The Australian welfare system has always been needlessly cruel. Now it’s punishing half the country | Tom Hawking
As if Coronavirus wasn''t bad enough...
Here's a selection of my work:
Tom Hawking
I'm a writer and editor from Melbourne, Australia. My work focuses on culture, society and politics. I am currently Managing Editor at Renew, and I worked at NYC-based site Flavorwire from 2013-17, including serving as Editor-in-Chief from 2016-17. I have also lived and worked in Greece, the UK and India. My work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, VICE, Quartz, Rolling Stone, and various other outlets.
Writing
Tuning out the static: It took 40 years before I found out that I have ADHD
On being diagnosed with ADHD at 40. It's been a surprisingly positive development!
Science never quite clicked for me at school. Then I discovered science YouTube
My latest obsession (or one of them, anyway): science YouTube!
Çaykh: V I S C 0 9 Album Review | Pitchfork
A review of a really fascinating mixtape for Pitchfork.
Americans Have More Guns
A parody of a ridiculous New York Times op-ed about Australia.
Cat Condo is the stupidest, most cynical game... So why can’t I stop playing?
For the love of god why can I not stop playing this goddamn game
The Block: an Australian obsession, and for some, a life-changing disaster
This week brought the news that “an alarming number” of former residents of Melbourne’s Gatwick Hotel are now in jail. It’s not like no one could see this coming.
Elliott Smith - The J Files
An in-depth examination of Elliott Smith's music and the way that it connects to the many different places he called home.
Our casual use of military jargon is normalizing the militarization of society
Looking into a subject that has long fascinated me — the way in which military jargon has pervaded common vocabulary.
Why the Most Important Olympic Basketball Team Wasn't the Dream Team
Basketball has changed, and the Golden State Warriors are the latest step in a slow, decades-long evolution of the game. To understand it, you have to go back some 25 years, to the 1992 Olympics.
Not With a Bang: What If the Apocalypse Already Happened, and No One Noticed?
When it comes to pop-cultural conceptions of the end of the world, there’s almost always some sort of definitive event that sets the eschatological boulder rolling. But what if there wasn't?
2015 in Culture: Pounded in the Butt by Late Capitalism
I wrote several of these annual "Year in Culture" essays in my time at Flavorwire. This is my favourite, for ... obvious reasons.
Mahatma Gandhi, Baltimore, and the Myth of Nonviolence
A piece that sets out my views on political violence (which are, according to at least one former friend-turned-fascist, "disgraceful.")
Imagining a World Without Work
We have far more people than jobs that actually need doing. Why aren't we all enjoying the benefits?
Waiting for the End of the World: ‘Fallout’ and the Lure of the Apocalypse
More eschatological ruminations! Why is pop culture so obsessed with the end of the world? And why is the thought of complete destruction so weirdly comforting?
12 Leonard Cohen Albums, Ranked From Worst to Best
From the golden era of the listicle: I ranked all his songs for Flavorwire, which left me with the albums to do for Vulture. Yikes.
Robin Williams and the Myth of “Battling” Depression
A rather personal piece on how you don't "battle" depression so much as you do endure it. Remarkably, someone has recorded a reading of it for YouTube.
Yes, All Men: Every Man Needs to Understand Internalized Misogyny and Male Violence
This piece, written during the height of the #MeToo movement and in the aftermath of the Elliott Rodger mass shooting, got me the tentative offer of a book deal. (Which says a lot in and of itself, I think -- I wonder how many women who addressed the topic got such offers.) Nothing ever came of the offer, anyway. But I remain proud of the piece.
Opinion | Eurovision’s Glorious Silliness
While no one takes Eurovision overly seriously, no one wants their country to blow it, either.
Australia, It Doesn't Have to Be This Way
Dealing with the poisonous legacy of the Howard years.
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