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Black and white headshot of author Livia Gershon

Livia Gershon

Livia Gershon is a freelance writer in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her writing has appeared in publications including Salon, Aeon Magazine and the Good Men Project. Contact her on Twitter @liviagershon.

Hindu devotees celebrate during Holi with colored powders at the Banke Bihari temple on March 26, 2013 in Vrindavan, India.
Education & Society

Gender and Caste at Holi

The Hindu festival of Holi celebrates love, colors, and the arrival of spring. How it's celebrated can vary significantly throughout India.
Terence McKenna
Education & Society

Terence McKenna’s Anarchic Psychedelic Religion

Terence McKenna was an evangelist for the use of psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs, as a way to transcend and escape “untrammeled rationalism.”
Somebody stealing a speech bubble from another person
Arts & Culture

Policing Joke Theft

Joke theft: it's a serious matter.
From the cover of FAAR News, November 1, 1977
Politics & History

Feminism, Self-Defense, and (Not) Calling the Cops

The feminist movement of the 1970s worked to raise awareness of violence against women, but diverged on the role of law enforcement in fighting it.
Freedmans Village near Arlington Hights, Va., July 10th, 1865.
Politics & History

The Long Afterlife of Freedman’s Village

Freedman's Village, created in Arlington, VA at the end of the Civil War, became a thriving community of Black residents as part of Reconstruction.
Four Immortals Saluting Longevity. T
Politics & History

The Trouble with Immortality

Stories about immortality are present in many cultures throughout time. How cultures perceive immortality—as a blessing or a curse—can differ widely.
A cafeteria in Reeves County Detention Complex, Pecos, Texas
Education & Society

The Surprising Answer to Who Eats Kosher in Prison

24,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. eat kosher meals. Even some neonazis. Why?
Genealogical Chronological And Geographical Chart. Embracing Biblical And Profane History Of Ancient Times From Adam To Christ, 1887
Politics & History

Where Did Family-Bible Genealogies Come From?

Royal lineage tracing, British laws of inheritance, and patriarchal Protestantism all contributed to the genealogical literacy of some Americans.
Cover of Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty's All We're Meant To Be
Education & Society

Whatever Happened to Evangelical Feminism?

From Christianity’s beginnings, the religion has been split between two visions of gender relations.
An illustration from The surprising adventures of a female husband! by Henry Fielding
Politics & History

The Female Husband is So Eighteenth Century

Henry Fielding's novel, a fictional account of the life of Charles Hamilton, conflates vagrancy with sexual, gender, and religious deviance.
Source: https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/ids:4589524
Politics & History

When Harvard Students Couldn’t Get Warm

The early heating systems of New England kept Harvard students cold until the early twentieth century.
Adherents of Santeria celebrate Santa Barbara on December 4 , 2002 in Isla de la Juventud, Cuba.
Education & Society

Music and Spirit in the African Diaspora

The musical traditions found in contemporary Black U.S. and Caribbean Christian worship originated hundreds of years ago, continents away.
anti-apartheid marchers on their way to Twickenham rugby ground in 1970
Politics & History

Fighting Apartheid with Sports

Apartheid policies that segregated sports in South Africa were challenged by its own athletes, as well as internationally.
A photograph of the blue cover of the first edition, 1st printing of the book Ulysses by James Joyce, 1922
Arts & Culture

Censoring Ulysses

In reviewing the UK Home Office files on James Joyce's Ulysses, a historian found baffled officials afraid to bring more attention to it.
A map of Trinidad showing the location of Fondes Amandes
Science & Technology

How a Rastafari Community Protects the Land in Trinidad

A small community grows around ecosystem preservation and shared beliefs, to the benefit of the residents and the land they live on.
Battle of the Boyne between James II and William III, 11 June 1690
Politics & History

Britain’s Blueprint for Colonialism: Made in Ireland

The British Empire began developing its colonialization tactics in Ireland and Canada, before exporting them throughout the world.
A person snowmobiling in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WA, 1987
Education & Society

A Brief History of Snowmobiling

Snowmobiles were invented around the same time as wheeled transportation was becoming a robust industry.
Physician letting blood from a man's arm
Health

How Physicians Became Scientists

The introduction of formal peer review to journals aided medical doctors in their quest to bring more scientific rigor to their field.
Percey Shelley holding some carrots
Education & Society

Percy Shelley: Trendsetting Vegetarian

The poet adopted a "Pythagorean" diet, which eliminated meat, and wrote that vegetarians would "no longer pine under the lethargy of ennui."
Andean ritual with coca leaves
Plants & Animals

What Coca Means in Peru

Coca has a long history of use in Peru: for sacred ritual, economic productivity, courtship and celebration of life events.
Spring desert wildflowers in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, CA
Politics & History

Making the (California) Desert Bloom

The question of Zionism in post World War II America did not have a single answer. One group proposed bringing agriculture to the California desert instead.
FNV headquarters occupied by sympathizers of the British mine strikers; the police remove the activists
Politics & History

How LGBTQ Groups Supported Striking Miners vs. Thatcher

During a national miners strike, LGBT activists became unexpected allies, united against the Thatcher government.
Mayan zodiac circle
Politics & History

How the Maya Kept Time

Many scholars contrast linear and cyclical time and note that cycles were an important part of Maya concepts of temporal reality.
Johnny Cash on stage with his band, in concert at San Quentin State Prison, California, February 24th 1969.
Arts & Culture

The Radicalism of Johnny Cash

The best-selling musical artist in the world in 1969, Johnny Cash sang of (and for) the "forgotten Americans": the imprisoned men of all races.
Great Snow in 1717
Politics & History

The Snowy Winter that Devastated Colonial New England

For eleven days in February and March 1717, New England was hit with four major snowstorms. The devastation struck some as a sign from God.

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