The Road to Space Runs Through the Poles
by David Marsh
Why are there more satellite antennas on a frozen island with more polar bears than people?
0:00 / 17:36 · Narrator Rasalgethi
Daily edition
2026-07-15
Today's Crosscut
Designing for Humans
While NASA builds a heat shield to protect a pilot’s ribs and lungs, can a machine without skin or a pulse ever translate the physical ache in a poem?
The Art of Literary Translation Exposes the Limits of AI × Artemis 1's Orion Spacecraft Withstood the Heat of Re-entry in a Critical Test for Humans' Return to the Moon. Now, NASA Will Loan the Historic Capsule to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
0:00 / 18:02 · Narrator Sulafat/Charon/Vindemiatrix
Future-gazing →
Building a Long-term Base on the Moon Will Require Extensive Planning – a Planetary Geologist Describes the Considerations That Go Into It
by Clive Neal, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame
How do you pick the right piece of ground for a permanent home on the Moon?
0:00 / 5:57 · Narrator Charon
Behind the news →
Farms Aren’t Nature
by Matthew Yglesias
If a farm is just another business, why is it treated like a forest?
0:00 / 10:23 · Narrator Algieba
For the curious →
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?
0:00 / 9:12 · Narrator Gacrux
Smart escape →
‘Famous Men’ and Ambitious Women
by Tajja Isen
Does a young writer find her own story by following a famous man home?
0:00 / 11:36 · Narrator Sulafat
Punctuation: a Generational Divide
by Judith Shulevitz
Why does a period at the end of a text message feel like an insult?
0:00 / 10:45 · Narrator Vindemiatrix