The Algorithm Age

It’s been a bad week for cruise ships . First there was the young girl who fell overboard in the Bahamas, swiftly pursued by her heroic dad. Then Cannes followed Venice, Nice, Barcelona and Amsterdam in becoming the latest city to ban or restrict giant cruise ships . Finally, Netflix’s new documentary Trainwreck: Poop Cruise told of how in 2013 a fire caused a ship to be cast adrift without power in the Gulf of Mexico. With the toilets no longer flushing, the 4,200 people aboard spent four days defecating into plastic bags. But if that’s the nightmare version of cruising , then Channel 4’s new series Supercruising: Life at Sea is all about selling the dream. This extended advert for a Dutch-American company follows two of their ships: one that is sailing 3,000 passengers from Dover to North Africa, and another that is ferrying a similar number around the Caribbean. The series is very much in the vein of all those other Channel 4 programmes about five-sta...

The Wolves Always Come At Night ★★★ While Berlin-based Australian filmmaker Gabrielle Brady is currently developing her first fully fictional feature, The Wolves Always Come At Night marks her second foray into what she calls “docu-feature”, a hybrid storytelling form that merges observational documentary with elements of fiction, driven by the subjects of the film. Her first was Island of the Hungry Ghosts , which was set on Christmas Island and used the visually arresting annual migration of land crabs as a metaphor for the journeys of asylum seekers across the world. A counsellor called Poh Lin Lee served as a kind of focal point in that movie, helping give individual human shape to stories of mass movement. Lee is involved in the new film too, credited as “narrative therapy consultant”. Also returning is Aaron Cupples, whose work on the ethereal land- and windscape-inspired score is just as impressive as it was on the ...

Taskrabbit CEO Ania Smith took a year off with her family in Argentina—not to escape, but to reset. The break helped her rethink the juggle between career and home, shift household roles, and set the stage for her next big executive moves. Whether it’s driven by burnout or the need to take a meaningful break with an increasingly longer career on the horizon, sabbaticals are experiencing a resurgence. And it’s not just Gen Z grads exploring the world before getting serious about their careers— leaders are joining in too. Take Ania Smith, the CEO of Taskrabbit, for example. She was seemingly at a career high, working as an executive at Airbnb , when she quit it all; she packed up her life and moved to Buenos Aires for a year in 2018 with her husband and three young children, to hit pause. Despite the stigma that often surrounds résumé gaps, Smith scored a promotion on her return–and has since seen her career go from strength to strength. And the 50-year-...

Residents of what was once a key highway stop-off feel they are being passed by as tourists head to Western Australia's north to escape the winter months. Carnarvon, 900 kilometres north of Perth, is the only major town between Geraldton and Karratha. It has generally hosted thousands of caravanners and other travellers on their way to tourist destinations in WA's Pilbara and Kimberley. But many businesses said this year's trade was so poor it could force their permanent closure. Jo Bumbak, who has sold preserves and ice creams using produce from the local area for 26 years, said this would likely be her final season. "There's businesses I've spoken to that said they don't even know if they're going to reopen their doors," she said. "I'm one of those businesses." Ms Bumbak said the length of stay for most caravanners visiting the region had declined, and state government-imposed liquor...

A couple ‘world schooling’ their kids while backpacking have visited 40 countries – and taught their brood to flamenco dance in Spain and marine conservation in Montenegro. Diana Blinks, 41, and her husband, Scott, 47, have world schooled their three daughters – Lucille, 12, Edith, 11 and Hazel, nine – since 2022 when they left their hometown of Tampa, Florida, US. World schooling involves adopting an educational approach where families travel the world, using diverse cultural experiences and real-world settings as their classroom. Desperate to travel and teach their children about the world, the family set off for Paris, France, in July 2022 – before heading to South America, visiting Costa Rica, Mexico and the Caribbean – seeking out school environments and teachers before they get to their next destination. They travelled to 22 different countries in the space of a year – including Spain, Iceland and Greece. Their favourite is Portugal after they came across acr...