culture
The Pan-American Highway began a century ago with a vision of unfettered motor-vehicle access between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. What happened to the dream?
In ancient Rome, collective bathing was the norm. In the West today, it’s the exception — and that’s too bad.
Was the terror of Biscayne Bay a man who escaped slavery, an African chieftain, or a marketing ploy that went viral?
The philosophy of sex is going through a recalibration period.
The world’s “most produced living playwright” wins out over other contestants, including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood.
Science and technology were making early modern Europe a better place to live, but at what cost?
Australian soldiers fighting the Japanese recruited native New Guineans to their campaign.
The stench of death is actually fairly pleasant.
In a world without clocks, people used common activities in place of time units. How long it took you to go to the toilet mattered.
Historians have been able to piece together a clear picture of how the average Roman citizen spent their waking hours.
Just 12% of Americans account for half the country’s total beef consumption.
Legally smoking joints in city centers will require alertness and a keen sense of orientation — two things stoners are not known for.
His crime was so great, he was not only sentenced to death but his name was to be erased from memory.
Dive into China’s profound intellectual legacy through five seminal texts that have shaped millennia of thought.
In Georgia, it’s becoming less common to pronounce words like “prize” as “prahz.”
“Conceptual isolation” offers an agreeable solution.
A history of othering, experimentation, and mystery.
Sweet, bitter, salty, sour. These are the four basic tastes we were taught in grade school. But there is a fifth: umami. And it’s everywhere.
The mountain can generate lenticular clouds, which may contribute to its supernatural reputation.
Legend holds that newly elected popes in the Middle Ages had to present their genitals for inspection to confirm that they were male.
To this day, one cult believes that Lemuria was real, and that its people left us the sacred wisdom to revive their advanced civilization.
The design was as intricate as that of modern-day, factory-fabricated denim jeans, and just as durable. The ancients had fashion.
Pure cinema is about removing redundancy so that even the smallest detail serves a purpose in relation to the bigger picture.
The region of Catalonia has been at odds with greater Spain for over 300 years. The prospect of autonomy remains a distant and fading dream.
Six authors, six monumental legacies, and a unique thread connecting them: a solitary novel that shines brightly.
Wherever automation rises, religiosity falls.
Be more like Goldilocks.
Nero’s reputation as one of the most malevolent emperors in Roman history might be partly slander.
Six hundred years in the history of trousers.
According to bushido, your life is of secondary importance to key virtues, like honor, loyalty, and justice.