For the curious

Noema · 2026-07-27

America at 250 & Beyond

by Nathan Gardels

How do you update a 250-year-old democracy when the act of voting is no longer enough?

Mada Masr · 2026-07-27

When Egypt Tried to Build Its Own Missile Program

by Jeffrey G. Karam

Psyche · 2026-07-27

Don’t Turn Away From Tragedy, but Do Witness Intentionally

by Nena Močnik

When a war shows up on your phone, how much of it are you supposed to watch?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-27

The Man Who Created a Written Language for the Cherokee Did It so Efficiently and Elegantly, His Peers Thought It Was Magic

How do you invent a written language when you have never learned to read?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-27

How Japanese Military Officers Freely Scouted Colonial India Without Raising British Suspicion

by Ajay Kamalakaran

How did a treaty meant to protect British India end up letting Japanese soldiers map it?

Vox · 2026-07-27

The Surprisingly Undisciplined Trick to Escaping Social Media

by Constance Grady

How do you escape the endless scroll without turning your free time into homework?

Noahpinion · 2026-07-26

What Will More Intelligence Actually Do for Us?

by Noah Smith

If machines can outsmart mathematicians, why haven't they replaced truck drivers?

Just Security · 2026-07-26

Clausewitz on Operation Epic Fury

by Michael Schmitt

Asterisk · 2026-07-26

The Doomers Are All Right

How do you plan a life when you believe humanity only has a few years left?

Defector · 2026-07-26

Danny McBride Leaves You Wandering

by Nick Martin

What happens when a master of Southern comedy leaves the South off the page?

Compact · 2026-07-25

Misanthropic Altruism

by William Thibeau

Africa Is a Country · 2026-07-25

Africa’s Last Philosopher King

by Sarah Setlaelo

American Scholar · 2026-07-25

Thanatos Rising

by George Makari

Why did Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud find it harder to explain peace than war?

Just Security · 2026-07-25

When Civilian Infrastructure Becomes a Lawful Target

by Michael Schmitt

At what point does a shipping warehouse that also supplies an army stop being a civilian building?

War on the Rocks · 2026-07-25

The King of Cool: Mobile Refrigeration and the Remaking of Global Logistics

by Caitlan Fealing

How did a self-taught mechanic’s cooling box for the front lines end up filling the local supermarket?

The Atlantic · 2026-07-25

The Unapologetic Crime Fiction of Colson Whitehead

by David Hajdu

How does a furniture salesman who fences stolen goods decide what is actually worth stealing?

Compact · 2026-07-24

How French Theory Lost Its Cool

by Geoff Shullenberger

Defector · 2026-07-24

The Other Elephant

by Sabrina Imbler

If an elephant has lived fifty years in a zoo, where does she belong now?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-24

Travelogue: a Hermit Travels From the Garhwal Himalayas to Mount Kailash and Manas Sarovar in 1898

by Swami Ramananda Bharati

How did a traveler find his way to the sacred peaks when the only shelter was a shared cave?

Works in Progress · 2026-07-24

The Myth of Medieval Childhood

by Samuel Hughes

Did parents in the Middle Ages really look at their children and see only small, unfinished adults?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-23

For the First Time in 27 Years, a Man Set a New World Record for Fastest Mile. People Have Chased the Goal for Centuries

The Conversation · 2026-07-23

New Genetic Approaches Raise Hopes for Restoring the American Chestnut to Its Former Glory

by Steve Strauss, University Distinguished Professor of Forest Biotechnology, Oregon State University

Could a new way of reading DNA bring a lost forest giant back to the woods?

Psyche · 2026-07-23

How to Become the Person You Want to Be

by Eike Buabang

Public Books · 2026-07-23

You Have Nothing to Lose but Your Supply Chains!

by Imani Radney

How much of the history of empire is still moving through the boxes on the doorstep?

Psyche · 2026-07-23

When the World Stopped Moving

by Devin A Giordano

When the cell door locks, what happens to someone who never learned to be still?

Aeon · 2026-07-23

Loitering Towards War

by Anton Cebalo

How did the talk in a poet’s cafe and a radical’s coffeehouse lead a continent toward war?

STAT News · 2026-07-22

Opinion: My Husband’s Suicide Shows There’s Something Very Wrong with the U.S. Insurance Industry

by Joy Evers

ProPublica · 2026-07-22

My Maddening Quest to Find Out if Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed

by Max Blau

How much can anyone really know about the farm that grew the blueberries in their fridge?

