An illustration from America's story for America's children, 1900

How (Not) to Teach Kids about Native Cultures

Even well-intentioned books for children can romanticize (or demonize) Native Americans. But better materials exist.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Drunkard%27s_Progress_-_Color.jpg

Tea Parties for Temperance!

Behind the Victorian movement to replace tippling alcohol with a very British ritual.
A devil shaking hands with a student

Rare 1969 Story from The Queen’s Gambit Author Walter Tevis

In this short story a graduate student makes a deal with the devil: Write my dissertation and my soul is yours.
Photograph: Thousands march through the streets near City Hall during the 11th day of an ongoing teachers strike on October 31, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. 

Source: Getty

Socialism: Foundations and Key Concepts

What is the political, philosophic, and economic system known as socialism? Some starting points for further study.
Gregory Peck looking up at Susan Hayward in a scene from the film 'The Snows Of Kilimanjaro', 1952.

Hollywood’s Version of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

Ernest Hemingway didn’t care for it.
Yellow Jacobins

Our Long-Running Love Affair with Pigeons

Through crazes of pigeon-fancying, these birds have been reshaped into a dizzying variety of forms.
Alpine Pennycress - Noccaea caerulescens

In Phytoremediation, Plants Extract Toxins from Soils

Researchers have a cheap, easy way for cleaning up oil spills: letting plants do the work. Why isn’t it used more often?
Edward Drinker Cope

The Bizarre Theories of the American School of Evolution

The paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope condemned women's suffrage and Black Americans through an evolutionary lens.
geothermal basin in Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

How Yellowstone Extremophile Bacteria Helped With Covid-19 Testing

The heat-resistant enzyme from Thermus aquaticus is used in PCR testing to detect pathogens.
Illustration: A rose

Source: Getty

Smelly Science, Long Lives, and Queen Calafia

Well-researched stories from NPR, Aeon, and other publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.