Oliver Basciano
@olibasciano.bsky.social
Writing, reporting, criticising. Mostly in south of the world.
OUTCAST: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World is out now. You can buy it here: https://linktr.ee/oliverbasciano
OUTCAST: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World is out now. You can buy it here: https://linktr.ee/oliverbasciano
Pinned
Oliver Basciano
@olibasciano.bsky.social
· Jun 19
Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World is published today. It tells the 4000 year history of the disease and its stigma, and the remarkable lives of those affected past and present. I am very proud of it, and beyond thankful to those who told their story.
Last night, with my phone volume accidentally on, I was woken up in quick succession by the Ukrainiam air raid app that I have still and a Brazilian civil defence push notice of a cyclone. Only the cyclone came for me.
November 8, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Last night, with my phone volume accidentally on, I was woken up in quick succession by the Ukrainiam air raid app that I have still and a Brazilian civil defence push notice of a cyclone. Only the cyclone came for me.
128 people murdered by Rio police.
Awful things unfolding in Rio, over 60 dead, lots of favelados friends either unable to go home or trapped in their homes. Evil cops, evil state governor.
October 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM
128 people murdered by Rio police.
Awful things unfolding in Rio, over 60 dead, lots of favelados friends either unable to go home or trapped in their homes. Evil cops, evil state governor.
October 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Awful things unfolding in Rio, over 60 dead, lots of favelados friends either unable to go home or trapped in their homes. Evil cops, evil state governor.
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers' rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ys...
Login • Instagram
Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
www.instagram.com
October 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM
We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers' rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ys...
Wrote about the rogue scheme to share museum membership cards that has been doing the rounds in London artist Whatsapp groups. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘It’s a bit clandestine, a bit punk’: the guerrilla scheme letting skint artists mass-share gallery membership cards
Now 600 strong, the Artist Membership Project is helping young artists see exhibitions while dodging hefty entry fees at top British institutions. We meet the founder of the scheme
www.theguardian.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Wrote about the rogue scheme to share museum membership cards that has been doing the rounds in London artist Whatsapp groups. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Very proud that I, editor-at-large at ArtReview magazine, have not ben to the Frieze Art Fair in a decade. Career making.
October 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Very proud that I, editor-at-large at ArtReview magazine, have not ben to the Frieze Art Fair in a decade. Career making.
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
Evolutionary biologist @scs22.bsky.social has had a lot of success recently sequencing ancient RNA viruses from museum samples. This summer I had the chance to accompany him and a team of researchers to the Arctic where they hope that the permafrost might allow them to go further back in time.
🧪
🧪
On an Arctic archipelago, frozen soil may preserve a hidden history of viruses
Scientists are hunting for ancient RNA in Svalbard’s permafrost, hoping to shed light on the evolution of viral diseases
www.science.org
October 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Evolutionary biologist @scs22.bsky.social has had a lot of success recently sequencing ancient RNA viruses from museum samples. This summer I had the chance to accompany him and a team of researchers to the Arctic where they hope that the permafrost might allow them to go further back in time.
🧪
🧪
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World x Oliver Basciano hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/o...
Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World x Oliver Basciano
320. June 17, 2025, Faber and Faber. Non-fiction. It took me longer than normal to read this book; in certain places it’s really hard to get through—for empath reasons. It shows so clearly how huma…
hararereview.wordpress.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World x Oliver Basciano hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/o...
Heartened by @hararereview.bsky.social 's description of Outcast: "Fascinating and expansive, you’ll likely never read anything more magisterial. If you read just one non-fiction/history book this year, make it this one".
Taking this as my Nobel.
hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/o...
Taking this as my Nobel.
hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/o...
Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World x Oliver Basciano
320. June 17, 2025, Faber and Faber. Non-fiction. It took me longer than normal to read this book; in certain places it’s really hard to get through—for empath reasons. It shows so clearly how huma…
hararereview.wordpress.com
October 9, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Heartened by @hararereview.bsky.social 's description of Outcast: "Fascinating and expansive, you’ll likely never read anything more magisterial. If you read just one non-fiction/history book this year, make it this one".
Taking this as my Nobel.
hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/o...
Taking this as my Nobel.
hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/o...
Bang on solid Nobel lit choice that.
October 9, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Bang on solid Nobel lit choice that.
I will forever lap up 'academics and scientists find out they have got the Nobel in slightly comic or heart warming fashion'.
October 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
I will forever lap up 'academics and scientists find out they have got the Nobel in slightly comic or heart warming fashion'.
Always stand up to bullies.
"I had a great talk with the president of Brazil. He's a good man ... Yeah, we'll start doing business" - Trump on Lula just now 👀
October 6, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Always stand up to bullies.
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
The pope got mansplained the Bible.
really enjoying all the people trying to explain the bible to the pope today
October 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The pope got mansplained the Bible.
PRs! Top tip! If your client can't be trusted to speak, don't say they are too busy for an interview but will reply to written questions. Clearly the latter takes far longer.
Anyway. No.
Anyway. No.
