history
The hidden story behind Greek surnames and how they trace family origins across the country — starting with the name of a would-be U.S. president.
By focusing on the role of human experience, we may uncover new insights on the fundamental structure of reality.
Oliver Burkeman — author of “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” — tells Big Think about modern life lessons from a 6th-century monk.
“The Big Map of Who Lived When” plots the lifespans of historical figures — from Eminem all the way back to Genghis Khan.
The annual rite of passage has always been more about the ambivalence of adults than the amusement of children.
Why human attempts to mechanize logic keep breaking down.
Thinking of a number between one and ten? Here’s how predictable human responses create the illusion of telepathy.
Famed activist Bayard Rustin constantly faced the dilemma of coordinating collective pursuits among diverse groups of people.
In a world of rising cynicism, a celebration of our capacity to create, adapt, and thrive.
How “Catastrophe and Social Change” (1920) became the first systematic analysis of human behavior in a disaster.
Slowing growth and limiting development isn’t living in harmony with nature—it is surrendering in a battle.
In popular culture, the eruption is usually depicted as an apocalyptic event.
How has tennis changed in recent decades? The wear and tear on Wimbledon’s Centre Court may tell the tale.
Quarks and leptons are the smallest known subatomic particles. Does the Standard Model allow for an even smaller layer of matter to exist?
Have you ever noticed how many things you interact with but can’t name? So did we.
From surviving on wild plants and game to controlling our world with technology, humanity’s journey of progress is a story of expanding human agency.
A perfect map is as useless as it is impossible to create.
An analysis of Indonesian cave paintings is reframing the history of human art, though whether the paintings really were created by human hands remains an open question.
Cats twist and snakes slide, exploiting and negotiating physical laws. Scientists are figuring out how.
Alan Turing and Christopher Strachey created a ground-breaking computer program that allowed them to express affection vicariously when so doing publicly, as gay men, was criminal.
19 rooms. 1,636 square feet. 1,800 years of history.
9 minutes of cruel history may cure the anti-progress delusion.
The true story of the shot that “reverberated through England” when science collided head-on with religion.
Ryan Condal, who worked in pharmaceutical advertising before Hollywood, talks with Big Think about imposter syndrome, “precrastination,” and Westeros lore.
While the concept stretches back centuries, it has garnered significant attention in recent decades.
The world needs a moral defense of progress based in humanism and agency.
A new method of mapping migration factors in erratic movements and changing climate.
In “Moral Ambition,” Dutch historian Rutger Bregman argues that all would benefit from a collective redefinition of success.
Concerns about privacy and pressures regarding the physical appearance of women and their homes contributed to the failure of AT&T’s 1960s Picturephone.