Boake Carter

Before Rush Limbaugh, There Was Boake Carter

When Boake Carter opened his mouth, he whipped up tempers and tempests. But who was he?
scary diseases

Epidemics as Entertainment

Plagues capture the public imagination in ways that other less terrifying--but more deadly--diseases don't.
conodonts

The Most Abundant Creature You’ve Never Heard Of

Conodonts are actually older than the oldest previously known vertebrates, making them the earliest known “skeletonized” vertebrates in existence.
krazy kat comic

Krazy Kat’s Complex Relationship with Race

Behind the slapstick antics in this beloved comic strip simmered ambivalence about color and race.
Women's March 1970

The Divide in Feminist Ethics on Mothering

In the 1960s, two groups of feminists had very different views about motherhood. Unsurprisingly, race and family played a role.
Illustration of a woman with straight hair and another with curly hair

Why Do Some People Have Curly Hair and Others Straight?

Either environmental or sexual selective pressure began acting on hair after humans began dispersing out of Africa.
statue of liberty public charge

The Problem with “Public Charge” Rules

Historically, public charge rules have been a threat to immigrants dismissed as too disabled to be full contributors to the country.
hawaii stars lava mana

The Mysterious Mana of Speaking

The Austronesian concept of "mana" helps us understand that behind the monolithic "magic" of modern power and authority, there is a fragile human dimension.
Otto Weininger

The Man behind the “New Man”

Otto Weininger's only book, Sex & Character, is a misogynist, anti-Semitic screed masquerading as philosophy. Yet it was enormously influential in fin-de-siècle Vienna.
Jack O' lantern in midnight forest.

From Samhain to Halloween

Exploring the Celtic origins of everyone's favorite harvest holiday celebrating thresholds between life and death.