October 1, 2025 at 11:55 AM
PRs! Top tip! If your client can't be trusted to speak, don't say they are too busy for an interview but will reply to written questions. Clearly the latter takes far longer.
Anyway. No.
Anyway. No.
Brazil sadly came last in this year's Intervision, the song contest established by Russia after they were thrown out of Eurovision. Despte the act really leaning into "being Brazilian". www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJl...
Luciano Calazans & Tais Nader - Pipoca com Amor (LIVE) | Brazil 🇧🇷 | Intervision’25
YouTube video by INTERVISION 2025
www.youtube.com
September 25, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Brazil sadly came last in this year's Intervision, the song contest established by Russia after they were thrown out of Eurovision. Despte the act really leaning into "being Brazilian". www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJl...
Wrote a few obits recently. Perhaps the saddest personally being for John Morgan, the graphic designer (including of ArtReview). You can read that here in the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
John Morgan obituary
Graphic designer who dispensed with the traditional prayer book aesthetic in Common Worship for the Church of England and produced lettering for HMS Victory
www.theguardian.com
September 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Wrote a few obits recently. Perhaps the saddest personally being for John Morgan, the graphic designer (including of ArtReview). You can read that here in the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
I went to the first Nag Nag Nag, and then most weeks thereafter. On the second week I chatted up a nice looking boy, There was no plan I'd be living with him and a dog twenty-three years later in Brazilian mountains, but I guess these things happen.
September 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I went to the first Nag Nag Nag, and then most weeks thereafter. On the second week I chatted up a nice looking boy, There was no plan I'd be living with him and a dog twenty-three years later in Brazilian mountains, but I guess these things happen.
Currently reading Mircea Cărtărescu and revelling in the fact I have no idea what's going on most of the time. Just a massive wave of post-war (set) Romanian brilliant madness.
question: how much does it bother you in a book if you don’t quite understand what’s going on? what measures do you take to remedy this lack of understanding? what novels most rewarded your further investigation?
September 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Currently reading Mircea Cărtărescu and revelling in the fact I have no idea what's going on most of the time. Just a massive wave of post-war (set) Romanian brilliant madness.
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
"The operating orthodoxy was that police killings, CIA coups, black site torture, and institutional misogyny were aberrations, deviations from the American norm that would eventually be corrected when the arc of the moral universe, long as it is, finally got around to them."
if you read one thing today, make it this absolutely devastating piece from a fact-checker who quit the New Yorker
bidoun.org/articles/hou...
bidoun.org/articles/hou...
September 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
"The operating orthodoxy was that police killings, CIA coups, black site torture, and institutional misogyny were aberrations, deviations from the American norm that would eventually be corrected when the arc of the moral universe, long as it is, finally got around to them."
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
if you read one thing today, make it this absolutely devastating piece from a fact-checker who quit the New Yorker
bidoun.org/articles/hou...
bidoun.org/articles/hou...
September 17, 2025 at 1:57 PM
if you read one thing today, make it this absolutely devastating piece from a fact-checker who quit the New Yorker
bidoun.org/articles/hou...
bidoun.org/articles/hou...
Wrote on Donald Locke and Anderson Borba and, I guess, bodies joyful and cruel.
Working generations apart, both artists use the bodily form as a vehicle for self-expression and preservation artreview.com/donald-locke...
‘Bits, Boobs and Bullets’: Donald Locke and Anderson Borba
Working generations apart, both artists use the bodily form as a vehicle for self-expression and preservation
artreview.com
September 17, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Wrote on Donald Locke and Anderson Borba and, I guess, bodies joyful and cruel.
Bolsonaro convicted. 💚
September 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Bolsonaro convicted. 💚
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
Two books I've read recently that have entirely put me off Gauguin (was never on, but now decidedly off):
- Outcast x @olibasciano.bsky.social
- Annah, Infinite x @mailbykite.bsky.social
- Outcast x @olibasciano.bsky.social
- Annah, Infinite x @mailbykite.bsky.social
September 4, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Two books I've read recently that have entirely put me off Gauguin (was never on, but now decidedly off):
- Outcast x @olibasciano.bsky.social
- Annah, Infinite x @mailbykite.bsky.social
- Outcast x @olibasciano.bsky.social
- Annah, Infinite x @mailbykite.bsky.social
Reposted by Oliver Basciano
Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this.
I hope it endures.
I hope it endures.
Melvyn Bragg has decided to stand down as host of In Our Time, the BBC says.
September 3, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this.
I hope it endures.
I hope it endures.
Enjoyed this conversation between @questingvole.bsky.social and @joannapocock.bsky.social on buses, app disenfranchisement and the US.
Joanna Pocock: Greyhound
Sam Leith's guest for this week's Book Club podcast is Joanna Pocock, whose new book Greyhound describes two trips she took across America by Greyhound bus in 2006 and 2023. They talk about the litera...
www.spectator.co.uk
August 30, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Enjoyed this conversation between @questingvole.bsky.social and @joannapocock.bsky.social on buses, app disenfranchisement and the US.