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Tantalus

Tantalus, Pac-Man, and Unsated Hungers

What does a violent, ancient Greek myth reveal about our modern addiction to technology and the enduring power of stories?

In the Limelight

The Whitman Sisters

The Wonderfully Complex Whitman Sisters

A popular act on the Black vaudeville circuit, the Whitman Sisters relied on a reputation for strong morals while challenging racial and gender codes.

JSTOR Collections

Goodyear blimps, Puritan and Reliance, in Florida.

Blimps in the Heavens Over Akron

A Goodyear executive dreamt of populating the sky with dirigibles. He settled for securing his company—and his blimps—a place in the public imagination.

Unearthing Justice

Young man climbing red bars against white background

The Logic and Legality of Growth

Economic growth is closely linked to profit maximization, which is central to the functioning of global market-based economies.

Teaching Resources

JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.

Most Recent

Illustration of Skylab with deployed parasol, ca. 1973

Skylab, Sealab, and the Psychology of the Extreme

During the Cold War, small groups of Americans lived together in space and at the bottom of the sea, offering psychologists a unique study opportunity.
A lump of peat used to make whiskey

Why Peat Is a Key Ingredient in Whisky and the Climate Crisis

Approximately 80 percent of Scotch whisky is made using peat as a fuel source for drying barley during the malting process. Is that a problem?

More Stories

In the Limelight

The Whitman Sisters

The Wonderfully Complex Whitman Sisters

A popular act on the Black vaudeville circuit, the Whitman Sisters relied on a reputation for strong morals while challenging racial and gender codes.

JSTOR Collections

Goodyear blimps, Puritan and Reliance, in Florida.

Blimps in the Heavens Over Akron

A Goodyear executive dreamt of populating the sky with dirigibles. He settled for securing his company—and his blimps—a place in the public imagination.

Unearthing Justice

Young man climbing red bars against white background

The Logic and Legality of Growth

Economic growth is closely linked to profit maximization, which is central to the functioning of global market-based economies.

Teaching Resources

JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.

Long Reads

"Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid." Illustration for Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies by Jessie Wilcox Smith, ca. 1916

Man of Science, Man of God

In The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley parodied the dogmatic belief held by many in Victorian England that faith and reason are incompatible.
Passengers freshening up in the ladies' restroom at the Greyhound bus terminal, Chicago, 1943

In the Ladies’ Loo

Gender-segregated bathrooms tell a story about who is and who is not welcome in public life.
Mugshot of composer Henry Cowell after being arrested on a "morals" charge. Circa 1936.

Henry Cowell’s One True Desire

To “live in the whole world of music” was all the influential, experimental composer wanted—and did, even while imprisoned at San Quentin.
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.36635239

The Age of Wonder Meets the Age of Information

What can past eras of information overload teach students about critically consuming content in the present?

Amidst his prolific creativity, Cowell was arrested; the warrant contained a single charge.

Henry Cowell’s One True Desire

Doing Math with Intellectual Humility

Math class is an opportunity to teach students both how to use conjecture to arrive at knowledge and how to learn from the logic of peers.
Photo taken in the Bourbaki Congress of 1938 in Dieulefit

The Mathematical Pranksters behind Nicolas Bourbaki

Bourbaki was gnomic and mythical, impossible to pin down; his mathematics just the opposite: unified, unambiguous, free of human idiosyncrasy.
Karate chop

The Physics of Karate

A human hand has the power to split wooden planks and demolish concrete blocks. A trio of physicists investigated why this feat doesn't shatter our bones.