Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Why Were There Still Stories of Blackface in 2019?

One of the minor themes of 2019 was the revelation that various prominent white politicians had once worn blackface. The question is: why?
A vintage Avon advertisement

Is Multi-Level Marketing Really Just a Pyramid Scheme?

Offering products as their main revenue base allows MLMs to operate legally, but they often have fundamentally the same ethical issues as pyramid schemes.
Emliie Chatelet, Anne Conway, and Mary Wollstonecraft

3 Women Philosophers of the Enlightenment

They shaped the history of Western philosophical thought. It's past time to recognize their contributions.
A Moog synthesizer

The Fear That Synthesizers Would Ruin Music

A German musicologist complained in 1954 that they reminded him of "barking hell-hounds."
agave

Plant of the Month: Agave

The international popularity of tequila threatens the quantity, health, and biodiversity of all species of agave.
Medieval depiction of Caesarian birth

How Medieval Surgeons Shaped Sex and Gender

Our ideas about surgically “correcting” intersex conditions go back to a shift in the profession of surgery seven centuries ago.
An unknown paleontologist, 1860

The Dinosaur Bone Wars

1877 was a banner year for American dinosaurs: three major finds in the West turned the region into a "paleontologist's El Dorado."
Peasants Before Their House by Louis Le Nain

Quiet Struggle Means Resistance without Protest

A lone resister is easy to take down, but there is safety in numbers, in conspiracies of silence, in refusals to testify against one's neighbors.
An octopus

Stuck in the Midden with You

A midden is, among other things, a refuse site outside an octopus' home. (Release the Køkkenmødding!)
Charleston Orphan House

Poor Charleston

Letters from desperate mothers to the nation's first public orphanage.