In a noisy world where cynics deploy their words as weapons, speaking clearly, thoughtfully and honestly has never felt more vital…

College commencement season is upon us – now is the time to tackle big ideas
Tomos Lewis
Monocle May 2026

“You are your own stories. [And] although you don’t have complete control over the narrative – no author does, I can tell you, you [can] nevertheless create it.”

Toni Morrison, the late US novelist and Nobel laureate
2004 Commencement speech
quoted in Monocle, May 2026
College commencement season is upon us – now is the time to tackle big ideas

“Change? Aren’t things bad enough as they are?”
Lord Salisbury
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1895 – 1902

With AI able to automate an increasing amount of our technological tasks, it makes sense to teach children a skill that helps them to slow down and think about what they want to say and how they want to say it.

Unlike my handwriting, the Republican politicisation of penmanship does make sense
Calligraphy is being politicised in the US, but it seems Ron DeSantis and co might have a point.
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson
Monocle
May 2026

How do you approach a new project?
You have to establish a set of brackets, the parameters of what a project is about…. You set yourself a task or a process of investigation. From there, the output is filtered through interactions, observations, people you’ve met, places you’ve been.

Andu Masebo
Designer
Winner of a Monocle Design Award 2026

Unlike my handwriting, the Republican politicisation of penmanship does make sense
Calligraphy is being politicised in the US, but it seems Ron DeSantis and co might have a point.
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson
Monocle
May 2026

“Hope isn’t a plan and nostalgia is not a strategy”
Mark Carney
Prime minister of Canada

Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

Winston Churchill

Spain would not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they turn up with a bucket.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
post on X
quoted on Reuters

“People come here from a society where the government has told them how to think,” she says. “Many have never had the privilege of challenging these ideas. This is the first time they are being exposed to any other concepts.”

Kawsar Fattahi member of Komala’s Central Committee.

Meet the Kurdish peshmerga fighters waiting to enter the war against Iran
Monocle
MARCH 5, 2026
WRITER Marcel Cartier