STAT News · 2026-07-22

Opinion: My Adult Daughter Has Down Syndrome. Her Life is Entirely Different From What Experts Expected

by Michelle Sie Whitten

When a doctor predicts a child’s life, how much of the story are they missing?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-22

‘No Matter How Busy a Train is, You Can Always Find a Quiet Space’: Travel Writer Monisha Rajesh

by Amritesh Mukherjee

How does the world look different when seen from a train window in the middle of the night?

Works in Progress · 2026-07-22

How We Learned What Genes Are Made Of

by Kevin Blake, PhD

How did a kitchen cream separator and a few dead mice reveal what genes are made of?

The Guardian (Long Read) · 2026-07-21

‘She Was Almost a Batman Figure’: Mexico’s Avenging Mother Courage

by Sam Edwards

If a mother uses billboards to hunt her son’s killers, who checks if the crime ever happened?

The Independent · 2026-07-21

United by Grief, Mothers in Brazil Demand Reparations After Police Killed Their Sons

by Eleonore Hughes

Scroll.in · 2026-07-21

A New Book Reflects on Why a Hunger Strike is the Most Culturally Resonant Political Protest

by Ghazala Jamil

Africa Is a Country · 2026-07-21

The Stories Shaping Africa’s AI Future

by Scott Timcke

In the tech hubs of Nairobi and Addis Ababa, who gets to decide what the future looks like?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-20

Goat’s Tooth Shows That Ancient Greek Food Economy Was More Complicated Than Researchers Thought

by Flint Dibble, The Conversation

American Scholar · 2026-07-20

Beckett the Prophet

by Robert Zaretsky

Can a play about two men waiting by a tree help a person finally greet a neighbor?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-20

One of the Quietest Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, Ella Baker Led by Encouraging Everyone to Get Involved

How did one woman help start a movement by visiting bars and pool halls?

The Atlantic · 2026-07-20

The True History of New England’s Stone Walls

by Matt Seaton

Why keep mending stone walls that the forest is slowly pulling down?

Vox · 2026-07-20

How to Slow Down Time When Life Keeps Speeding Up

by Shayla Love

Is it possible to stretch the hours of a day by simply letting yourself get bored?

The Conversation · 2026-07-19

How Lindsey Graham’s Keen Ability to Read the Moment Propelled Him to Political Relevance for 3 Decades

by Christopher A. Cooper, Professor of Political Science & Public Affairs, Western Carolina University

The Atlantic · 2026-07-19

What Lionel Messi Sees

by Sally Jenkins

Vox · 2026-07-19

What We Lost When Everything Became a Screen

by Sara Herschander

Can a single pane of glass replace the feeling of dirt, paper, and cold snow?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-19

‘Fractured Communities’ by Umar Khalid: Scholarship Meets Commitment to Marginalised Lives

by Anand Teltumbde

How did the state turn local village leaders into the tools for ruling the forest?

Psyche · 2026-07-19

Your Daydreams Know Something You Don’t. Look Closely

by Vardah Bharuchi

When a mind wanders to the same imaginary stories every day, what is it actually looking for?

The Conversation · 2026-07-19

Why You Let Down Your Guard on Ads When Scrolling on Social Media

by Matthew Pittman, Associate Professor of Advertising and Public Relations, University of Tennessee

Why does a pushy advertisement start to feel like a relief after a few minutes of scrolling?

Compact · 2026-07-18

The Corporal Philosophers

by Darius Gross

If a person finally builds a body that never fails, what would they actually do with it?

War on the Rocks · 2026-07-18

How Revolutions Break Their Believers

by Matt Gallagher

Quanta Magazine · 2026-07-18

Why Am I Left-Handed?

by Natalie Wolchover

If most animals don't favor one side, why are nine out of ten people right-handed?

The Diplomat · 2026-07-18

Playing for a Place in the World Through Taiwan’s Baseball Diplomacy

by Jozef Huljak

Why does a winning baseball team have to play under a flag and a name it didn't choose?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-17

‘Rajani’: How Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Addressed Caste, Class, and Desire in the 19th Century

by Paulami Sengupta

The Conversation · 2026-07-17

What Does It Mean to Be ‘quantum’? A Physicist Explains the Basics Behind Einstein’s Spooky Actions at a Distance

by Aldo Romero, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University

How do scientists build a computer out of particles that can be in two places at once?

