Private Prisons

The Problem With Privatizing Prisons

If private prisons make their profit from criminal society, its goes against business sense to reduce criminality.
West End, London

When Did We Start Shopping at Stores?

Online shopping drastically reduces the significance of physical stores. Where did the physical retail model come from to begin with?
Rita Hayworth

The Making of Rita Hayworth

To become a Hollywood star and icon, Rita Hayworth had to transcend not just her waistline or her hairline, but her own ethnicity.
Woolf Dreadnaught hoax

When Virginia Woolf Wore Blackface

In February 1910, Virginia Woolf, her brother, and some and friends pulled a prank known to history as the Dreadnought Hoax.
anolis proboscis lizard

Will Optimistic Stories Get People to Care About Nature?

Research shows that negative messaging is not the most effective way forward.
Christine Jorgensen

Was Christine Jorgensen the Caitlyn Jenner of the 1950s?

“What is femininity anyway?” Jenner writes in her new book, The Secrets of My Life. Perhaps the famous trans woman Christine Jorgensen knew.
Marguerite Duras and mother

Marguerite Duras on Her Remarkable Mother

Noted novelist and screenwriter Marguerite Duras on how her fictional mothers are all really her own (complicated, difficult, inimitable) mother.
Anne of Green Gables Netflix

The Many Different Annes of Green Gables

Anne Shirley, created almost 100 years ago, has been reimagined countless times. Why do we still love Lucy Maud Montgomery's plucky orphan?
Sanctuary of Fatima

Our Lady of Political Anxiety

From Our Lady of Fatima to the 1949 Virgin Mary sighting in Wisconsin, what do Marian sightings reveal about our political anxieties?
Wrigley's gum painting

How Wrigley Chewed Its Way to Gum Greatness

William Wrigley, Jr. started off as a soap salesman and became a prodigy of consumerism. He sold Americans chewing gum with claims of health benefits.