An animation of a cat that shifts between the cat being alive and the cat being dead

Why Do We Love Thinking About Schrödinger’s Cat?

In physics, the whole point of the thought experiment is that it’s absurd. But in literature, it’s been used to explore all sorts of ideas and possibilities.
Bob Gutowski, 1957

Pole Vaulting Over the Iron Curtain

When it became clear that the United States and its allies couldn’t “liberate” Eastern Europe through psychological war and covert ops, they turned to sports.
Vintage engraving of hunting moose in Alaska, 1886

Why Animals “Give Themselves” to Hunters

Many northern Indigenous cultures think about hunting in terms of literal “gifts” from animal to human, yet outsiders often dismiss the concept as a metaphor.
Still-life of a Pioneer brand laserdisc player

From DiscoVision to SelectaVision

While these videodisc formats ultimately failed, they signaled that consumers were hungry for control of their home viewing.
Mod dancers

Owner of a Lonely Heart

Personal ads changed dating, but they also provided source material for sociologists and psychologists to understand how people choose mates.
Connie Converse

Connie Converse Wasn’t Just a Folk Singer. She Was a Scholar, Too.

The disappeared—but recently rediscovered—folk musician edited and published in academic journals under the name Elizabeth Converse.
Community Service Organization (CSO) Voter registration drive, 1958

Money and Activism: Mixed Messages

During the Cold War, philanthropic paternalism put Mexican American grassroots activists in the American Southwest at odds with East Coast funding institutions.
"Top Chef" winner Hung Huynh begins his stint as executive chef at Solo in the Sony building on March 10, 2008 in New York City.

Should We Expect TV Chefs to Serve “Me on a Plate”?

Asian Americans navigate entrenched attitudes and expectations when it comes to their relationship with food—even while competing on Top Chef.
Red House

Red House: The Perfect Home for a Victorian Socialist

Subject to myriad interpretations over the last 150 years, William Morris’s Gothic-inspired home has been an enduring influence on Anglo-American architecture.
Jack Parsons

Sex-Cult Rocket Man

Jack Parsons, one of the “suicide squad” trio of young rocket-boy founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had an improbable extracurricular life.