Journalism is steadily becoming less and less liveable, due to structural problems and political interference. From heroic poses to varying degrees of denial, each professional develops their own individual strategies to cope with sustained pressure. Our publishing doesn’t usually focus on authors’ personal issues, but the tectonic changes in media and the crisis of a century have forced us to look at the problems facing media workers, writers and researchers. We’ve spoken a lot recently with journalists, editors and academics about the strategies they employ to cope with political and economic pressure, how they get through lockdowns and what they do when professional alleys tighten. Not too keen on musing the self Admittedly, some of our conversation partners simply hate