Keeping Crickets for Luck, Song, and Bloodsport
Design can facilitate the worst of human instincts, including forcing animals into servitude and violence. Cricket cages tell stories about how people have treated the insects throughout time.
Clare Boothe Luce, the Conservative Politician Who Wrote an All-Female Play
Clare Boothe Luce was a socialite, an editor, a feminist playwright, a devout Roman Catholic, a Republican Congresswoman, an early LSD user, an ambassador, and, believe it or not, more.
A Civil Rights Leader’s Killer Sentenced 31 Years Late
Mississippi Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers was fatally shot in his driveway in 1963. His killer wasn't sentenced until 1994.
10 Poems by Lucie Brock-Broido
Ten poems by the accomplished poet and teacher Lucie Brock-Broido.
The Murky Linguistics of Consent
In many #MeToo stories, crucial signals, verbal and non-verbal cues, are sent but not received. Why is that?
How Archie Got His Groove Back
The setup of Archie Comics was straightforward, as was its protagonist. But the success of Riverdale speaks to the Archieverse's surprising fluidity.
The End of American Film Censorship
The Hays Code kept Hollywood on a short leash until the Supreme Court decided in 1952 that films were protected by the First Amendment.
What Gloves Meant to the Victorians
According to one historian, the year 1900 was “the zenith of glove-wearing,” when any self-respecting Victorian (British or American) wouldn’t be caught dead without covered hands.
Why Saris are Indian Material Culture
Between 1996 and 2003, a folklorist studied the connection between handlooms (technology), sari makers (producers), and sari wearers (consumers) in the ancient city of Banaras.
The First Civil Rights Monument
The nation's first civil rights monument is a mural portraying the interracial audience at Marion Anderson's famed Freedom Concert of 1939 on the Washington Mall.