Click here for the audio file.Play a Kahoot! game about this story as a class or with your friends by clicking on the link here.Or play on your own below to test your understanding:QuestionsJob 1Job description:Name:Address:Phone number:How long job will take:Approximate cost:Additional details:Job 2Job description:Name:Address:Phone number:How long job will take:Approximate cost:Additional details:AnswersJob 1Job description: repair two windowsName: Charles HoAddress: Apartment 99, Jordan…

Julian Cribb plunges into the toxic soup that is modern life. The author of Earth Detox describes the scale of contamination caused by man-made chemicals, and how we can clean up our poisoned planet. The SCMP presents the Post Books Podcast, with Literary Editor Charmaine Chan, in conversation with authors worldwide about their craft and their books.

Click here for the audio file.Play a Kahoot! game about this story as a class or with your friends by clicking on the link here.Or play on your own below to test your understanding:Questions1 What is the purpose of a good rant?A. to convince someone to do somethingB. to trick another personC. to annoy somebody as a jokeD. to help yourself feel better2 When you need to “get things off your chest”, you …A. feel a tightness in the top part of your body.B. try and understand someone else’s point of…

This week Post literary editor Charmaine Chan speaks with Maxine Bedat, author of Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment, about her idea to follow the journey of an imaginary pair of jeans, from fibre to retail before being cast off, ending up at the final destination for all second-hand apparel from the West - landfill in Ghana. Hear also of her journey through textile manufacturing in China and what she found out about the environmental damaging processes used to make the clothes we throw…

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Questions

1 Which word below suggests that no one knows Banksy’s real identity?

A. famed

B. anonymous

C. suspected

D. graffiti

2 In which parts of Britain did Banksy most recently showcase his work?

A. seaside towns

B. countryside

C. villages

D. market towns

3 What does the word “spraycation” most likely refer to?

A. spending the holidays driving around to different…

In this episode Chelsea Wald, author of “Pipe Dreams”, tells us how the flush toilet is outdated and why new sanitation systems need to cater to different needs. She talks about the pandemic, fatbergs, pit latrines, recycling – and how the poo emoji may be a sign of change to come. SCMP presents the Post Books Podcast, with Literary Editor Charmaine Chan, in conversation with authors worldwide about their craft and their books. Read the feature article: https://sc.mp/2s9a

Tom Vanderbilt, author of “Beginners", talks about learning to be a novice again and why it’s never too late to pick up new skills. SCMP presents the Post Books Podcast, with Literary Editor Charmaine Chan, in conversation with authors worldwide about their craft and their books. In this interview Tom speaks to Charmaine about taking starter steps in mid-life in everything from surfing to singing, to swimming, cycling, drawing and playing chess. From New York, Tom explains why he went back to…

SCMP presents Literary Editor Charmaine Chan, in conversation with authors worldwide about their craft and their books. In this episode she speaks to Hong Kong-based author Larry Feign about The Flower Boat Girl, his historical novel about pirate queen Cheng Yat Sou. Blackbeard has nothing on this Tanka boat woman, who was sold into sexual slavery as a child and kidnapped by the man she ended up marrying. At the height of her power, she commanded 1,800 ships and 80,000 pirates. 

Read the…

In this episode, Nicola Twilley and Geoff Manaugh, co-authors of 'Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine', lead us through the architecture and mores of medical isolation from 14th-century Europe to present-day China into the dystopian beyond. The SCMP presents the Post Books Podcast, with Literary Editor Charmaine Chan, in conversation with authors worldwide about their craft and their books.

Listen to the audio

Voice 1: Welcome back from the commercial break. For our next segment of “This Month in Focus”, we’ll move on to the animal kingdom in our special news roundup. President Joe Biden announced on June 20 that Champ, the older of the family’s two dogs, had died peacefully at home. The German Shepherd was 13.

Voice 2: The Bidens got Champ from a breeder after Biden was elected vice-president in 2008. Champ was a constant presence at both the vice-president’s residence at the…