Reginald Dwayne Betts

Reginald Dwayne Betts

A 2012 essay from the American Poetry Review on poetry and the architecture of anger.
Charles David Keeling & George W. Bush, 2001

How Charles Keeling Measured the Rise of Carbon Dioxide

The climate scientist created a new method to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide. It's still used today.
Vincent van Gogh, 1889

Van Gogh, Breathing Plastic, and the Music of Struggle

Well-researched stories from The New York Times, Black Perspectives, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Two people walking towards Los Angeles, 1937

How the LAPD Guarded California’s Borders in the 1930s

Working well outside their jurisdiction, the officers patrolled their state's borders against white migrants.
An image of Native Americans swapping wives

Polygamy, Native Societies, and Spanish Colonists

Having more than one wife was an established part of life for some Native peoples before Europeans tried to end the practice.
A Pan Am 747 in Boston, 1971

Fly Me to Cuba, Said the American Hijackers

The first diplomatic agreement between the US and Castro's Cuba was to stop Americans from committing "skyjackings."
Ernest Hemingway at the Finca Vigia, Cuba 1946

Ernest Hemingway and Gender Fluidity

Despite his reputation for hypermasculinity, the author was fascinated by different forms of gender expression.
Watercolor No.185, Marsh Ragwort

Victorian Botanical Paintings

Amateur botanist Margaret Rebecca Dickinson painted the wildflowers she collected in the English countryside.
Depressed teen girl in black clothes playing guitar sitting on bed in her room.

Why Do We Listen to Sad Music?

Scientists investigate the emotional and physical effects of sad music, in an ongoing quest to explain the "paradox of pleasurable sadness."
An illustration from the Bantam edition of Graham Greene's The Quiet American

When the CIA Was Everywhere—Except on Screen

Hollywood was just fine avoiding all portrayals of the Central Intelligence Agency for years after the agency's founding in 1947.