Victoria wedding cake

England’s Obsession with Queen Victoria’s Wedding Cake

Queen Victoria's wedding, and its spectacular cake, caused a frenzy.
Rotten Tomatoes film industry

How Rotten Tomatoes Changed the Film Industry

In 2008, a panel of film critics gathered to talk about the future of film reviewing as a profession in the age of the internet.
John Clare

What This 19th-Century Poet Knew About the Future

The Anthropocene requires a new history to explain how humans transform the planet. The work of poet John Clare is a good place to start.
Women gardeners

When Gardens Replaced Children

Historian Robin Veder explains that the way we associate female nurturing with gardens goes back to the way ideas about gender and work changed in the mid-nineteenth century.
Bitcoin bubble

What Is a Bubble?

Tulip bulbs. Housing. Bitcoin? In every bubble, the value of something is based more on peoples' esteem of it, rather than intrinsic worth.
Public health

A Different Kind of Public Health Message

Researchers have found that Americans experience radically different health outcomes depending on their race and socioeconomic status.
Treadmills atonement

Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines

America’s favorite piece of workout equipment was developed as a device for forced labor in British prisons. It was banned as cruel and inhumane by 1900.
Brothers Grimm

The Fairytale Language of the Brothers Grimm

How the Brothers Grimm went hunting for fairytales, accidentally changed the course of historical linguistics, and kickstarted a new field of scholarship in folklore.
Sex trafficking

The Complicated Reality of “Sex Trafficking”

Anthropologist Jennifer Musto looked at how the rise in concern about sex trafficking, particularly in regard to the domestic trafficking of underage girls, actually plays out in policing.
Two ichtyosauruses swimming in the ocean

These Lizard-Dolphin Creatures Ruled the Seas for 150 Million Years

Ichthyosaurs gave birth to live offspring, had huge eyes and lived all over the world.