Fairy Circles

The Weird Fairy Circles of Namibia

The deserts of Namibia are dotted with odd circular bare patches, ringed by the dry desert grasses. They're called "fairy circles." It’s a desert whodunit.
JSTOR Daily Friday Reads

Zadie Smith

Ever since the publication of White Teeth, Zadie Smith has made a career of writing about the actual experiences behind topics like race and immigration.
Rosalie Slaughter Morton and Anne Morgan, an American philanthropist, in 1918

The Forgotten Women Physicians of World War I

For women physicians, WWI was an opportunity for service that highlighted their deeply ambiguous position, as Ellen More explained in a 1989 paper.
Nero Burning Rome

Bring Your Own Applause: What Donald Trump and Roman Emperor Nero Have in Common

A claque is a centuries-old showmanship technique that has been used by entertainers and politicians since the Roman Empire.
President Ronald Reagan at his desk in the Oval Office.

Why Ronald Reagan Became the Great Deregulator

How did deregulation, and related ideas about how to run the economy, become so central to American politics? Look to Reagan for the answer.
Stockton, California in 1886

The Important Civil Rights Activist You’ve Never Heard Of

Like other African-Americans, Jeremiah B. Sanderson was intrigued by the new state of California—a free state that promised economic and social opportunity.
Gwyneth Paltrow at Toronto International Film Festival, 2012

The Glamorous Tradition of Hollywood Lifestyle Advice

For more than a century, Hollywood has been offering Americans lifestyle advice on how to live better, and the public has been gobbling it up.
Uncle Scrooge

The Ethical Case for Profits

The frequency of ethical lapses among executives suggests that there exists an alternate moral framework in corporate culture.
Missing poster for Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

The Sensationalist Trial of the Century

When Charles Lindbergh became the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927, the smiling visage of the ...
Marshmallows

What’s So Bad About Instant Gratification?

The internet is making us impatient. But is that actually such a bad thing? Our tech columnist takes a look.