Tom Hawking

Renew • 1st July 2022

Wishing on a bottled star

In which I take it upon myself to write about nuclear fusion, because physics is fascinating! (PDF)

The Guardian • 25th March 2020

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...

The Guardian • 9th July 2019

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!

The Guardian • 5th March 2019

Science never quite clicked for me at school. Then I discovered science YouTube

My latest obsession (or one of them, anyway): science YouTube!

Pitchfork • 15th January 2019

Çaykh: V I S C 0 9 Album Review | Pitchfork

A review of a really fascinating mixtape for Pitchfork.

The Baffler • 14th January 2019

Americans Have More Guns

A parody of a ridiculous New York Times op-ed about Australia.

The Guardian • 22nd November 2018

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.

Quartz • 14th August 2018

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.

Double J • 14th August 2018

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.

Rolling Stone • 2nd August 2016

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.

Flavorwire • 7th March 2016

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?

Flavorwire • 22nd December 2015

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.

Flavorwire • 29th April 2015

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.")

Flavorwire • 21st April 2015

Imagining a World Without Work

We have far more people than jobs that actually need doing. Why aren't we all enjoying the benefits?

Flavorwire • 10th March 2015

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?

Vulture • 29th September 2014

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.

Flavorwire • 13th August 2014

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.

Flavorwire • 30th May 2014

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.

The New York Times • 9th May 2014

Opinion | Eurovision’s Glorious Silliness

While no one takes Eurovision overly seriously, no one wants their country to blow it, either.

Vice • 16th April 2014

Australia, It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

Dealing with the poisonous legacy of the Howard years.