American Psycho CEOs

Do Psychopaths Really Make Good CEOs?

It's a well known trope: the powerful, high-earning businessman with the pathologically low levels of empathy. But do psychopaths make good CEOs?
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort celebrating his company in the 2013 film, Wolf of Wall Street

Are the Rich More Selfish Than the Rest of Us?

When it comes to selfish behavior, a new study suggests rich and poor are divided more by circumstance than character.
Illustration: an eleventh century Byzantine depiction of King Solomon

Source: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-380c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

How People Paid Their Taxes in Biblical Times

Think doing your taxes is annoying? Imagine trying it without a computer, a calculator… or even the Arabic numeral system.
Car junkyard

The Birth of Planned Obsolescence

Before WWII, American businesses began embracing “creative waste”—the idea that throwing things away and buying new ones could fuel a strong economy.
mens magazine

How Magazines Created a New Culture of Manhood

Middle-class American manhood changed in the mid-twentieth century. And the new ideal of masculine consumption was captured by men’s magazines.
A graffitied maid cleaning up the sidewalk by Banksy

How America Tried (and Failed) to Solve Its “Servant Problem”

In the early part of the twentieth century, most middle-class American homes had at least one servant. Then the "servant problem" arose.
Cotton gin

Automation in the 1940s Cotton Fields

Automation is a bit of a Rorschach test for anyone interested in workers’ rights. In the 1940s, the mechanization of cotton farming changed the US economy.
Michael Galinksy super tv mall

The Rise and Fall of the Shopping Mall

Is the shopping mall a thing of the past? A look at how the suburbs helped to create the mall--and what is now killing those same shopping centers.
honest ed's signage

The Candid Appeal of the Advertising Show Card

A hand-painted show card evokes a certain nostalgia and humanity that machine-made signs can never arouse: It suggests honesty.
Peter Thiel

How Tech Companies Got In the White House

What role will technology companies—and tech CEOS—play in Donald Trump's White House?