The rich origins of an everyday word about everyday sound—and why we celebrate composer R. Murray Schafer on World Listening Day.

Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, Wired, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Chinese calligraphy is a personal art that draws on Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism as well as spiritual practices that date to the second century CE.

In March 1968, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would neither seek nor accept the nomination of the Democratic Party. That wasn’t the whole truth.

On October 6, 1923, Iowa State tackle Jack Trice lined up for the second half of a college football game. No one’s sure what happened in that third quarter.

Take a look back at how others have survived—and thought about—the high heat of summer.

Roman ideas about witchcraft were often associated with distant regions, including India and the Kush kingdom in northeast Africa.

For many years, the Cassini probe to Saturn provided a stable research platform that scientists used to transform our understanding of the ringed planet.

Are debt-for-nature swaps—forgiving debt in exchange for investments in the environment—an innovative approach to debt relief or a form of recolonization?

Cabinetmaker to Marie Antoinette, Roentgen designed “surprise furniture,” bureaus and desks that appeared to magically transform at the push of a button.