History & Society

History & Society

Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.

Remembering Frank Drake, who transformed the search for alien life & extraterrestrial intelligence into a full-fledged scientific endeavor.
dao leadership
2mins
DAOs don’t have a C-suite. How are they led?
youth
Today’s young people are intelligent and kind, but they are overworked and burned out.
John Templeton Foundation
Einstein's relativity teaches us that time isn't absolute, but passes relatively for everyone. So how do telescopes see back through time?
The Greeks were among the first to move beyond “primitive money” and establish an official currency, transforming their trade, government, and even philosophy.
Million Stories
navy dolphins
Imagine Flipper trained in the art of espionage.
belief
Belief is not just about God or ghosts.
Are there any advantages to looking so cumbersome?
apollo 8 earthrise
The last 70 years have taken us farther than the previous 70,000. But can we accomplish more than creating a record saying, "We were here?"
Limnic eruption
When Cameroon's Lakes Monoun and Nyos exploded, they released clouds of carbon dioxide that suffocated everything in its wake.
Before anesthetics, some patients would die of the pain on the operating table.
The minimum wage is a popular policy, but it's not the only way governments have tried to help workers secure a decent living.
"Strategic ambiguity" has long been the West's strategy on Taiwan.
Quantum mechanics forces us to toss out the old, reliable ways in which we make sense of our everyday reality.
The Arabic word fatwa can mean “explanation” or “clarification.”
mirrors
Looking at ourselves in a mirror — or on a video call — shapes our sense of self. But what you see is not what others see.