Latest Articles

Has Sydney Sweeney really done it this time? News Section Editor Siya Pujari talks dodgy branding deals, eugenics and the dangerous reality consumerism is heading towards. If you are tired of reading about Sydney Sweeney’s jeans, look away! Now that you’ve been warned, I do find the discourse around the notorious American Eagle ad and how Sweeney has been torn apart by the culture interesting—specifically, how it is always a woman who becomes the topic of relentless criticism

Editorial Assistant Emily Chan interrogates the one question we all have in the back of our minds. What if I don’t know what I want? It spreads across the dinner table like poison, squeezing between the gentle scrapes of metal forks on ceramic plates, so quiet you wouldn’t have heard it if you weren’t so busy eating, if the conversation hadn’t lulled. There is a change in the air; it stiffens, then stirs, then stiffens again, as if unsure of its place, unsure if it’s taking

Editorial Assistant Daniel Palmer traces the complex relationship between the Australian cultural landscape and the phenomenon of paranormal activity. The paranormal is a phenomenon intrinsically borne from suspicion. With rumours in America of strange aircraft flying, and a growing cultural paranoia aimed at both foreign and domestic governments, a new suspicion took shape. As the Cold War’s disquieting malaise seeped into everyday life, a new form of the phenomena surged in

News Editorial Assistant Maryam Bokhari contemplates the tension between performance and authenticity, even when no one is watching. It seems like all we were born to do is be perceived, viewed in such a way that means something, right before we’re even allowed to find that meaning for ourselves. Our whole life is being spent and broadcast on the internet, and because of this, I’ve found myself slowly splitting: Half girl, half digital. When will the surveillance cameras in

Editorial Assistant Ella Barker reflects on a beautifully personal moment of love and passion for ancient history. At 14 years old I was shy, bookish, and nerdy, so of course I became obsessed with history. I read and read and read everything I could about everything I could and fell in love with every corner of the past. Each nook and cranny of my soul still holds these corners close, so when I stood in the middle of the ruins of Pompeii, staring at Vesuvius, my shoulders b

Editorial Assistant and board game expert Max Cooper shares his top strategies for ultimate victory. Have you ever played a board game? Do you enjoy winning immensely? If you don’t: head to the next page, get out of here. However, if you do and are willing to sell your soul, read on. Below is an overview of both brutal and manipulative tactics, as well as some more conventional strategic ones, to guide you towards winning at Risk and Catan, two board games I have a NICHE int

EXT. SMALL STONE TOWER – DAY A great oak door with an iron door knocker. A wooden signpost with medieval-looking script: SWORN BRETHREN ONLY (CAPACITY: ABSOLUTE MINIMUM) A golden glow emanates from the gap between the door and cobblestone floor. A KNIGHT clad in armour stands guard. Only his steely, unblinking eyes are visible. A nametag taped to his breastplate reads, in messy calligraphy, NOBLE. A REGULAR GUY , in jeans and a Depeche Mode T-shirt, whistles as he walks by,

My eyes trace the path of my wet, red fingerprint, studying the loops and the gaps, a tiny maze: mine, a question only I can answer. The ninth year has come again. I can hear his footsteps, his slow, shaky breaths. He is the only one left. Soon, the blood will dry. Death, sacrifice. An impression of justice, but not the thing itself. When the slaughter ceases, I will lay still and pretend to rest, waiting for the screams to begin again. by Krystal Ursino Anderson

love knocked on my door again when i least expected it. it was raining that day—thick, torrential, and so unrelenting that i almost missed it entirely. i hadn't seen it in months, but there love stood, drenched and muddy, waiting for me to let it in. love had never left me gently before. never when i was ready, and always taking so much more than i thought i could bear. whether love left suddenly, pulling the rug from under my feet, or quietly—in ways i didn't notice until

Water droplets flying, BEEP! Young men thick and broad, Young women muscled and strong. Make sure you warm up, don’t just stand there. Swing my arms around, pound my chest, This is my place, my lane, my water. Cap sticks, goggles sink, thoughts race. Up, up, on the block. Everything goes narrow. This is where I belong. BEEP! LAUNCH FORward boulder into the water, move, move, move, move. burning, tired, losing. take a breath, and i’ve lost, i don’t belong here. by Max

my favourite snippets of my existing poems from the ongoing series “Friends At Work”. for beth, kate, sienna, jordan and flynn. the rest are coming, I promise! we’re different fonts in the same love letter; you are bold and inviting, driving the pen against the paper, scribble your art onto another post-it i collect and carry these bits and pieces of you no words needed but we can’t stop talking joined at the hip so we move as one you know me before i know myself we are one a

