Well-researched stories from Aeon, OpenMind Magazine, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Opium has been used as a medicinal and recreational substance in China for centuries, its shifting meanings tied to class and national identity.

The Boston Typesetting Races of 1886 demonstrated the speed of women compositors, helping to lower the barriers to workplace equity for female “swifts.”

The Italian physicist and philosopher was the first woman to earn a doctorate in science and the first salaried female professor at a university.

Long before Dry January became a thing, Mexicans were using a similar program of temporary abstinence based on a pledge to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Public intellectuals in Great Britain disagreed on what to do with Governor Eyre after his heavy-handed response to the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica.

We've all got our tastes, but can anyone really define what makes music “good” or “bad”?

The biological and cultural profile of mate has affected its global expansion, unlike other plants native to the Americas, such as cacao and maize.

From the meaning of birdsong to the history of birdwatching, from the effects of climate change to the cunning of crows—our bird stories have it all.

Jefferson’s government organized several western expeditions. Some carried luxurious supplies of food, some enjoyed local hospitality, and some nearly starved to death.