Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed at Fifty
The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s book, first published in English 50 years ago, urges viewing students as interlocutors or partners in the learning process.
Ynés Mexía: Botanical Trailblazer
This Mexican-American botanist fought against the harshness of both nature and society to follow her passion for plant collecting.
Invented Math, Trustworthy Vaccines, and New Sugar
Well-researched stories from Smithsonian, FiveThirtyEight, and more great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
How Mass Incarceration Has Shaped History
A historian argues that it’s time to look at the consequences of locking up millions of people over several decades.
The French Revolution as Illuminati Conspiracy
The Illuminati was a real secret society. But in the hands of British conservatives during the French Revolution, it became a massive conspiracy.
How Medieval Arabic Literature Viewed Lesbians
As far back as the ninth century, doctors and poets wrote about women who loved women without calling them deviants.
The Unsung Heroine of Lichenology
Elke Mackenzie’s moments of self-citation illuminate the hopes of someone who, against ease and tradition, did not wish to separate her identity from her research.
Our Space Brothers Might Not Actually Look Like Little Green Men after All
If we find aliens, chances are they'll be nothing like we ever imagined.
A Recipe for Ancient Wildfires
The earliest wildfires raged long before humans, and they only needed three ingredients to get started.
How Hollywood Sold Glamour
The complicated notion of glamour in classic Hollywood, suggesting that stars were aloof and unknowable, was also a means to sell products.