Making Sewers

Making My Kids’ Lives A Little Harder

Michelle Cyca | Walrus | 28th August 2025

In praise of "obstacle parenting", a philosophy of child-rearing that is positioned as the antithesis of the "helicopter" or "bulldozer" parenting style. The latter lifts the kid out of every frustrating situation or removes the stumbling block for them. Obstacle parents allow their charges — within safe parameters — to get bored or be frustrated so that they can develop their own skills to overcome these feelings (2,300 words)

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What We Find in the Sewers

Calum Drysdale | Asimov Press | 25th August 2025

On humanity's cyclical history with sewage. "What we flush is not just filth, but information, energy, and opportunity. Bazalgette’s achievements were wonders for his time, but now, sewage is too valuable to waste. The next great civil engineer will be the one able, paradoxically, to bring sewage back into human life, enabling it to be assayed and mined, restoring its value to those who made it" (6,600 words)