Stephanie Bastek

Stephanie Bastek is the senior editor of the Scholar and the producer/host of the Smarty Pants podcast.

All in the Family

How the mob came to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and small towns across America

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 29, 2021

Death in Papua New Guinea

Chronicling the disappearance of an entire language—and everything else that goes with it

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 22, 2021

Looking In, Looking Out

Artist Betty Yu turns the camera on her family

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 15, 2021

The Father of Art History

The man behind the great men of the Renaissance

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 8, 2021

A Solstice Send-Off

A Slavic folktale to tell around the holiday fire

By Stephanie Bastek | Wednesday December 23, 2020

Pencil-Pushing Spies

The secret history of how Imperial Russia kept an eye on its Chinese neighbor

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday December 18, 2020

If I Only Had a Brain!

Inside the extraordinary minds of people who feel others’ emotions, hear hallucinations, and get lost in their own homes

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday December 11, 2020

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Podcasts

What John Baldessari’s conceptual art can teach us about life during the pandemic

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday December 4, 2020

Sitting Down With Witold Rybczynski

The writer and architect talks chairs

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday November 27, 2020

Four-Legged Friends

How the horse has carried us through history

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday November 20, 2020

Keepers of the Old Ways

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 17, 2025

The Snow Maiden

By Stephanie Bastek | Monday December 30, 2024

Ho Ho Horror

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday December 27, 2024

Kinship and Contradictions

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday December 13, 2024

Overconsumed

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday November 29, 2024

American Horror Story

By Stephanie Bastek | Thursday October 31, 2024

The Writing on the Wall

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday October 18, 2024

This Woman’s Work

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday October 4, 2024

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