Illustration of a Pawpaw

Plant of the Month: The Pawpaw

The pawpaw is finding champions again after colonizers' dismissal, increasing globalization and economic needs.
Photograph: Charli D'Amelio attends the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, which was broadcast live on FOX on May 27, 2021. 

Source: Getty

The Real Appeal of Reality Stars

Reality shows bring "ordinary people" into our homes as entertainment, presenting celebrity to us "cafeteria-style."
A wild tiger cub resting under the shade of tree in the National Park of Central India forest

A Tiger God, a Black Samurai, and a Kitchen Revolution

Well-researched stories from Atlas Obscura, Works in Progress, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Whole Foods organic products

How the “Organic” Label Leaves Small Farmers Out

The USDA's requirements for organic labeling make it easier for large agri-business than the smaller farmers you'd think of as "organic."
A Destroy Rape Culture sticker by Starchild Stela

Little Red Riding Hood On Campus: Women & Public Space

According to one criminologist, “constructing public space as dangerous to women ... reinforces traditional gender norms which emphasize women as vulnerable."
William Dampier

William Dampier, Pirate Scientist

An oft-overlooked explorer who traversed the globe, driven by his thirst for scientific discovery—and a love of piracy.
From Home Suggestions, 1921

How American Consumers Embraced Color

Vivid hues in everyday products became eye-popping reality in the early twentieth century.
Ground mustard

The Mystery of the Mustard Family

An archaeological dig turned up eight bottles of mustard powder in one eighteenth-century homestead. Why the condiment love?
Etching: A wet nurse breast feeding the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.24839779

How Wet-Nursing Stoked Class Tensions

“[N]o man can justly doubt, that a childs mind is answerable to his nurses milk and manners.”
Governor William Burnet of New York meets with the Iroquois in 1721

The Native American Roots of the US Constitution

The Iroquois, Shawnee, Cherokee, and other political formations generally separated military and civil leadership and guarded certain personal freedoms.