History & Society

History & Society

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

A somber painting of a man standing alone in a tranquil field.
Omer Bartov, who spent decades studying the unspeakable horrors of genocide, shares how his studies have impacted his own mental health.
The future with rays of light in the background.
29mins
Four visionaries—Kevin Kelly, Peter Schwartz, Ari Wallach, and Tyler Cowen—share their insights on the future, urging viewers to consider the impact of their actions on future generations.
Four different images of supernova remnants from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory
The first stars took tens or even hundreds of millions of years to form, and then died in the cosmic blink of an eye. Here's how.
A collection of hard-to-finish books on a pink background.
These hard-to-finish books are still worth the effort.
A collage featuring two images of Mr William Crompton, the oldest knocker-upper in Bolton in 1939.
Meet the people paid to rouse the workers of industrial Britain.
The word success is written on a blueprint, symbolizing career ownership.
When you own your career, work becomes more than a means to an end — it becomes a vehicle for growth and happiness. 
An artist's impression of a cluster of stars.
The Big Bang's hot glow faded away after only a few million years, leaving the Universe dark until the first stars formed. Oh, the changes!
A family walking down a dirt road.
Is it better to be the oldest sibling, the youngest, or in the middle?
The ring nebula in space.
The Universe is an amazing place. Under the incredible, infrared gaze of JWST, it's coming into focus better than ever before.
A painting presents a group of people at a table, leaving room for interpretation and inviting viewers to formulate hypotheses about their interactions and relationships.
A sober look at a wild conspiracy theory that argues the Middle Ages never happened.
A headshot of Ludwig Wittgenstein on a bright orange background paired with a headshot of Alan Turing on a tan background.
In pre-War Cambridge, students had to ace an interview with Ludwig Wittgenstein to attend his lectures — Alan Turing passed that test, and went on to create one of his own.
A woman and an octopus gracefully intertwined in a mesmerizing scene.
A controversial new philosophy paper tries to bring our moral prejudices to heel. Should it?
This description features an image of a black hole and an image of a spiral galaxy, breaking the barriers of 10 biggest physics astronomy lies.
Misinformation was extremely popular in 2023, as bad science often made global headlines. Learn the truth behind these 10 dubious stories.
An image of a robot with a thumb up on a green background.
The problem with today’s AI isn’t it thinking for itself; it’s the tech telling humans whatever we want to hear.
The parthenon in athens, greece.
The Parthenon embodies the ideals of perfection Classical Greeks sought from architecture. The neighboring Erechtheion offers something else.
Digital artwork of celestial nebula texture applied to a tessellated shape on a purple grid background, where no stars existed.
Atomic nuclei form in minutes. Atoms form in hundreds of thousands of years. But the "dark ages" rule thereafter, until stars finally form.
An artist's impression of a group of planets in space.
Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets — very few of which resemble Earth.
An aerial view of a river.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, matter can escape the center of the Earth.
Five new book covers of various genres on a colorful background.
From "The Castle of Otranto" to "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, these books changed the literary landscape.