Essay The hidden economic lives of women March 18, 2021 Women are everywhere in economic life, and nowhere very much in economic history. In Joseph Vernet鈥檚 great series of paintings of the 1750s and 1760s, the waterfronts of the ports of France are crowded with women pulling carts and selling fish, talking and bargaining. Read More
Essay Madame d鈥橝ulnoy, the mysterious fairy鈥憈ale queen March 17, 2021 For those readers who do not believe that fairies are real, they should think twice, for the extraordinary Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Comtesse d鈥橝ulnoy (1650鈥�1705) did not only invent the term fairy tale (conte de fees) and create tales about fairies, she was a fearless fairy herself. Read More
Podcast Dying from despair in the USA March 16, 2021 Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row鈥攁 reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. Read More
Video Abloh-isms: Essential quotations from the renowned fashion designer, DJ, and stylist March 15, 2021 Abloh-isms聽is a collection of essential quotations from American fashion designer,聽DJ, and stylist Virgil Abloh, who has established himself as a major creative figure in the worlds of pop culture and art. Read More
Essay What鈥檚 it like to be a spike?: What we鈥檙e learning in the Golden Age of neuroscience March 14, 2021 It began as an idle thought. I stood on a chill dimly-lit platform one early winter morning, waiting on my regular, no-doubt delayed train to emerge from the tunnel and pull up with a screech of brakes, ready to convey me through the snow-topped hills from the grey, snowy city where I live to the dark, damp city where I worked. Read More
Essay Happy 40th, Einstein! March 13, 2021 On March 14th, 1919 Albert Einstein celebrated his 40th birthday. Typically for him the big milestone passed off quietly. Read More
Essay Why plant flowers? March 12, 2021 As someone who derives a great deal of pleasure from growing and studying flowers, I would like to suggest that everyone get involved with planting flowers this spring, whether indoors or out, at home or as part of a community beautification program. Read More
Essay The blind leading the blind March 07, 2021 My mother came here to the United States from her country to help me open my very first brick and mortar business鈥擧arriett鈥檚 快色直播hop鈥攊n the Fishtown section of Philadelphia back in March of 2020. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: The Preacher鈥檚 Wife March 04, 2021 This month鈥檚 Book Club Pick is The Preacher鈥檚 Wife by Kate Bowler. In this book, Bowler tells the story of an important new figure that has appeared on the center stage of American evangelicalism鈥攖he celebrity preacher鈥檚 wife. Read More
Interview Sylvana Tomaselli on Wollstonecraft March 03, 2021 Mary Wollstonecraft鈥檚聽A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women鈥檚 rights advocacy. However, as Sylvana Tomaselli shows, a full understanding of Wollstonecraft鈥檚 thought is possible only through a more comprehensive appreciation of Wollstonecraft herself. Read More
Podcast The life of Geoffrey Chaucer March 02, 2021 Uncovering important new information about Chaucer鈥檚 travels, private life, and the circulation of his writings, Marion Turner reconstructs in unprecedented detail the cosmopolitan world of Chaucer鈥檚 adventurous life, focusing on the places and spaces that fired his imagination. Read More
Essay Wasps, and their unsung contributions to the ecosystem February 27, 2021 The sting. Pain is what we associate with the word 鈥渨asp,鈥� because our definition of wasp is far too narrow. Read More
Video The neuroscientific excitement of ordinary moments February 25, 2021 We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips 鈥渟pikes.鈥� Read More
Interview Emma Rothschild on An Infinite History February 24, 2021 Marie Aymard was an illiterate widow who lived in the provincial town of Angoul锚me in southwestern France, a place where seemingly nothing ever happened. Yet, in 1764, she made her fleeting mark on the historical record. Read More
Essay Ridding ourselves of a demagogue: What the ancient Greeks would have thought of impeachment聽 February 23, 2021 In 471 BCE, the politician and renowned general Themistocles was exiled from Athens for ten years by a vote of some six thousand Athenians. Read More
