blue aerial view of Chicago streets with red flashes that indicate gun shots

What Happens When Police Use AI to Predict and Prevent Crime?

With the dawn of artificial intelligence, a slew of new machine learning tools promise to help protect us with data.
Cretan rockrose

Plant of the Month: Cretan Rockrose

Cretan rockrose has been used as a medicine for millennia. Its unusual harvesting methods were documented by the ancient historian Herodotus.
Freedmans Village near Arlington Hights, Va., July 10th, 1865.

The Long Afterlife of Freedman’s Village

Freedman's Village, created in Arlington, VA at the end of the Civil War, became a thriving community of Black residents as part of Reconstruction.
A person meditating in the snow

Life in the Cold, New Not-Normals, and Weird Numbers

Well-researched stories from The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Four Immortals Saluting Longevity. T

The Trouble with Immortality

Stories about immortality are present in many cultures throughout time. How cultures perceive immortality—as a blessing or a curse—can differ widely.
Flaring off gas at the Flotta oil terminal on the Island of Flotta in the Orkney's Scotland

Marketed as Natural, this Gas is Complicated

The substitution of natural gas for coal is not a simple matter. The same concerns about climate and environment remain, along with new impacts.
A cafeteria in Reeves County Detention Complex, Pecos, Texas

The Surprising Answer to Who Eats Kosher in Prison

24,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. eat kosher meals. Even some neonazis. Why?
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes in 2019

Court Trials: The Plot Drives the “Story”

Trials create narratives that are "plot-driven." When judges attempt to see them as "character-driven," real people can be denied justice.
Thurgood Marshall, 1967

Drafting a Constitution: Thurgood Marshall in Kenya

In 1960, before his nomination as a US Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall helped frame the constitution that would serve a new country.
A promotional image for Moon Over Harlem, 1939

How Film Ads Were Part of the Fight Against Segregation

In the Jim Crow era, Black film theaters were left out of the "first-run" distribution channels. Theater owners used creativity to attract their audiences.