only had black clothes, but they were permitted to mark these items with their names, in bleach, so that they wouldn’t get stolen. Along with some other political detainees, Afanasyeva added glittery paint to the bleach and marked one of her T-shirts with a “GRL PWR” inscription. She hid the T-shirt under other clothes, but secretly wearing it made her feel powerful.

As we talked, she lifted up the black T-shirt and showed me the words “GRL PWR” written on the back. She was able to smuggle it out of the penal colony. Now it reminds her of the years spent in imprisonment, but also of the bonds she formed with the other women, some of whom she still sees now that they’ve been released. “Many of them have become my close friends,” she tells me. “Going to the cinema, sharing a pizza, or even having a chat with someone who has been through a similar experience is easier. That’s why we stick together.”

Today, Lukashenko has regained total political control of Belarus, having dismantled the opposition and clamped down on civil society. And although he has released dozens of political prisoners under US pressure, many women dissidents remain in captivity. Inside Belarus, no one talks in public about the political prisoners. But their cause is considered a top priority by Belarusian civil society, which continues to organise abroad.

The 2020 protests showed what civil society might be able to acheive, as well as women’s ability to take the lead. Within hours of her release in December, Maria Kolesnikova was filmed wearing her signature red lipstick and calling for the release of those who remain in prison. Tsikhanouskaya has formed a government-in-exile, which is preparing democratic reforms that, according to Zhukouskaya, will be implemented as soon as “a window of opportunity” opens for political changes.

When that happens, she hopes that civil society in Belarus will come together to build a new future. Perhaps it will be led by women – once they return from exile and are released from jail. Lukashenko has put much effort into cracking down on them. But listening to the women I spoke to gave me the feeling that the state hasn’t yet managed to crush this source of resilience and opposition.

This article is from New Humanist's Spring 2026 edition. Subscribe now.

I have a variety of techniques I use to deal with the ongoing collapse of everything, most of them different kinds of drugs. But I also have healthy habits, like reading, and when it comes to reading purely for pleasure, I find myself turning back again and again to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. If you …

This post contains a video, which you can also view here. To support more videos like this, head to patreon.com/rebecca! Transcript: I’ve previously admitted my enjoyment of the true crime genre, so you may not be surprised by a recent news story I’ve been following: an Austrian man has been found guilty of gross negligent …

Here is a quick and easy way of boosting your motivation….

There was a long running rivalry between tennis stars Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. In 2012, they faced one another in the final of the US Open. Murray took the first two sets but Djokovic battled back to win the next two sets. Murray took a toilet break and, according to several reports, looked in the bathroom mirror and shouted “You are not losing this match…you are not going to let this one slip’ Murray then walked back out and faced his opponent for the deciding set.

In 2014, psychologist Sanda Dolcos (University of Illinois) carried out some great experiments exploring how motivation is affected by whether we talk to ourselves in either the first or second person.

In one study, she had people try to complete some difficult anagrams. Some participants were asked to motivate themselves by using first-person sentences (“I can do it”) whilst others gave themselves a second-person pep talk (“You can do it”). Those using the ‘you’ word completed far more anagrams than those using the ‘I’ word. Dolcos then asked other people to motivate themselves to exercise more in either the first person (‘I should go for a run now’) or second person (’You must go to the gym’). Those using the ‘you’ word ended up feeling far more positive about going for a run or visiting a gym, and planned to take more exercise over the coming weeks.

Whatever the explanation, it is a simple but effective shortcut to motivation. And it worked for Andy Murray because he broke Djokovic’s serve, won the shortest set of the match, and emerged victorious.

When you are in need of some fast acting and powerful motivation, talk to yourself using the magic ‘you’ word. Tell yourself that ‘you can do it’, that ‘you’ love whatever it is that you have to do, and that ‘you’ will make a success of it. You may not end up winning the US Open, but you will discover how just one word has the power to motivate and energise.

Dolcos, S., & Albarracin, D. (2014). The inner speech of behavioral regulation: Intentions and task performance strengthen when you talk to yourself as a You. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(6), 636–642.

This post contains a video, which you can also view here. To support more videos like this, head to patreon.com/rebecca! Transcript: I have to start this video with a content warning, because I’m going to be discussing some male-on-female violence and slavery, but I hope you are able to watch because I think it’s important. …

I recently ran a session at the University of Hertfordshire on the 7 factors that I believe underpin an impactful presentation.

While preparing, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a hugely knowledgeable director who had worked with many magicians. He explained that magicians often weaken their performances by letting the audience experience the magic at different times.

Imagine that a magician drops an apple into a box and then tips it forward to show that the apple has vanished. The box must be turned from side to side so that everyone in the audience can see inside. As a result, each person experiences the disappearance at a slightly different moment and the impact is diluted.

Now imagine a different approach. The apple goes into the box. The lid is pulled off and all four sides drop down simultaneously. This time, everyone sees the disappearance at the same time and the reaction is far stronger.

The same principle applies to talks. Some years ago, I ran a year-long experiment with the British Science Association about investing on the FTSE 100. We gave a notional £5,000 to a regular investor, a financial astrologer (who invested based on company birth dates) and a four-year-old child who selected shares at random!

If I simply show the final graph, people in the audience interpret it at different speeds. Some spot the outcome instantly. Others take longer. The moment fragments.

Instead, I build it step by step. First, I show a blank graph and explain the two axes.

