Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood icon and sex symbol, captivated everyone from her fans to a president. But beneath her incandescent sparkle lay hidden hurt and trauma. Gay men…
AI promises to revolutionize just about every industry in the world. Even as its creations become widespread, concerns have been raised about how it uses human art. What are the…
The May 1968 Paris student uprising was the spark that lit a blazing conflagration throughout the nation, shutting down the country. Daniel Cohn-Bendit – “Danny the Red” – led…
In 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear after an argument with his friend, fellow artist Paul Gauguin. But what would have driven him to commit such an act of…
Humor has been around for as long as we humans have existed. Since ancient times, cultures have shared similar ideas about what’s funny, and styles of humor have been passed down…
Is Michelangelo’s statue of David pornographic? It turns out the question isn’t new – it’s age-old and dates almost to its time of completion. Michelangelo felt differently, of…
In spring, new life is literally springing up everywhere – flowers blooming, birds chirping, and buds bursting. Across the globe, spring festivals bolster our revitalized spirit –…
Steeped in its storied history, the small island country of Malta is the ultimate travel destination for cinephiles and TV show fans, especially if you’re into action-adventure,…
Marriage is a global institution. Practiced for millennia, it is a bit of a contradiction. Marriage has conferred social benefits but also reflected deep-seated discriminatory…
Owls have fascinated humans for thousands of years. Their rapt stare and haunting night calls have made this mysterious bird appear to people worldwide as both keepers of great…
What is Christmas without Santa Claus? The men interviewed for this article represent three different approaches to being Santa in contemporary America. Each of their stories is…
Jack London was the most successful American writer of the early 20th century, earning a fortune writing books that are still read today. He was also an accomplished photographer…
Debuting a century ago, documentary films employed the newest camera systems to bring startling views of the world to their audiences. Today’s digital technology has allowed…
Famous for his exquisite poetry, and his notorious affairs, Lord Byron is also known today as the father of Ada Lovelace, considered to be the first computer programmer. Her…
As far back as our earliest depictions, we’ve imagined justice is about judgment, reward, and punishment. From the ancient Egyptians to today’s courtrooms, images of justice…
Zen meditation reached the U.S. from Japan after World War II. Broadly gaining followers in the 1960s, American Zen has become its own distinct stream of Buddhist practice,…
The hippies’ Summer of Love was seeded in the early 1960s and blossomed during 1967 – but it withered before year’s end. Here’s the incredible story behind why it flowered, how it…
The Monterey Pop Festival, an unprecedented gathering of young people and performers, many of them high on LSD, launched 1967’s Summer of Love, merged music and film, and…
Crime fiction author Agatha Christie was a lifelong follower of true crime. Her novels often reflected cases from the day’s headlines. With the founding of a group for mystery…
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a man of vision, designing structures that broke with European precedent. Best known for his homes for wealthy patrons, when the Great Depression…
French 19th century painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s long-standing anti-Semitism affected his career choices, his aesthetic strategies, and his painterly style. Explore the…
Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous painting ever, entertaining six million viewers each year at the Louvre. But its subject, most likely the Italian…
Was Shakespeare gay or bisexual? Amid debate, new research reveals undeniable queer themes throughout his work, in poems and in plays. Did he do this intentionally? If so, the…
Was there a real Jesus of Nazareth, and was he the Son of God? Time-travel to the Holy Land in that era to explore the clues to the historical Jesus, physical objects called…
Clint Eastwood gained international stardom in a so-called spaghetti western that brought a new sense of drama to a tired genre. But his last “cowboy movie,” Unforgiven, reveals…
We all want justice. We want crimes to be solved. We want the right person held responsible. Why is this important to us? Two theories of justice help us to understand why, where…
The history of humanity is chock full of arguments for and against the existence of God. From the experiential to the purely rational, these arguments attempt what most of us…
As science learned more about Mars, it became an imagined realm of engineering feats made by a civilization perhaps advanced enough to attack and colonize Earth. Now humans are…
Whether it’s a whodunnit story, a bank heist, or an unsolved problem of science, we love a good mystery. But why are mysteries so endlessly fascinating? Because they tease our…
In Florence, Italy, in the early 1400s, male same-sex practices were not uncommon. Leonardo da Vinci was anonymously denounced for this as a young man, and his case’s outcome…
Edgar Rice Burroughs created Tarzan, one of the most famous characters in fiction, and earned a fortune from his pen. Though much of his work is now dated, his best stories remain…
Music has long been understood to have mysterious properties to ease troubled bodies and minds. Starting in the early ‘90s, researchers were able to see in real time what melody…
Pop artist Andy Warhol is known for his glacially cool, photo-based serial imagery, which erased the artist’s hand from the final product. But is Warhol’s art impersonal? His…
Promoting her new cookbook on a Boston TV station, Julia Child was offered her own show and soon became a star. Her sense of fun and warm personality inspired millions to take up…
Fine French dining has evolved significantly over the past century. However, the essence of French cuisine, bringing rich flavors to diners’ palates in an aesthetically pleasing…
The original Globe theater was where Shakespeare debuted his greatest plays. When a rebuilt Globe opened in London in 1997, it gave modern audiences a thrilling sense of the…
The Ku Klux Klan reappeared in the 1920s, promoted by a pair of public relations executives using images drawn from a blockbuster movie. But the Klan soon collapsed from internal…
Once something you’d find in soapy water, bubble was adapted in the 18th century to represent an oversold capital market. Now it’s used to describe the flow of information in the…
From the animal kingdom to the kingdom of God, gifts have been important messages of caring and concern. The tradition of giving gifts to figures of importance, at memorable…
Édouard Manet was, in key ways, the first “modern” painter. Born in Paris during great social upheaval, he reinvented traditional painting to capture the changing scenes of urban…
Diana Vreeland brought an independent verve to American style starting in 1939 as fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar. Her magazine work gave women permission to create their own…
True crime entertainment is almost as old as printing. The first known play based on a real-life murder appeared in late 16th-century London. There’s good reason to think the…
The Cannes Film Festival’s origin contains the makings of a great wartime thriller: a freedom-loving faction squares off against threats from Nazis and fascists. Is all lost?…
“Whiteness” is a relatively new category, used to describe a race that (some historians argue) doesn’t actually exist. What can it help us understand about America today?
