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

Despite royal prohibition, transmutation efforts continued underground long after the widely accepted dates for their demise.

The first feature-length zombie movie emerged from Haitians’ longstanding association of the living dead with slavery and exploited labor.

Telling a spooky story around a campfire—or in a dorm room—may be the best way to keep a local legend alive.

Psychical researcher Harry Price combined the power of academic language with a cultural identity crisis to build a reputation as a “scientific” ghost-hunter.

In its plans for the conquest of Eastern Europe, the Third Reich looked to the example set in Africa by Fascist Italy.

Proposition 6, better known as the Briggs Initiative, was the first attempt to restrict the rights of lesbian and gay Americans by popular referendum.

Much in the same way we hail cabs in cities today, a medieval Londoner could hail a torch-bearer (a link-boy) to light their way home from a night on the town.

A jinni in the home can help a Muslim explore religious tenets, but it may also interfere with the direct relationship between human and god.

Despite the prevalence of tricks and spooky spirits in earlier years, the American commercial holiday didn’t develop until the middle of the twentieth century.