The defrocking ceremony was meant to humiliate a disgraced member of the clergy while discouraging laypeople from viewing him as a martyr.

The popularity of tanning rose in the early twentieth century, when bronzed skin signaled a life of leisure, not labor.

Vacations in the Soviet Union were hardly idylls spent with one’s dearest. Everything about them—from whom you traveled with to what you ate—was state determined.

A camp diva, a queer icon, and a model of feminism—the memorable Mae West left behind a complicated legacy, on and off the stage.

Before becoming leader of communist China, Mao was an ardent library patron and then worked as a library assistant.

Well-researched stories from Hakai Magazine, Atlas Obscura, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Canada welcomes those facing persecution for sexual orientation or gender identity—but the process to claim asylum may not be straightforward.

The syndrome, caused by the bacterium Xyllella fastidiosa, was first detected in southern Italy in 2013. Can ancient olive orchards survive its effects?

After Albert Einstein’s death in 1955, a pathologist—searching for the secret of genius—removed, dissected, and ultimately stole the mathematician’s brain.

This Earth Day, we're looking at the ominous slash beautiful material culture of the modern environmental movement.