Plant of the Month: Hops
As the craft beer industry reckons with its oppressive past, it may be time to re-examine the complicated history (and present) of hops in the United States
Kids Need Dads—Or Do They?
Data suggest that fathers can be fantastic, but there’s no magic ingredient they supply for children’s emotional, educational, or social development.
Imperial Science and the Company’s Museum
The East India Company’s London museum stored the stuff of empire, feeding the growth of new collections-based disciplines and scientific societies.
A Noisy City Affects Birdsong
As anthropogenic ambient noise increases in urban areas, birds adapt their songs to make themselves heard.
Palmyre’s Belle Époque Lesbian Bar
By providing sexualized entertainment to tourists, the bar owners of Montmartre made visible and even celebrated the quarter’s queer culture.
Race, Rock, and Breaking Barriers
The rock music industry brought more than a little racism to the radio, but a few artists pushed beyond the boundaries imposed by white audiences.
Octavia Butler’s Roots in Black History
The Parable books seem different yet familiar, their plots framed by a world shattered by racism, economic inequality, and climate change.
Fighting for Sex Workers’ Rights in India
Labor unions for sex workers reveal how sexuality, gender, and caste intersect in a precarious and often dangerous work environment.
The Battle over Drag in 1960s San Francisco
The organized struggle for rights has been shaped by debates over the relationship between gender presentation and sexuality.
Bodies of the Titanic: Found and Lost Again
Ideas about economic class informed decisions about which recovered bodies would be preserved for land burial and which would be returned to the icy seas.