A collage of posters for popular Bollywood films

How the Indian Middle Class Came to Define Bollywood

The Hindi film industry has undergone tremendous change since the late 1940s, reflecting India's shift from a socialistic republic to a privatized democracy.
Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay: The Mountaineer Who Refused to be Categorized

By remaining vague about his own biography, Norgay called into question the idea of nationhood and made a deafening point about actions speaking louder than words.
Daniel Craig in No Time to Die

Why James Bond Villains Prefer Post-Soviet Architecture

In No Time to Die, Bond blows up the villain’s post-Soviet missile silo—just as he does every other modernist building he encounters.
A stamp printed by Poland, showing Ibn Sina

The Vast Influence of Ibn Sina, Pioneer of Medicine

In the 11th century CE, science was rapidly advancing in the Islamic world. The scholar Ibn Sina (Avicenna) synthesized its medical wisdom.
The Shinkansen N700A Series Set G13 high speed train travelling at approximately 300 km/h through Himeji Station, Japan

Will the U.S. Ever Catch a High-Speed Train?

Over 20 countries have high-speed train travel, carrying 1.6 billion passengers a year. The United States is lagging behind.
Chicken Tikka and lamb samosas

Indian Food is Not a Monolith

When you eat Indian food, what are you really eating? Chicken tikka masala was originally created to appease the palates of the British during the Raj.
Library of Alexandria

Mostafa El-Abbadi

Mostafa A. H. el-Abbadi was the visionary behind the revival of the Great Library of Alexandria, the vast Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
women world leaders

Women Leaders on the International Front

With the real possibility of the first woman being elected president of the U.S., let's take a look at the situation around the globe.
Woman standing in a dirt road

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Speaker: Linguistic Isolation in the Modern World

Ayapaneco, an endangered Mexican language, sparked linguistic interest when the last two speakers of the language were not speaking to each other