MOLOTOV COCKTAIL Might have to cop a mocktail on fire at the pub And I don’t wanna drop tales that I’ll regret… I don’t wanna black out and forget… We can’t go back now like stepping on a tack, ow, hits like a truck, POW, like caught in a trap, P.O.W. Wrecking ball by Miley Cyrus spills out speakers but inside us 300 too many cigarettes, You feel it in your chest like a kick into the pit, Leonidas Tripping over your own tracks, said words with no take backs. You made a bad i

“Oh no.” Sun-baked tarmac stretched for miles in either direction. Ahead, raptors hung suspended between the crystal sky and the crimson earth. Their eyes were fastened to a shape writhing below, though Sahara struggled to make it out. It was as if the air itself was fabric, and the heat made it visible as it fluttered. Sahara eased on the brakes. The Jeep rattled to a stop. You’d never guess it was silver beneath all the grit. The door latch clicked and her boots hit the ta

A halo of blood surrounded the tooth, seeping into the cotton below. She grasped the pearl and studied it in the moonlight—this small pearl of bone, perfectly imperfect. She paused over the child, the soft breath of a peaceful sleep, undisturbed. Her attention returned to her treasure. She pondered its form, its texture, its taste. She leaned in close and whispered, “You remember me, don’t you?” She had made this tooth, it was hers to reclaim. She pulled the tooth closer

Nathan Colebrook speaks on overstimulation and how it's not just an autistic niche Being on the spectrum comes with many unique experiences that, in the neurotypical world, don’t often get talked about… I wasn’t initially planning on penning an article for Grapeshot this time. I spent two months trying to think, plan, and then write , no, re write various ideas that had come to mind. Everything from the nicheness of science and the nicheness of love, to the nicheness of West

Navdha Thakkar pulls back the curtain on people watching and the coordinated dance of society People-watching is one of those habits almost everyone has, yet few people openly claim. It sounds passive, maybe even intrusive, despite being quietly universal. Sit still long enough in a shared space, and it becomes unavoidable: you start noticing how carefully people manage themselves. Not in dramatic ways, but through small, precise adjustments, where they stand, how they move,

Editorial Assistant George Logan muses on how, sometimes, being incorrect can be much more fun There are several things that a person might expect to see on a first trip to New York City, a place that some, mostly Americans, state brazenly is the greatest city on Earth. Hot dogs, bodegas, speakeasies, and a man yelling “watch it” from a yellow cab. I saw, felt, and heard all of these things on a recent trip to the Big Apple in December. What I did not expect to find, howev

Editorial Assistant Leah Genc dreamily hikes the Pacific Crest Trail before returning to LinkedIn I think I like knowing it’s there. I think I like knowing that snow settles on the High Sierras in Northern California, a snake glides across the Mojave Desert in search of something seemingly nebulous. Vast scenes that are bound to its own interests. Places that are completely indifferent to your presence, who you pretend to be, who you are, or how many movies you racked up

Editorial Assistant Vanessa Bland defends Mr Toad and investigates how abandoned passions aren’t necessarily failures Have you ever watched the 1984 stop-motion animated tv series of Wind in the Willows ? I love revisiting classics and started binge-watching this one recently with my husband. Yes, it’s a children's show, but after checking the doom sday clock and seeing that it’s at 89 seconds to midnight, I needed to soothe my nerves. The series is sweet, earnest, and very B

Contributor Olivia Jackson gives us a conservation run-down on the world’s largest and heaviest parrot 2026 will be a year to look forward to. Its arrival will bring the next long-awaited breeding season of the critically endangered kākāpō ( Strigops habroptilus ). There are currently 236 individuals left [1]. Their low numbers are due to terrestrial predation and poor reproductive success [2][3]. These rotund, nocturnal, green parrots are endemic to New Zealand and curr

Editorial Assistant Maryam Bokhari covers the inauguration and progressive platform of freshly-appointed Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani “Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously” - Zohran Mamdani [4] January 1 2026 marks a historic milestone for New York City, as Democratic-Socialist state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was officially inaugurated as the city’s first immigrant and Muslim mayor. Mamdani is also the second-youngest person to hold the offi

Editorial Assistant Maryam Bokhari reports on the poorly-received release of American government files documenting the criminal activities of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein On 19 December 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a much-anticipated collection of documents detailing major developments regarding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. These latest releases included large datasets of legal documents, emails and photographs [1]. Multiple photographs included c

Editorial Assistant, Amy Shelton, reports on everything happening in 2026. Get ready for a new year filled with sporting action and entertainment buzz. As calendars are organised and New Year’s resolutions are shared, 2026 has plenty of big changes and events to jot down. MQ UNI Proposed changes to staffing and courses: Macquarie University has proposed changes to the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science and Engineering in 2026 [1]. The aim is for more ‘streamlined’ co