A World of Roti (Sapiens)
by Mariam Durrani and Nilosree Biswas
Rotis were born in India thousands of years ago and later spread around the world, with regional variations found from Trinidad to Uganda. Today, the flatbread is the subject of memes and videos that reflect cultural traditions and feminist values.

Life is In the Air (Sequencer Magazine)
by Carl Zimmer
The first land-based life on Earth didn’t crawl up from the seas. It flew. And air travel continues to spread diverse plants, fungi, and other living things all around the world.

How Many of Us Will There Be? (Vox)
by Dylan Scott
In recent decades, fears about overpopulation among politicians and economists have been replaced by precisely the opposite concern. But who’s making the projections of future population, and how seriously should we take them?

Beyond Accommodations (Public Books)
by Liz Bowen
Disability can be simultaneously extremely visible and strangely obscured, and well-meaning institutions often fumble badly in working with disabled employees. Is there a better way to improve workplaces for everyone?

Building a Memory Palace (Quanta Magazine)
by Ingrid Wickelgren
We go into each new experience with the support of mental scaffolding built up by years of going through similar things. Now, brain scans are helping scientists understand how these “event scripts” work.

Got a hot tip about a well-researched story that belongs on this list? Email us here.