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Writing is a privilege, not a punishment. Prose, essays, and stories are vehicles for truth and influence–reflecting a means to bridge individuals and contribute our voice to the vast human experience. Despite the responsibility of academic institutions to uphold the legacy of the written word, Title IX allows American Universities to dole out disciplinary actions in the form of a three-page essay in exchange for a clean slate, demonstrating just how much American universitie

When I first wrote about losing our baby in October 2024, I thought the hardest part would be the miscarriage itself. In many ways, it was. At the time, grief felt enormous. Overwhelming. It filled every room, every conversation, every quiet moment. But it wasn’t always going to stay that way. It might not disappear, but it changes shape, and settles into the everyday. That kind of grief becomes something I carry in my bones alongside everything else — work, relationships, bi

As a mental health research assistant, writer and editor for Inspire the Mind, this is not the first time I have written about sexual violence, and I fear it will not be the last. Sexual violence is not new, nor is the outrage that follows it. For decades, women have shared their stories, challenged harmful attitudes and demanded greater accountability. Yet, despite these efforts, allegations of sexual violence continue to emerge, each a painful reminder of how much remains u

At first glance, acting and hypnosis may seem like very different worlds. But both raise a surprisingly similar question: how can the mind make an imagined reality feel real enough to change what we experience? This question has followed me for years. My name is Tiago Garcia, and my background in Film Studies first made me interested in how actors build characters.

This is how I think about myself today: I’m a retired 63-year-old man, happily married, in excellent health, very comfortable. And yet, I idle high. I just accept that this is part of my makeup. I have brown eyes; I’m 5’- 9”; I weigh 170 pounds. I idle high. Idling high is not a clinical term and it won’t be found in any psychology context of which I am aware. It is just the way I have come to identify with certain characteristics of my life.

It happened out of nowhere, on a Tuesday night. My firstborn, "my sunshine," as I always called him, was making me proud...or so I thought. My son had difficulty with impulse control in the past, but he was in counselling and seemed to be on the right track. At 17, he had secured a well-paying job and planned diligently for his future. He had always been a bright child, excelling in school, so I had high hopes that he would go to college and secure a successful career.

I am currently a visiting researcher at Imperial College London as part of the Mood Instability Research group. I am particularly interested in applying computational approaches, such as machine learning to complex data, to better understand mental health. Machine learning is a computational approach that can examine multiple factors simultaneously and identify patterns in data sets, that may not be apparent when using traditional statistical approaches.

Close your eyes. Imagine you could live anywhere in the world. Money isn’t a consideration, logistics? No problem. Whatever you fancy is available… Got it? Let me guess what you got… a golden sandy beach? Sun rays warming your face? A sangria in one hand with a cabana boy fanning you from the side? Bingo. This is what I envisioned when I decided to move to the South of France with my, at the time, 9-month-old bundle of joy (baby, not a puppy, just to clarify).

Imagine sailing through the most chaotic latitudes of Earth: the so-called Roaring 40s and furious 50’s, uncharted southern seas where your ship, the Marion Dufresne II, is the sole vessel carving a path through these distant waves. After 20 days, you reach a remote island where you’ll spend a whole year with 28 strangers, surrounded by albatrosses, subantarctic fur seals, southern elephant seals, orcas, and penguins. 29 humans. No one else.

When we first meet Bryan, the main character of the new movie Resident Evil, his biggest problems have nothing to do with zombies. He’s a regular guy, working as a medical courier, rushing to finish his final delivery of the night so he can finally go home.

My street is dirty and chaotic, and it does not end. It just goes on and on and on, feeding into other roads and other streets that all look the same. They wrap themselves around this island, squeezing it, constricting it – sucking the life out of it.

I am Martin Osugo, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist working to improve the lives of people with schizophrenia through both clinical practice and research. I first became deeply interested in schizophrenia in my first year of medical school. That interest eventually led me to a PhD at King’s College London’s Department of Psychosis Studies, two years after I qualified as a doctor. I have cared for people with psychosis in my community and inpatient settings.

