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In "Dinner with King Tut," Sam Kean examines how a burgeoning field is recreating ancient tasks to uncover historical truths.
Want to study philosophy but skip some of its heavier tomes? These five novels are a great place to start. (Existential despair guaranteed.)
In "The Gift of Not Belonging," Rami Kaminski explains why group consensus may hinder the original thinkers who help advance society.
In "The Shortest History of the Dinosaurs," Riley Black reveals the bold mammals that thrived in the Age of Reptiles.
From medieval myths to Shakespeare's plays and modern cinema, British culture kept the Roman Empire alive long after its fall.
Are we enslaved by the finer things in life?
A.J. Jacobs looks back at what he learned about religion, himself, and modern American culture during “The Year of Living Biblically.”
Long before the search for biosignatures, scientists imagined a cosmos teeming with intelligent life.
Arendt thought 20th-century philosophy had become too passive and abstract. She called for "active thinking" that prepares us to live in the real world.
If an asteroid hadn't killed off the dinosaurs, humans would almost certainly have never walked the Earth.
In "Enough Is Enuf," Gabe Henry traces the history of simplified spelling movements and the lessons they teach us about language.
The latest season of the "Revolutions" podcast blends history with science fiction to tell the story of the Red Planet's rise.
Americans have gone through three historic junctures like what we're witnessing today — and they happen on an uncanny 80-year cycle.
“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.”
These books helped build the empirical case that life's origins differ from those described in myths and legends.
Fears of celestial collisions — and calculations of their likelihood — go back to the very origins of modern science itself.
Ethan Kross, psychologist and author of "Shift," explains how negative emotions help us live safely and well.
"It’s only natural for us to get America back," quipped Kim Kielsen, former prime minister of Greenland, in 2019.
With a flurry of threats to scientists, science funding, and health policy, the USA now faces a crisis reminiscent of Soviet-era Lysenkoism.
The Roman Empire at one point emitted roughly 3,600 tons of lead dust per year, causing “widespread cognitive decline.”
The Ring Nebula, a bright, circular planetary nebula, is created by a dying Sun-like star. After centuries, we finally know its true shape.
Dubbed "Valeriana" by researchers, the city of 50,000 peaked around 800 AD before being swallowed by the jungle.
Today's philosophy students would be justified in asking, "What does any of this have to do with living?"
From King Midas to Gordon Gekko, humanity has struggled to grasp greed's true nature.
An extraordinary haberdasher obsessed with buttons, lace collars, and death pioneered modern statistical analysis during the Age of Reason.
One alchemist's search for a whiz-bang method to produce gold unlocked the central science instead.
Carl Sagan was far from the first to declare we are the children of ancient stars.
Grab a sword, a small plate, and a young child. We've got a demon to summon.
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union was way ahead of the USA in the space race. Then one critical event changed everything.
Even with just a momentary view of our galaxy right now, the data we collect enables us to reconstruct so much of our past history.