The Hindu · 2026-07-17

Assam’s Out-of-school Children Dream of Becoming MLAs, Teachers

Astral Codex Ten · 2026-07-17

Against "Stochastic Terrorism"

by Scott Alexander

If a person speaks harshly about someone, are they to blame when a stranger turns violent?

STAT News · 2026-07-17

Opinion: is There a Doctor on Board? Yes, and Airlines Depend on It

by Sriman Swarup

Why does the airline industry rely on the doctor in row 14 to handle its emergencies?

Public Books · 2026-07-17

The Ableism of Kings, the Fury of Trump

by Megan Cummins

Why does the sight of a scar or a limp so often provoke a leader’s fury?

The Honest Broker · 2026-07-16

What You Won't Learn About the Odyssey From a Movie

by Ted Gioia

Quanta Magazine · 2026-07-16

Thermodynamic Computers Go with the (Energy) Flow

by Philip Ball

Could the random jiggle of atoms be used to solve problems instead of causing errors?

Africa Is a Country · 2026-07-16

From Colonial Storage to Open Access

by Furaha Ruguru

The Paris Review Daily · 2026-07-16

A City Bigger Than a Bomb: Dispatch From Beirut

by Jacob Russell

Can a family still find room to live in the quiet gaps between the bombs?

Eurozine · 2026-07-16

Georgia’s Unfinished European Journey

by Simon Garnett

If a country has been turning toward Europe since the Middle Ages, why is it still an outsider?

Himal Southasian · 2026-07-16

A Gujarati Dalit Writer Reckons with Gandhi’s Fraught Legacy

by Chandu Maheira

How do you wear the clothes of a man your mother blames for your family’s struggle?

Vox · 2026-07-16

How Singing with Other People Can Help You Move Through Grief and Despair

by Casper ter Kuile

If talking about pain isn’t enough, can singing with others help a person move through grief?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-15

The Art of Literary Translation Exposes the Limits of AI

by Krupa Shandilya, The Conversation

Slow Boring · 2026-07-15

Farms Aren’t Nature

by Matthew Yglesias

If a farm is just another business, why is it treated like a forest?

Defector · 2026-07-15

‘Famous Men’ and Ambitious Women

by Tajja Isen

Does a young writer find her own story by following a famous man home?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-15

From the Memoir: When Oscar Wilde’s Daughter-in-law Did ‘Oriental’ Makeup for Qurratulain Hyder

by Qurratulain Hyder

How does a young journalist end up with a face painted by Oscar Wilde’s daughter-in-law?

The Atlantic · 2026-07-15

Punctuation: a Generational Divide

by Judith Shulevitz

Why does a period at the end of a text message feel like an insult?

Noahpinion · 2026-07-14

The American Suburbs Are Better Than You Think

by Noah Smith

Does a house with a yard and a car offer something a city apartment cannot?

Scroll.in · 2026-07-14

‘Doubters Have Saved Mankind’: K Sachidanandan’s Poetic Imagination as a Site of Resistance

by EV Ramakrishnan

Compact · 2026-07-14

The AI Apocalypse is Already Here

by Gregory Conti

The Diplomat · 2026-07-14

Why China Never Captured the Indian Imagination

by Akhilesh Pillalamarri

How can two neighbors trade silk and sugar for two thousand years and still feel like strangers?

The Hedgehog Review · 2026-07-14

How Not to Rise to the Occasion

by Aaron Timms

Why is it so easy to sit on the sidelines when history is moving right past?

Aeon · 2026-07-13

Skill Nostalgia

by Joshua Habgood-Coote

Psyche · 2026-07-13

How to Be Defiant

by Sunita Sah

Why does it feel safer to nod along with a mistake than to risk an awkward conversation?

Vox · 2026-07-13

The Forgotten Success Story of America’s Teenagers

by Bryan Walsh

If teenagers are safer now than their parents were in the 1990s, why is the victory so quiet?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-07-13

We Know Simple Fluids Can Flow. Turns Out, Some Can Fracture.

by Rohini Subrahmanyam

Can a thick, gooey liquid be stretched until it snaps like a piece of glass?