Charlie Chaplin became a movie star thanks to his beloved Tramp character. But his comedy masterpieces and enormous fortune couldn’t calm a torment, grounded in a horrific…
The tiny ukulele is both a vessel of Hawaiian culture and a roving ambassador of musical fun. It was at the heart of an American pop music fad for nearly 30 years before fading…
Cary Grant, among the brightest movie stars of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, was also “an apostle of LSD.” His outspoken advocacy for the promise of “psychedelic psychotherapy” spoke…
Frank Sinatra was a towering figure in the cultural history of the 20th century. But the pinnacle of his career, at least in music, may be his albums of the ’50s. His legacy…
The Pentagon just confirmed three UFO sightings, but humans have been reporting UFOs for a long time. From Roswell and beyond, here’s a glimpse into the world of the flying…
This year, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in the progress of the feminist movement in the U.S., a political event that demonstrated the power and reach of “second…
Marie Bracquemond, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Berthe Morisot – these painters, all affiliated with the Impressionist art movement, have not received the attention given their…
Necessary or frivolous? In a society where “I’ll sue you” is a common threat, the legal system gets inundated with potential cases. Sometimes these cases are tragic and the…
Quantum physics is complex and fascinating. It also bears many similarities to certain religious philosophies. Could it help bridge the gap between science and faith?
Out of 600,000 works of art stolen or looted by the Nazis during WWII, more than 100,000 are still unaccounted for. Nazi collaborators, even in Allied countries, helped the Nazis…
The technology of producing newspapers has evolved a lot in the past 300 years, and reading habits have changed, too. But have we lost anything essential as the forms of news…
Viewing art can be a solitary, sometimes confounding experience. Waldemar Januszczak is seeking to change that by hosting TV documentaries on art that feature his accessible yet…
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has delighted readers since its 1865 publication. But most readers don’t know that author Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, was a math…
From Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter, portals are everywhere in fiction and could hide at famous ancient sites, from Stonehenge to the Egyptian Pyramids.
Accounts of drunkenness abound in the Bible, which rewards moderate use of alcohol for social purposes but strongly condemns the overuse and misuse of alcohol. Lot and Noah both…
From Sumer to Egypt to India, the world’s most ancient civilizations often worshiped powerful female goddesses and religious leaders – but even they had to fight for equality.
While many stories have earned recognition as influential classics, let’s look at three in particular: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels…
Cannabis has changed culture in the U.S. and other areas where laws have shifted. More adults smoke, and the public is more accepting. But with this societal evolution comes…
Artifacts and relics have always been fascinating to the people who find or buy them. Many have tried to get their hands on relics since the Middle Ages. This demand creates the…
1969 was a year of signal events in popular culture. From Woodstock to Altamont, from the Manson murders to the Moon landing, the events kept piling up in the rush to the end of…
The art of Living History and historical re-enactors might be the closest we’ll ever come to actual time-travel. Without a time machine, these committed amateur historians attempt…
The Apollo moon landings were massive achievements for technology and science. Unfortunately, they’re also shrouded in conspiracy theories. Why do people believe the Moon landing…
Meet Canada’s first trans beauty queen and explore various ways to live outside the “gender binary” of stereotypical male/female distinctions. To mark Pride Month, let’s take a…
Coffee is ubiquitous in the U.S. and around the world, but how did this drug-bearing plant enter so fully into our cultural life? The history of coffee reveals both the light and…
It’s a dangerous world for war correspondents, and getting riskier by the day. Reporter Lara Logan was brutally attacked in a 2011 Egypt demonstration yet survived. She is but one…
Nationalism has changed dramatically since its formation during the Enlightenment era. In the 1830s, Polish composer Frédéric Chopin made his musical mark as a defender of…
Women in the Bible play many roles, and while few actually make it into the spotlight, the ones who do leave their mark. But who are some of the more famous - and infamous - ones?…
In our digital age, artwork and other creative content can travel rapidly from author to user. But sometimes those users exploit digital content in ways unauthorized by copyright…
Fifty years ago, Stanley Kubrick released his film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a classic tale of an epic journey to Jupiter. Let’s take a look back at Kubrick’s masterpiece. From…
Greece is one in a constellation of ancient cultures that formed the foundations of Western civilization. In this timeline, we’ll mark the rise of Greece from its preliterate…
Ludwig van Beethoven’s music includes some of the most memorable, profound, and beautiful compositions of all time. But for much of his career he was unable to listen to what he…
Ludwig van Beethoven was among the greatest composers in history, yet is often seen as a moody, dark genius. What does his childhood tell us about him?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came to fame during the Age of Enlightenment, and his compositions were informed by this spirit. But in fact, whether we would even have some of his most…
In a life of only 35 years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created an extraordinary volume of memorable work that will be performed for as long as we appreciate the genius of timeless…
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