Vincent Van Gogh’s afterlife (The New York Times)
by Russell Shorto
Vincent Van Gogh died with his art largely unappreciated and his personal struggles mostly unknown. That might never have changed if it hadn’t been for his sister-in-law, who helped transform Europeans’ and Americans’ understanding of art’s emotional life.

The plastic we breathe (CNN)
by Jessie Yeung
Tiny microplastic particles are in the air all around us, dropping across the US at a rate of 22,000 tons per year. There are a number of places it comes from, and one is our extraordinarily plastic-filled oceans.

Music of joy in struggle (Black Perspectives)
by AAIHS
Throughout the African diaspora, music has provided a structure for political organizing and a vision of a different world. The Black Panthers even had their own funk band.

The brilliance of Beverly Cleary (Public Books)
by John Plotz
Why did the work of Beverly Cleary touch so many people so profoundly? It may have to do with the way she mixed precise realism with wild, fantastical rebellion.

Revealing secrets of human genomes (The Conversation)
by Xavier Bofill De Ros
Twenty years after the original Human Genome Project, scientists are working to sequence the genomes of a million Americans. The results could help treat diseases, and reveal the purpose of the large portion of our genetic code that remains mysterious.

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