The Conversation · 2026-07-13

Bat in the House? Here’s How to Remove It Safely

by Tara Hohoff, Associate Mammalogist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

How do you help a bat find its way back outside when it turns up in your home?

Africa Is a Country · 2026-07-12

What is the World Cup For?

by Boima Tucker

When a stadium costs more than a hospital, why does the game inside still feel so essential?

The Conversation · 2026-07-12

Fertilizers Carry a Hidden Cost for Soil’s Crucial Microbes – Using Less as Prices Rise Might Pay Off for Farms in Unexpected Ways

by Esther Ndumi Ngumbi, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology; African-American Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-12

An Ancient Sea Once Split North America Down the Middle. The Beautiful Multicolored Ammonite Shells From Its Waters Are so Perfectly Preserved That They Still Shimmer Today

Scroll.in · 2026-07-12

Ramachandra Guha: in Mannu Bhandari’s Memoir, an Unflinching Spotlight on Indian Patriarchy

by Ramachandra Guha

Why does a man who writes with such kindness for the world have none left for his wife?

Defector · 2026-07-12

Plato’s Allegory of the Crab

by Sabrina Imbler

How does a crab survive for months inside a wine bottle it can no longer squeeze through?

Noema · 2026-07-11

AI’s Greatest Gift to Humanity

by Arianna Huffington

STAT News · 2026-07-11

Opinion: the AI Licensure Debate is Missing the Point of Licensure

by Afnan R. Tariqand Ami Bhatt

If a computer passes a medical exam, who is left to answer when a patient gets hurt?

The Conversation · 2026-07-11

Far Removed From Today’s Global Juggernaut, Soccer Was Born in the Well-heeled Boarding Schools of 19th-century England

by Thomas Adam, Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas

How did a game meant to exhaust rowdy schoolboys turn into the world’s most popular sport?

The Paris Review Daily · 2026-07-10

Clearly Fake: Zurbarán’s Uncanny Realism

by Jackson Arn

The Bulwark · 2026-07-10

The Pentagon is Too Fixated on China

by Mark Hertling

Can a superpower keep its balance if it treats every other crisis as a distraction?

War on the Rocks · 2026-07-10

The Davis Wing, the B-24 Liberator, and the Self-Made Bet That Paid Off

by Mike Benitez

Why would a major manufacturer trust the shape of a raindrop over the advice of the experts?

Vox · 2026-07-10

Why Neighbor Feuds Bring Out the Absolute Worst in Us

by Julia Sullivan

Why does a minor disagreement with the person next door feel like a direct threat to your identity?

Noahpinion · 2026-07-09

Insurers Aren't the Main Villain of the U.S. Health Care System

by Noah Smith

If insurance companies aren't the ones getting rich, where does all that money go?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-09

Did This Duke Poison His Brother? A New DNA Analysis May Solve the Centuries-Old Medici Mystery

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-09

Alan Lomax Spent Years Traveling the Country to Record the Sounds of America. The Legacy of His Obsession Will Live Forever

How much of a country’s story survives only because someone was there to record its voices?

The Diplomat · 2026-07-09

Why Global Press Freedom Rankings Struggle with Singapore

by Leonie Spangenberg

Can a global ranking measure freedom in a society that values harmony more than confrontation?

The Atlantic · 2026-07-09

There’s a Name for the People Who Drain You

by Olga Khazan

If a relationship takes a physical toll, why does the prospect of being alone still feel worse?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-07-08

Everyone Wanted Alexander Graham Bell to Debut the Telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. He Almost Avoided It Entirely

Psyche · 2026-07-08

Does Modernisation Erase Cultural Difference – or Amplify It?

by Thomas Talhelm

If the world looks more similar every day, why are cultural differences growing deeper?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-07-08

Astrophysicists Puzzle Over Webb’s New Universe

by Jay Bennett

If the oldest galaxies in the sky are behaving impossibly, how do you begin to redraw the universe?

The Conversation · 2026-07-08

We Analyzed Paper Money Printed by Ben Franklin to Uncover His Anti‑counterfeiting Techniques and Materials Innovations

by Khachatur Manukyan, Associate Research Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of Notre Dame

Why did Benjamin Franklin turn to chemistry and botany to make paper money feel real?

Aeon · 2026-07-07

What Shape is the Earth?

by Miguel Ohnesorge

Why would generations of scientists spend decades trying to measure the Earth’s bumpy shape?