Bacon in a cast iron pan

The Reason You Don’t Have to Grocery Shop Every Day

Food preservatives are a major part of how we live now. But who invented them?
A woman reads the nutrition label of a canister of oatmeal

How Much Will New Nutrition Labels Help Fight Obesity?

Nutrition labels are changing for the first time since they were introduced two decades ago.
A Juneteenth celebration from 1900

The Story of Juneteenth

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863. It took over two years for the news to reach some enslaved people.
JSTOR Daily Friday Reads

Tig Notaro, Annie Proulx, and More

Our Friday Reads rounds up five new books out this week, and links to related content you won't find anywhere else. 
Male bronze-winged jacana

A Father’s Day Shout Out to Animal Dads

This Father's Day, consider some of the busiest, quirkiest, and hardest working dads around—animal dads like the the jacana, Darwin's frog, and seahorse.
Still of a Chinese laundry ad

What Was with that Laundry Ad?: A History of Anti-Black Racism in China

Anti-black racism still plagues China, as a new controversial laundry ad reminds us.
Central medallion of a Qashqai rug, 19th century, with fragmented Herati pattern.

An Object History of the Persian Carpet

The famous Persian carpet, woven by female artisans in southwestern Iran, may be going extinct. Its story can be told in spindles and whorls.
Shop wall covered with Frida Khalo trinkets and souvenirs

Fridolatry: Frida Kahlo and Material Culture

Frida hats, and packs, and slacks, oh my! Frida Kahlo used material culture to construct her identity—and material culture made her an icon in return.
The word Ulysses in white on a blue background

A Bloomsday Remembrance of James Joyce

June 16th is Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce's sprawling Modernist novel Ulysses takes place. Celebrate literature, Dublin, and, well, pubs!
Unsheathed iron dagger with a golden hilt and sheath

Why King Tut Had A Meteorite Knife

What do you get the boy pharaoh who has everything? A dagger made out of meteorite iron, of course.