The great school debate and friction-maxxing

Parents have never had more options to give their child the best start in life. But when it comes to choosing the "best" school to provide your child a quality education, that decision can be costly. Author Jane Caro argues that the gap between public and private schools has grown, and turned what many would consider a basic right to education into a minefield of parental guilt. In an age where people are writing entire novels using ChatGPT, author Bri Lee chose to compose her latest work completely by hand. It's a small act of resistance pushing back against the relentless quest for convenience — just one example of a broader trend described by columnist Kathryn Jezer-Morton as 'friction-maxxing'. New research has explored which voices we find more attractive and how our sexuality might shape the kinds of speech that turns us on. Researcher Cate Madill explains what shapes the way we talk, and how our voices reflect power, status and our place in the world.