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

Parents, teachers, and family income affect educational and life outcomes for teenagers, but so does their best friend’s mother.

Glenn McPherson, the bureaucrat largely responsible for selling off the property of interned Japanese Canadians during World War II, was also a secret agent.

In the 1840s, the Leviathan of Parsonstown, built by William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, became the largest telescope in the world.

The sestina form features the repetition of end words across stanzas. Here are sestinas by Louise Glück, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Bishop, Patricia Smith, and more.

Along with teachings on liberation from the cycles of death and rebirth, the Tibetan Buddhist tradition contains guidance on removing impediments to compassion.

This annotated bibliography samples scholarship on the rich—and difficult—history of natural history.

Studying them will help scientists monitor future space weather.

The United States Postal Service is under federal scrutiny. It’s not the first time.

Chinese church architecture progressed from initial setbacks to reflect a two-way transfer of design and building techniques as East met West.