Well-researched stories from Mental Floss, Wired, and other publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Way before there were stans, there were slans. Too bad about their fascist utopian daydreams!

Research shows that building collisions take a staggering annual toll on North America's bird population.

A scholar finds that some ancient Egyptians who were literate wrote annoyed letters to friends.

Given Covid-19, schools have limited options for teaching kids. What’s working and not working in the era of online learning?

Zen was a conservative form of Buddhism in Japan that eventually became a way for Americans to find inner peace.

In the late 1960s, two highly visible deaths from grizzly bear attacks led to a debate about whether humans and bears could coexist.

In a famous essay, a scholar uncovered difficult truths about Alger, whose name has been associated with the "rags to riches" myth.

Implanting machine components into human bodies, argues one scholar, could make for a better society.

The Women’s KKK, an affiliated-but-separate racist organization for white Protestant women, courted members through an insincere “empowerment feminism.”