Alice Childress, Paul Robeson and Lorraine Hansberry

In the McCarthy Era, to Be Black Was to Be Red

The Marxist sympathies of Black radical leaders like Paul Robeson, Alice Childress, and Lorraine Hansberry made them targets for the FBI.
Ducks caged for foie gras

New York City Bans Foie Gras

The practice of eating fatty goose livers dates back to at least 2500 BCE. Is there a humane way to produce it?
Pad Thai

Math, Virginity Tests, and Pad Thai

Well-researched stories from Atlas Obscura, The Atlantic, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
A Little White Wedding Chapel, Las Vegas

The Decline of the Vegas Wedding

The Little White Wedding Chapel's changing fortunes are emblematic of the state of matrimony and romance.
Cartoon showing police brutality against the match makers' demonstration, 1871

The Origins of the Police

Sir Robert Peel is popularly credited with the formation of the first modern municipal police force. But the Thames River Police did it first.
Giant house spider

Should I Kill Spiders in My Home?

An entomologist explains why not to.
A Red Cross nurse wearing a face mask, c. 1918

The 1918 Parade That Spread Death in Philadelphia

In six weeks, 12,000 were dead of influenza.
A can of mock turtle soup

The Real Joy of Mock Food

"Wow, this really kind of tastes like turkey.”
The Irish Elk

The Cartoonishly Giant Antlers of the Irish Elk

The mystery of the Irisk Elk's giant antlers attracted the attention of famous evolutionary biologist Steven Jay Gould.
"The Vexed Man" by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Man Whose Face Got Stuck Like That

No one could have predicted Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s turn to the bizarre.