New Year / Felt tip pen

Happy New Year!

Why do we celebrate on the 1st of January? Do financial incentives help you stick to resolutions? And other burning questions.
A bull elk searches for food beneath the snow in Yellowstone National Park

Our Most Popular Stories of 2021

This year, readers were into peanut butter and jelly, semi-conductors, bayonets, Victorian knitting manuals, plus the hard-working dogs of Medieval Europe.
An advertisement for Burdock Blood Bitters

Our Writers’ Favorite Stories of 2021

Without our writers (and editors and fact checkers and producers) and you, we're nothing.
bell hooks

bell hooks

Writer and academic, teacher and activist. Read and share some of her foundational work.
Vintage engraving of The Bench, by William Hogarth. 1758, depicts four judges listening to a case in the Court of Common Pleas.

Does Law Exist to Provide Moral Order?

Is social cohesion possible in plural societies? Philosopher H. L. A. Hart weighed in amid debates on abortion and same-sex relationships.
A group of high school students constructs basic measuring devices for testing air, water, noise, and radiation-pollution levels. c. 1972

The Troubles with Tracking

Educators have been debating academic tracking since the early years of the public high school.
An illustration of a hand holding a set of hand cuffs

Let’s Talk About (Your) Crimes

Asking yourself about what you've "gotten away with" may change how you think about "criminals."
Collage of buttons

Message in a Button

A dive into the the University of Connecticut Pins and Button Collection gives a wearable history of progressive causes.
Sunlight and Shadow by Albert Bierstadt

Do We Actually See Shadows?

In a blackout, you do not hear or taste the darkness; you see it. It looks a certain way. On the philosophy of shadows.
L'Envoûteuse (The Sorceress) by Georges Merle, 1883

Feminism’s Hidden Spiritual Side

Sometimes the pursuit of gender equality requires a little witchcraft.