My father lived and worked in the basement. My mother was the mistress of the upstairs in our house in Buchbach in Upper Bavaria. As far back as I can remember, choosing a gift for my dad at Christmas or for his birthday always started with the question: "Does he already own the latest FC Bayern Munich fan outfit?"

We humans are nothing but stardust and, like the Earth, we like to spin in circles. What does a roundabout have in common with the universe and why is the Milky Way provincial? We spoke with the German astrophysicist, FAZ editor, and philosopher Sibylle Anderl.  

Erich Traxler works at the Funeral Museum of Vienna’s famous Central Cemetery. Before he was a coffin bearer and later an arranger at the funeral parlor. Even though his métier is death, he has remained a person with a sense of humor. A conversation about selfie coffins, decomposition, and the question of who we are when we are dead. 

The roots of fashion designer Andreas Kronthaler, husband of Vivienne Westwood, are in the Tyrolean Zillertal valley. We could have asked him what it was like to have tea with Prince Charles. But we didn’t. Instead, we had a chat about his grandmother’s blueberry patties and the fur coats of his old aunt in Graz. This interview was written in the summer of 2022; Vivienne Westwood has since passed away. We have not changed it and have left it as it was held. We send our heartfelt condolences to the Westwood and Kronthaler family. 

In Ischgl the ski tourists throw corona parties against a backdrop of ruined mountainscapes, the oceans are rising higher and higher, the virus is spreading unstoppably, everyone is isolated, and Greta is crying. In a world of overabundance, where out-of-control consumerism is destroying our environment and our health, wastefulness has gotten a bad reputation: Marie Kondō’s clean-up crew, minimalism, self-optimization, and a new sententiousness have declared war on profligacy. But don’t we humans need overindulgence to be happy, the camaraderie of celebration and ritual excess? We asked six remarkable personalities about the role of wastefulness in their lives. 

Slovenian bio-artist Špela Petrič creates human-plant hybrids, lip-reads leaf pores, and gives sex advice to flowers.