Suggested Readings: Talking Trees, Code-Switching, and Stinkbugs
Well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap…
Most Recent Articles
Keeping Crickets for Luck, Song, and Bloodsport
Design can facilitate the worst of human instincts, including forcing animals into servitude and violence. Cricket cages tell stories about how people have treated the insects throughout time.
The Trouble with the School-to-Tech Pipeline
Anthropologist Elsa Davidson found at a Silicon Valley high school serving “at-risk” Latino and Southeast Asian kids that there are some complicated obstacles to careers in tech.
The Dark Side of Fish Stocking
It takes place out of sight of non-anglers, but fish stocking, or adding fish for the benefit of sport fishing, is a widespread practice in resource management.
Rupert Murdoch’s American Legacy
Rupert Murdoch was born in Australia, and first made an international impact in Britain. He thrust himself into the U.S. market with his purchase of the New York Post newspaper in 1974.
The High School Hair Wars of the 1960s
Following the introduction of the mop top by the Beatles, the battle over how long school boys could wear their hair in the 1960s and 1970s went to the courts again and again.
Clare Boothe Luce, the Conservative Politician Who Wrote an All-Female Play
Clare Boothe Luce was a socialite, an editor, a feminist playwright, a devout Roman Catholic, a Republican Congresswoman, an early LSD user, an ambassador, and, believe it or not, more.
Long Reads
How Archie Got His Groove Back
The setup of Archie Comics was straightforward, as was its protagonist. But the success of Riverdale speaks to the Archieverse’s surprising fluidity.
The End of American Film Censorship
The Hays Code, a censorship system that saw movies as “business, pure and simple,” kept Hollywood on a short leash… until a 1952 Supreme Court decision declared it unconstitutional.
Steven Pinker: We’re Living Better through Enlightenment
Pinker on the dark side of political correctness, the differences between men and women, the media’s violence bias, and his differences with Bill Gates on artificial intelligence.
Column: Lingua Obscura
The Murky Linguistics of Consent
In many #MeToo stories, crucial signals, verbal and non-verbal cues, are sent but not received. Why is that?
Small Poppy Syndrome: Why are Australians so Obsessed With Nicknaming Things?
What’s behind the Australian habit of nicknaming and abbreviating everything? Nicknames may just reveal how Australians see themselves and relate to each other.
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Words?
Censorship isn’t just redacted text and banned words. What happens when censorship is furtive, flying under the radar as much as possible?
Column: The Digital Voyage
What Parkland Tells us About Teens and Social Media
While America’s parents have been wringing their hands over online safety, kids have steadily taken to social media, smartphones, and other digitally-enabled technologies to seek and promote their physical safety.
How Facebook Revived the Epistolary Friendship
Would today’s online, social media-based friendships look familiar to the letter-writing friends of earlier centuries, when epistolary friendships were also common?
What to Do When Social Media Inspires Envy
In the case of envy, social media works in three closely related ways: by increasing proximity, by eliminating encapsulation and by rejecting concealment.
