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.
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.
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.
From DiscoVision to SelectaVision
While these videodisc formats ultimately failed, they signaled that consumers were hungry for control of their home viewing.
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 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.
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.
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: 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.
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.