We explain how things work, and we show our sources.
Not the news of the minute — the systems behind it. How government, money, technology, health and infrastructure actually work, sourced to primary documents, with a named human behind every piece.
What we publish
Explainers
The signature format. Every piece answers a real question about how something works, with a self-contained Quick Answer, key points, and every source named and linked.
Primers
The definitive reference on a subject we return to — longer, structured, the spine of the archive that the explainers hang beneath.
Reporting
Original work: documents obtained, people interviewed, data gathered rather than aggregated. Low volume, high value.
Analysis
Signed interpretation from writers with relevant expertise — clearly labelled, with a source under every factual claim.
The subjects
Systems that affect people and are badly explained everywhere else — and, deliberately, nothing else.
The weekly edition
Three or four things explained, in plain language, with the sources. One email a week. No spam, no algorithm in between.