Well-researched stories from The London Review of Books, Atlas Obscura, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

A brief history of astronaut food, from nutrition cubes to space salads.

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala left behind a one-of-a-kind object that undermines the crónicas de Indias.

How did the arcadian shepherd and chivalric knight-errant, centuries-old fixtures of European literature, give way to this witty rascal, the pícaro?

Researchers found that male and female adolescents may respond differently to gossip or other forms of social aggression.

After World War II, the US ramped up international food aid, both as a Cold War strategy and as a way to distribute surplus products.

When business interests tried to use red-baiting to take down a socialist mayor of Milwaukee in the Fifties, it didn't work, so they used race-baiting instead.

It's all birds and flowers and kittens in these greeting cards. May they, as one of the cards says, keep winter from your heart.

The work of cinema in the age of streaming services.

Aphrodisiac and contraceptive, enflaming and cooling, the pomegranate was a balancing act, mediating between opposing states.