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A false colored scanning electron micrograph of a flour beetle

Bugging Out

The complicated, ever-changing, millennia-long relationship between insects and humans.

Unfolding AI

Young woman holding a cell phone

We Got Social Media Wrong. Can We Get AI Right?

How to be agents who use new AI tools, rather than subjects manipulated by them.

American Prison Newspapers 1880-2020

From Paahao Press, November 1943

How Prisoners Contributed During World War II

Prisoners not only supported the war effort in surprising ways during World War II, they fought and died in it.

Cabinet of Curiosities

Antique illustration: Sleeping at sea

The Women Who Preached in Their Sleep

Was sleep-preaching an ingenious way for oppressed women to subvert the social order through somniloquy?

Suggested Readings

Hippopotamus sleep at Taronga Western Plains Zoo on November 06, 2021 in Dubbo, Australia. T

Hippos, Flies, and Queer Love Stories

Well-researched stories from Literary Hub, Vox, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Most Recent

Mausoleum of Augustus

Fascist Architecture in Rome

In Mussolini's Rome, the built environment struck a balance between the romance of the ancient past and the rationalism of avant-garde modernism.
Euglandina rosea

A Slimy Story: Snail Mucous

Land snails, mostly hermaphroditic, follow mucous trails to find their mates. Others, including predatory Rosy Wolf Snails, follow the slime to find their meals.
Road travelling horses being accustomised to motor cars, c. 1904

An Uncertain Energy Transition a Century Ago

When it came to the transport of goods within local areas, it took decades for the competition among horses, electric vehicles, and gas trucks to shake out.
Lunchroom in Chicago, 1896

How Gender Got on the Menu

As women began to be welcomed into restaurants, some started catering to what they perceived as “female tastes,” largely meaning the sugary stuff

More Stories

Unfolding AI

Young woman holding a cell phone

We Got Social Media Wrong. Can We Get AI Right?

How to be agents who use new AI tools, rather than subjects manipulated by them.

American Prison Newspapers 1880-2020

From Paahao Press, November 1943

How Prisoners Contributed During World War II

Prisoners not only supported the war effort in surprising ways during World War II, they fought and died in it.

Cabinet of Curiosities

Antique illustration: Sleeping at sea

The Women Who Preached in Their Sleep

Was sleep-preaching an ingenious way for oppressed women to subvert the social order through somniloquy?

Suggested Readings

Hippopotamus sleep at Taronga Western Plains Zoo on November 06, 2021 in Dubbo, Australia. T

Hippos, Flies, and Queer Love Stories

Well-researched stories from Literary Hub, Vox, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Long Reads

From the cover of The Black Mask magazine, June 1, 1923

The Gumshoes Who Took On the Klan

In the pages of Black Mask magazine, the Continental Op and Race Williams fought the KKK even as they shared its love of vigilante justice.
From the cover of Paahao Press, Summer 1960

A Century of History in Five Hawaiian Prison Newspapers

Hawaiian language and culture are emphasized throughout, ranging from before statehood and during martial law to modern day women's prisons.
American actors Cindy Williams (right) and Ron Howard as Laurie and Steve on the set of the Lucasfilm production 'American Graffiti',

The Sonic Triumph of American Graffiti

In 1973, George Lucas joined forces with sound designer Walter Murch to celebrate a bygone era. They ended up revolutionizing the role music plays in film.
Edward Jenner vaccinating a young child

Moving the Needle

Anti-vaxxers have been around as long as there have been vaccines.

Fragments follows three scholars attempting to decipher Euripides’ Cresphontes from a few damaged scraps of text.

Pieces and Bits

Older woman praying in an almost empty church.

Can Religion Be Helpful for People With Chronic Pain?

A group of researchers asked this question of a group of patients in secularized Western Europe.
Degradation of William Sawtrey

Unmaking a Priest: The Rite of Degradation

The defrocking ceremony was meant to humiliate a disgraced member of the clergy while discouraging laypeople from viewing him as a martyr.
A Trappist monk in the cloisters of a monastery in County Waterford, Ireland, 1935

The Irish Fasting Tradition

Particularly before the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a. Vatican II), fasting was part of the Catholic calendar. No one took it more seriously than the Irish.