BTS
A behind-the-scenes look into our long-form stories, events, and all the fun stuff we get up to!
What’s in an Asian year? Deconstructing how we think about time
Working on a story about different Asian new years made our Editorial Lead Nabilah reconsider her ideas about time. In this article, she shares how her research made her question our reliance on the Gregorian calendar and what we can learn from the various Asian calendar systems
Applying visual metaphors: How we visualised period poverty in Asia
This microstory came about when Singaporean period care company Blood launched its “Period-Positive Workplaces” movement in 2022. A communications agency had sent over a press release of the initiative, which included survey findings on period shaming at work. Having never experienced bullying or pressure of any kind related to my
How we talked about sex (ed), baby
We share our process of creating a microstory about the evolution of sex education policy in Singapore over the past two decades, shedding light on its pivotal role in shaping the nation's attitude towards sexuality—and vice versa. We delve into how we collated and analysed over 200
The stories behind the missing: Reporting on enforced disappearances in Balochistan
Our latest piece, written by freelance journalist Somaiyah Hafeez, highlights the silent epidemic of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. A stealthy, routine occurrence across Pakistan, disappearances are particularly rife in the country’s marginalised province. In this inside look at the story, Somaiyah shares her experiences covering this issue as a
Clarifying the complicated issue of carbon credits
In this article, we share our process of creating our data-driven explainer about the voluntary carbon market and Singapore’s role in it. We break down how we turned a large and complex concept into a more digestible piece. This story was written in collaboration with the Earth Journalism Network,
Behind the world of Myanmar's copy songs
The team from Thibi shares their process of creating their groundbreaking data-driven explainer on Myanmar’s “copy thachin” or copy songs movement. This is the first time that Kontinentalist is collaborating with Thibi, a data and design consultancy, on a story. In this article, Thibi breaks down how they pulled
Unearthing the age-old wisdom of Asia’s traditional architecture
Our latest piece on traditional architecture in Asia highlights the local knowledge and vernacular methods that once shaped how people built their homes. In their process of telling this story, our writer Zafirah Zein and designer Munirah Mansoor uncover a wealth of forgotten wisdom and contemporary research on building sustainably
Painting a picture of Jakarta’s roadside food sellers
Arran Ridley and Griselda Gabriele share more about our recent story, Jakarta’s roadside food sellers: Finding a path in a future of convenience. Arran, a freelance writer and researcher, pitched the idea to Kontinentalist, based on his interest in kaki lima sellers, the community of street food vendors in
Making a map of land reclamation in Singapore
How familiar are you with the shape of the land(s) you call home? On the map, most of us identify Singapore as a little red dot, or a diamond at closer view. In our recent story on sand mining and land reclamation, we created a map to examine the
Biggest highlights of the year (so far): The Kontinentalist mid-year review
Launching our own membership programme has been a longstanding goal of ours and now that we’ve finally created this little community of our own, we can’t help but feel a little nostalgic about how far we’ve come! 2023 has been very kind to us folks here at
Live, Love, Lepak: How We Do Leisure at Kontinentalist
We just put out a story called A Woman’s World, where we explore women’s access to public spaces, and specifically how it facilitates their…
How to make: The workshop-survey data story
(or how to amp up a data story with Flourish viz + some code)