How America Reinvented Yogurt
The journey from immigrant staple to diet snack reveals how yogurt took on a distinctly American identity.
The Long History of Sexpionage
How honey traps evolved from human seduction to digital deception in the changing world of espionage.
Where Dance Meets the Spirit World
The history of kuda kepang, the Javanese horse dance whose trance rituals continue to spark religious debate.
The Many Lives of Libraries
These stories span centuries and continents, revealing how libraries have shaped culture, politics, and public life.
The Case for Aesthetic Education
Why Friedrich Schiller believed art belongs at the heart of education—and why it matters for equal opportunity today.
James Baldwin’s Complicated Relationship with Psychoanalysis
Baldwin criticized Freudian thinking yet drew on ideas like repression in his fiction and essays.
Beyond Body Counts
Who records the victims of war, and why documenting every death matters after the fighting ends.
The Greek Tragedy Behind Suddenly Last Summer
A reinterpretation shows how Euripides's The Bacchae illuminates Tennessee Williams's play and its haunting final act.
Taking Alien Life Seriously: The Origins of Exobiology
The search for extraterrestrial life began with an unexpected question: How could humans keep from destroying the evidence?
The Peacock Flower and Reproductive Resistance Under Slavery
European naturalists documented the peacock flower's medicinal uses but left its most consequential history behind.