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Bunions, corns, plantar fasciitis: How to nail foot trouble before it’s too late

Some people get the “ick” over feet. Yet problems such as corns and callus are very common. Here’s what causes them as well as the painful condition known as “jogger’s heel”.

  • Madeleine Heffernan

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Hobbies

What’s the secret to a well-rounded life? These researchers have a theory

Whether it’s crafting or learning to play a ukulele, a hobby can boost your mental health and improve your ability to focus. Here’s why.

  • Angus Holland
Andrew MacLeod, pictured in Libya, has travelled to every country in the world.

I have visited every country in the world. Here’s what hurt and what made my soul soar

Fewer than 500 people (including about 10 Australians) have had the privilege of doing this, according to a group that verifies people’s claims, including mine.

  • Andrew MacLeod

How I got out of maths, performed at Sidney Myer Music Bowl and changed the way I hear the world

Going from my rowdy suburban school into the state band was a joy, even if I didn’t play for Princess Diana like the rest of my bandmates.

  • Carolyn Webb
Cabanas line Safety Beach on the Mornington Peninsula.

The hunger for beach property has spilled onto the dunes. Cabanas are an ‘up yours’ to equity

This summer has been a point of no return for the humble beach ambler. If you can’t see our beaches as a shared egalitarian natural resource you can get cabana’d.

  • Jacinta Parsons
Mira is pictured with her parents Genya and Dolfie Blumenstock, her older brother Yanchi and their aunt Olga. Only Mira survived the Holocaust. Dolfie is buried in his home town of Spisska Stara Ves in Slovakia. Mira Unreich’s daughters Rachelle, Lilianne and Jeannette arranged for stones of remembrance -- “Stolpersteine” -- to be laid in the village.

Nazis at the door: The night my family was torn apart, and how their town honoured them

Tracing their mother’s story from a Slovakian village to the death camps of Poland, Rachelle Unreich and her sisters set down stones of remembrance – and found defiance, triumph and kinship.

  • Rachelle Unreich
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The goal was Myer. It was a horrible failure.
  • The year that changed me
  • Family

I thought I was on the bold road to adulthood, until I got lost on the way to Myer

In my journey to adulthood, I was determined to follow my nose, but that only diverted me to the Darrell Lea sweets shop.

  • Martin Galvin
It was a sliding doors moment, in front of three shih tzus and a Chihuahua cross.

I thought I had to quit the thing I loved to become a doctor. I was wrong

I was 16 and had the colours of rolling thunder and driving rain at my fingertips. I thought I had to choose between listening to my head or following my heart.

  • Louis Wang
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My love letter to ye olde postie … Will he mind if I email it?

Letter writers and coin collectors of the world unite! Our analogue days are numbered.

  • Jo Pybus

The year that changed me

We asked writers to share the moments that changed their young lives for The Age 2026 Opinion summer series