Stephanie Bastek

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

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

The Ghosts of Nazi Germany

We’ve all but forgotten the frenzy of witch trials and wonder doctors of the postwar period—but why?

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday November 13, 2020

Berlin Bops

How East German punks tore down the wall that divided them

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday November 6, 2020

The Extreme Path

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday September 18, 2026

Call It Macaroni

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday September 4, 2026

Blades of Grass

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday August 21, 2026

The Translator Stuck

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday August 7, 2026

Riot Girls

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday July 24, 2026

To the Manor Born

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday July 10, 2026

The Geek Squad

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday June 12, 2026

For Better or for Wurst

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday May 15, 2026

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