Celebrity Life
This Pioneering Officer Led an All-Black Women’s Army Corps Battalion in a Daunting World War II Mission: Saving Soldiers’ Mail
The “Six Triple Eight” was the only Black WAC unit to be deployed—and faced an impossible-seeming task
Read an Excerpt From the Next Installment of John Lewis’ Graphic-Novel Memoir
In an excerpt from the new installment of John Lewis' graphic-novel memoir, the late Congressman grapples with a changing civil rights movement
How Republicans Have Packed the Courts for Years
While Republicans lately have been attacking Democrats for plotting to “pack” the federal courts with like-minded judges, their party has been doing it for years. Through bare-knuckle tactics in the Senate, an animated base of voters and an institutionalized and well-funded pipeline for judges, Republicans have stocked the federal bench at all levels with conservatives…
Medical Myths About Gender Roles Go Back to Ancient Greece. Women Are Still Paying the Price Today
The history of medicine, of illness, is every bit as social and cultural as it is scientific. It is a history of people, of their bodies and their lives, not just of physicians, surgeons, clinicians and researchers
The Circus Was Once America’s Top Entertainment. Here’s Why Its Golden Age Began to Fade
As the U.S. entered WWI, the Ringling show employed about a thousand people—but forces that would reshape the circus industry had begun to emerge
Why We Turn to the Word ‘Surreal’ Whenever Something Terrible Happens
Following the terror attacks that took place Sept. 11, 2001, people across the country began searching Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary for the same word. The word was not “rubble,” or “triage,” or even “terrorism,” but “surreal.” And they did the same thing again after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And again, after the…
Melting Butter, Poisonous Mushrooms and the Strange History of the Invention of the Thermometer
Having your temperature taken is a regular feature of life amid COVID-19. Here’s the origin story of the tool that’s had us all on edge
How Juul Got Vaporized
On June 7, North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein will enter a Durham courtroom with a mission: proving that the e-cigarette company Juul Labs purposely targeted teenagers with its nicotine-rich products. If Stein—who in 2019 became the first state attorney general in the U.S. to sue Juul—is successful, the vaping company may be in for…
The Story Behind the Declaration of Independence’s Most Memorable Line
How newspapers and written constitutions brought us "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
America’s Interstate Slave Trade Once Trafficked Nearly 30,000 People a Year—And Reshaped the Country’s Economy
Between the 1820s and the 1830s, the number of slaves transported across state lines increased by 85%, reaching the point where white people forced the migration of nearly thirty thousand enslaved people, on average, from one state to another every year
What I Wish I’d Done Before I Lost My Daughter and Mother
Sometimes when my daughter Caitlin was growing up, images and ideas would sneak into my head before I could squeeze them away. What a headstone might say. The Freddie Mercury music that would accompany a heartbreakingly beautiful video of her life at a memorial service. When she reached adulthood and her quality of life began…
Black Art Is in High Demand. But Telling Our Stories Comes at a Cost
When I wrote my first movie script 10 years ago with a close friend, he and I argued about whether or not the main characters should be Black. I believed then that we wouldn’t be able to sell a movie with Black protagonists. Things are different now. In the past few years, while publishers, film…