Then I reveal that both the professional investor and the financial astrologer lost money.

Finally, I reveal that the four-year-old random share picker outperformed them both!

Now the entire audience sees the result at the same moment — and reacts together. That shared moment creates energy.

It’s a simple idea:

Don’t just reveal information. Orchestrate the moment of discovery.

If you want bigger reactions, stronger engagement, and more memorable talks, make sure your audience experiences the key moments together.

This week we have a quick quiz to test your understanding of sleep and dreaming. Please decide whether each of the following 7 statements are TRUE or FALSE. Here we go….

1) When I am asleep, my brain switches off.

2) I can learn to function well on less sleep.

3) Napping is a sign of laziness.

4) Dreams consist of meaningless thoughts and images.

5) A small amount of alcohol before bedtime improves sleep quality.

6) I can catch up on my lost sleep at the weekend.

7) Eating cheese just before you go to bed gives you nightmares

OK, here are the answers…..

1) When I am asleep, my brain switches off: Nope. When you fall asleep, your sense of self-awareness shuts down, but your brain remains highly active and carries out tasks that are essential for your wellbeing.

2) I can learn to function well on less sleep: Nope. Sleep is a biological need. You can force yourself to sleep less, but you will not be fully rested, and your thoughts, feelings and behaviour will be impaired.

3) Napping is a sign of laziness: Nope. Your circadian rhythm make you sleepy towards the middle of the afternoon, and so napping is natural and makes you more alert, creative, and productive.

4) Dreams consist of meaningless thoughts and images: Nope. During dreaming your brain is often working through your concerns, and so dreams can provide an insight into your worries and help come up with innovative solutions.

5) A small amount of alcohol before bedtime improves sleep quality: Nope. A nightcap can help you to fall asleep, but also causes you to spend less time in restorative deep sleep and having fewer dreams.

6) I can catch up on my lost sleep at the weekend: Nope. When you fail to get enough sleep you develop a sleep debt. Spending more time in bed for a day will help but won’t fully restore you for the coming week.

7) Eating cheese just before you go to bed gives you nightmares: Nope. The British Cheese Board asked 200 volunteers to spend a week eating some cheese before going to sleep and to report their dreams in the morning. None of them had nightmares.

So there we go. They are all myths! How did you score?

A few years ago I wrote Night School – one of the first modern-day books to examined the science behind sleep and dreaming. In a forthcoming blog post I will review some tips and tricks for making the most of the night. Meanwhile, what are your top hints and tips for improving your sleep and learning from your dreams?

I am a huge fan of Dale Carnegie and mention him in pretty much every interview I give. Carnegie was American, born in 1888, raised on a farm, and wrote one of the greatest self-help books of all time, How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book has now sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

I first came across his work when I was about 10 years old and read this book on showmanship and presentation….

According to Edward Maurice, it’s helpful if magicians are likeable (who knew!), so he recommended that they read Carnegie’s book. I still have my original copy, and it’s covered in my notes and highlights.

One of my favourite — and wonderfully simple — pieces of advice is to smile more. Since the book was written, psychologists have discovered lots about the power of smiling. There is evidence that forcing your face into a smile makes you feel better (known as the facial feedback hypothesis). In addition, it often elicits a smile in return and, in doing so, makes others feel good too. As a result, people enjoy being around you. But, as Carnegie says, it must be a genuine smile, as fake grins look odd and are ineffective. Try it the next time you meet someone, answer the telephone, or open your front door. It makes a real difference.

In another section of the book, Carnegie tells an anecdote about a parent whose son went to university but never replied to their letters. To illustrate the importance of seeing a situation from another person’s point of view, Carnegie advised the parent to write a letter saying that they had enclosed a cheque — but to leave out the cheque. The son replied instantly.

Then there is the power of reminding yourself how much the people in your life mean to you. Carnegie once asked the great stage illusionist Howard Thurston about the secret of his success. Thurston explained that before he walked on stage, he always reminded himself that the audience had been kind enough to come and see him. Standing in the wings, he would repeat the phrase, “I love my audience. I love my audience.” He then walked out into the spotlight with a smile on his face and a spring in his step.

This is not the only link between Carnegie and magic. Dai Vernon was a hugely influential exponent of close-up magic and, in his early days, billed himself as Dale Vernon because of the success of Dale Carnegie (The Vernon Touch, Genii, April 1973). In addition, in 1947 Carnegie was a VIP guest at the Magicians’ Guild Banquet Show in New York. Here is a rare photo of the great author standing with several famous magicians of the day (from Conjurers Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4; courtesy of the brilliant Lybrary.com).

Front row (left to right): Elsie Hardeen, Dell O’Dell, Gladys Hardeen, J. J. Proskauer
Back row: E. W. Dart, Terry Lynn, Al Flosso, Mickey MacDougall, Al Baker, Warren Simms, Dale Carnegie, Max Holden, Jacob Daley

If you don’t have a copy, go and get How to Win Friends and Influence People. Some of the language is dated now, but the thinking is still excellent. Oh, and there is an excellent biography of Carnegie by Steven Watts here.

check, 1, 2…is this thing on? hi everyone! it’s been a while.

Someone contacted me hoping to find young atheists who might be interested in being part of a new series. I’m not particularly interested in having my mug on TV, but I would love to have some great personalities represent atheism on the show, so I offered to repost his email on my blog: My name […]

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