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History & Society
Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.
If the daily grind feels like Sartre's phony act of "bad faith," Heidegger's sense of "being" can help redefine your role.
The discovery suggests that the "Boring Billion" period of evolution on Earth wasn't so boring after all.
Five times in U.S. history, American presidential candidates have ascended to leadership despite lacking the popular vote. Here's how.
Economics and religion help to explain the gap.
"She understood me and I understood her. I loved that pigeon.”
The futuristic weapon could be ready for the battlefield in 5 years.
31mins
Author of the Canceling of the American Mind Greg Lukianoff explains the current state of free speech in the United States.
Without wormholes, warp drive, or some type of new matter, energy, or physics, everyone is limited by the speed of light. Or are they?
The world’s highest mountain is also the world’s highest cemetery, with some bodies serving as creepy landmarks for today’s climbers.
5mins
Adam Bryant interviewed over 1,000 CEOs. These are the 3 critical skills to running a company.
Adrie Kusserow, an anthropologist and scholar of Buddhism, shares how her study of the religion and its history has reshaped her view of the world — and herself.
New DNA analyses raise questions over the theory that Christopher Columbus and his men brought syphilis to Europe.
Skilled hunters adapted to the changing landscape and left tantalizing clues to who they were.
No shots fired. No flags raised. And no dry land gained. Still, the U.S. effectively grew by the size of about two Californias in December.
9mins
From hunter-gatherers to the American Dream: This is how humanity’s definition of “work” has developed over time.
Valles Marineris is the Solar System's grandest canyon, many times longer, wider, and deeper than the Grand Canyon. What scarred Mars so?
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is both completely normal and absolutely remarkable in a number of ways. Here's the story of our cosmic home.
Millennia ago, philosophers like Anaximander grasped that nature is the ultimate recycler.
On the largest cosmic scales, galaxies line up along filaments, with great clusters forming at their intersection. Here's how it took shape.
Uncovering the story of Milan Hausner, the Sadská clinic, and LSD psychotherapy behind the Iron Curtain.