Maeve Higgins: Learning moments from encounters with experts while writing my column

Women from the Masai community take part in a Global Climate Strike organised by Fridays For Future, to demand climate reparations and action from world leaders and take genuine climate action, at Magadi in Kajiado county in Kenya in March.  Picture: Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images

EVERY time I write this column, I learn a ton of new stuff, and that’s my favourite thing about being a writer. Writing is a way to ask questions, however basic or complex, to think things through and eventually form an opinion of your own.

This past year, I’ve written about dozens of subjects as varied as the lead-up to the war in Ukraine, the intricacies of growing hazelnuts in Wicklow, and the origins of public art in New York’s subway system.