At the core of any healthcare or science degree, students learn the importance of numbers. Specifically, “bigger” is often synonymous with “success”. It has been viscerally etched into my brain since my undergraduate Psychology research methods and statistics courses: a larger sample size, meaning more individuals enrolled in a study, increases statistical power and overall confidence in the findings.

What does it take to conduct biological mental health research with young people, and what can get in the way? My name is Camila, and I’m a Research Assistant at the Stress Psychiatry and Immunology Lab at King’s College London. Around three years ago, I first joined the team during my undergraduate placement year, working primarily on the CELEBRATE project.

Passionate about history and the lasting impacts of colonisation, I never imagined I’d one day be able to connect it to football, or the World Cup. Yet the 2026 World Cup final made it impossible to ignore the link. The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina was a legendary match for many fans. One that I managed to tune in to watch live. Many saw this as the Lamine Yamal vs Lionel Messi match. One to solidify the legacy of future football.

I study sperm for a living, so I am used to the giggles and raised eyebrows. But here is the fact that surprises almost everyone: we understood the female reproductive system in reasonable scientific detail well before we understood the male one — and in some ways, we are still catching up. This is not an abstract interest for me. As a young and inquisitive scientist, I quickly realised how little knowledge existed around male reproductive health, which pushed me to pursue a

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just spread loneliness and hopelessness - it pushed the already-stretched mental health services past breaking point. Mental health disorders rose by 25% in the pandemic’s first year alone. Traditional, in-person care couldn’t keep up. So, healthcare systems turned to digital interventions delivered through a patient’s phone. 85% of NHS trusts in England now offer digital mental health interventions to adult patients.

A boy diagnosed with cancer at seven years old is not thinking about fatherhood. His parents are not thinking about it either, not really, not while they are absorbing a diagnosis and bracing for treatment. And yet, tucked into that first wave of decisions, is one about a future so distant it barely feels real: whether to try to preserve his fertility before treatment takes it away. I recently completed a DPhil in reproductive science, alongside a master's in clinical embryol

I have read countless articles on the gut-brain relationship, but very few go into depth about one particular concept. As a Nutrition & Lifestyle Practitioner completing an MSc in Psychology & Neuroscience of the Mind-Body Interface, a few classmates asked me to share my knowledge in this area, so I decided to write about the most important thing I’ve learned in the past several years on the gut-brain axis.

Before a baby can understand a single word, before they can even clearly focus on a face, they already know one sound better than any other: their mother’s voice, with research suggesting that infants learn to recognise this specific sound even before they are born. The maternal voice has a profound impact on the baby, playing a crucial role in their cognitive and emotional development, fostering secure attachment, and providing a sense of safety and comfort.

A fun fact about me (and often my go-to ice breaker): Great White Sharks are my favourite animals. Not cats, not dogs, nothing fuzzy or cuddly or cute. And this has been the case since I was 6 or 7 years old. Weird, isn’t it? I’ve made it a habit of weaving my personal interests and hobbies into my Inspire the Mind articles, beyond the work I do as a Trial Manager in Perinatal Psychiatric Research. I’ve previously written about baking sourdough bread, the importance of

When we imagine our lives through the years, it might be easier to imagine a linear, gradual transformation. We were children, now we're adults, and the story continues across a medium of existence, too flux and too holistic for singularities. But when we tell our stories, we often refer to these singularities: moments that became dividing lines between older and newer versions of ourselves. In fact, research shows that people often define their lives around turning points an

In an era of increasing need for understanding mental health and neurodegenerative conditions, identifying links between the two could revolutionise our approach towards clinical care. My name is Lili, and I am a stem cell biologist working at King’s College London in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. I am part of a research group that uses cellular and molecular biology, as well as bioinformatics.

Like many researchers, my journey into Parkinson’s disease began with a personal connection. Growing up with a father with Parkinson’s, I learned early that a diagnosis is only the beginning of the story.