Come for a story. Stay for the questions it leaves behind.
You may have found Project Authenticity through a story about Palestine, a question about sex, a forgotten episode of history, or an argument about psychology. I write about all of them. What connects them is a stubborn curiosity about human beings: what they endure, what they desire, what they believe, and what power does to them.
I’m William Peynsaert, a Belgian writer in Bratislava. My essays appear here under The Confessor. DEPTH is the promise behind the work: Devoted to Love, Empathetic, Punk Style, True, Human. You don’t have to agree with me. I’d rather you leave thinking.
Three places to begin
If you’re new, these three pieces show the range better than a tidy description ever could.
- The Vietnamese girl who captured an American airman — a photograph from 1965, a life that continued, and an extraordinary reunion
- Sabra and Shatila: The Americans promised safety. Then they left. — how political assurances came apart, and who suffered the consequences
- A stained carpet or a stained soul? — a personal, uncomfortable reflection on listening to other people’s pain
Follow your curiosity
- The journalist who entered an asylum — history, courage and the power of investigating an institution from within
- Five unsettling insights from Paul Verhaeghe — psychology in conversation with the society we live in
- Ten women talk candidly about sex with a very large penis — frank, diverse first-person accounts from adult women, not a scientific survey
- Why I have always been drawn to history — one of my personal attempts to understand the roots of my curiosity
- Forty questions to ask yourself — a way to turn the inquiry toward your own life
Want the wider archive? Explore ten Confessions by subject. For more about the writer, read About DEPTH.
Stay with DEPTH
This website is not one subject and not one mood. Some pieces are furious. Some are tender. Some are painfully personal. If any of them stay with you, subscribe for free for selected writing and occasional notes. You can unsubscribe whenever you want.
If you would rather talk than read, start a conversation with me. And if you’re curious about my book project, Everybody Was Someone begins with an idea: every statistic was a life.
