Vulture Cultures
By turns worshipped and reviled, the bird frequently associated with death has appeared in art works for thousands of years. Here’s a short history.
NASA’s Search for Life on Mars
It’s a rocky road for its rovers, a long slog for scientists—and back on Earth, a battle of the budget.
A Garden of Verses
As commonplace books evolved into anthologies, they developed reputations as canonical works, their editors curating tomes as vibrant as the loveliest bouquets.
From Saint to Stereotype: A Story of Brigid
Caricatures of Irish immigrants—especially Irish women—have softened, but persist in characters whose Irishness is expressed in subtle cues.
Prisoners’ Pastimes
Isabella Rosner’s Stitching Freedom showcases embroidered works made by the incarcerated and examines this craft’s historical popularity behind bars.
Up the Junction: A Place, A Fiction, A Film, A Condition
In addition to a New Wave hit, Nell Dunn's 1963 book about young women in a poor London neighborhood inspired a Ken Loach adaption that helped shift British attitudes toward abortion.
What Do Gardens and Murder Have in Common?
Writers have long plotted murder mysteries in gardens of all sorts. What makes these fertile grounds for detective fiction?
Camellia sinensis: Labor and the Tea Plant
Consumed as tea around the world, Camellia sinensis raises questions about plantation labor practices and the environmental impact of monocultures.
Historian J.T. Roane Explores Black Ecologies
Considerations of climate change and environmentalism have for too long paid no mind to where Black people live and in what conditions.
Island in the Potomac
Steps from Georgetown, a memorial to Teddy Roosevelt stands amid ghosts of previous inhabitants: the Nacotchtank, colonist enslavers, and the emancipated.