Our favourites this week

Do you trust enough? Most of our daily interactions run on trust, yet being too trusting is casually dismissed as a character flaw. But if, like me, you worry about looking stupid and economise on trust as a result, this could have serious consequences, not just for your personal life but for society at large. So trust and learn! The worst that can happen is you get better at trusting. (Carmen Schaack, member support manager) The smart move: we learn more by trusting than by not trusting (reading time: five minutes)
How to perform necromancy Curator’s Corner is a YouTube series by the British Museum in which the museum’s curators talk with endearing passion about all kinds of ancient artefacts that are under their care, from primitive tattoos to medieval swords and everything in between. In this short video, the incredible Irving Finkel talks us through how to summon the dead using Mesopotamian techniques. (Afonso Gonsalves, editorial designer) Ever wanted to know how to summon an ancient Mesopotamian ghost? (Viewing time: two minutes)
The journey to freedom Almost four years ago, Behrous Boochani, an Iranian-Kurdish journalist, human rights defender, poet and film producer, wrote this article in an offshore Australian immigration facility. He had already been imprisoned there for 28 months after fleeing Iran and arriving in Australia hoping to seek asylum. He went on to write his ‘diary of disaster’ for the Guardian about his last days inside Manus Island detention centre, as well as a memoir, which was written on a mobile phone. This week, Boochani tweeted: ‘I just arrived in New Zealand. So exciting to get freedom after more than six years ... Thank you to all the friends who made this happen.’ (Imogen Champagne, engagement editor) This is Manus Island. My prison. My torture. My humiliation (reading time: seven minutes)

The best of The Correspondent

Still from a homevideo of Maryam. How the things we don’t remember shape us just as much as those we do Aged 12, Maryam Zaree discovered she had been born in one of Iran’s most notorious prisons. I spoke to her about her new documentary, Born in Evin, which explores childhood memory and trauma. Read Irene Caselli’s article here. Interior decorated with colonial artifacts. Colonialism in the decor: we can’t keep sweeping the past under the leopard skin rug At the end of the colonial era, hundreds of thousands of individuals brought objects home. From the horrific to the banal, these relics should be a starting point to reckon with the west’s violent history. Read Elliot Ross’s article here. The leader of Water Station covering one of the water stations with wood and a rock to safeguard the bottles of water. Tales from the border: rewriting the narrative of the anonymous migrant Every year, hundreds of people die along the US-Mexico border. Government policy is deliberately deadly, dehumanising and erasing those who try crossing. Author Jason De León joined us to discuss invisible violence, immigration policy, and unexpected humour. Read OluTimehin Adegbeye’s article here.