Class Production
A collection of high school yearbooks from Cleveland captures the rise, fall, and uncertain future of the American middle class.
In Bhutan, Real Citizens Don’t Eat Meat
The fusion of Buddhism and politics in Bhutan has forced “good citizens” to reconsider their relationship with the procurement and consumption of meat.
Why Do We Love Thinking About Schrödinger’s Cat?
In physics, the whole point of the thought experiment is that it’s absurd. But in literature, it’s been used to explore all sorts of ideas and possibilities.
Artificial Intelligence: An AI-Generated Reading List
ChatGPT generated this annotated bibliography for us. Don't worry, we'll ask (and pay) a human to write one too.
Pole Vaulting Over the Iron Curtain
When it became clear that the United States and its allies couldn’t “liberate” Eastern Europe through psychological war and covert ops, they turned to sports.
Why Animals “Give Themselves” to Hunters
Many northern Indigenous cultures think about hunting in terms of literal “gifts” from animal to human, yet outsiders often dismiss the concept as a metaphor.
From DiscoVision to SelectaVision
While these videodisc formats ultimately failed, they signaled that consumers were hungry for control of their home viewing.
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Personal ads changed dating, but they also provided source material for sociologists and psychologists to understand how people choose mates.
Connie Converse Wasn’t Just a Folk Singer. She Was a Scholar, Too.
The disappeared—but recently rediscovered—folk musician edited and published in academic journals under the name Elizabeth Converse.
Moving the Needle
Anti-vaxxers have been around as long as there have been vaccines.