The Three Percent

Literature in translation—including the first fiction ever published in English from Madagascar and Tibet

Witches Never Die

Burial practices around the world, from mummies to dancing skulls, and the history of magic’s bad girls

Back in the USSR

A glimpse inside the house that Stalin built, and Italy’s anti-fascist First Family

Once and Future Food

Imagining a new world of teas and tastes

Rhapsodies in Blue

Vulgar tongues, cruel etymologies, and a spot of poetry

Scientists and Saints

Women’s roles and rituals under the microscope

Lady Pirates and Oceans of Plastic

One very daring journey and the pirate who puts Blackbeard to shame

What the Nose Knows

Smell detectives, laughing gas, and all the forces we cannot see

Love Games and First Impressions

How to judge tennis—or a stranger’s face

From Beer to Eternity

Exploring ancient ales and fermentation re-creations

Overconsumed

Adam Minter on what happens to all the stuff we downsize, declutter, and discard

Fiction, Fakery, and Factory Farming

Spanish novelist Munir Hachemi talks about Living Things

American Horror Story

Jeremy Dauber on our obsession with fear

The Writing on the Wall

Augustine Sedgewick on his discovery of Henry David Thoreau’s connection to slavery

This Woman’s Work

Susannah Gibson opens the parlor doors on 18th-century feminism

Queen of the Night

Leigh Ann Henion embraces the creatures that light up the dark

A Toothsome Tale

Bill Schutt chomps through millennia to share the story of our pearly whites

A Rebel to Remember

Gregory P. Downs on the late Anthony E. Kaye’s groundbreaking history of Nat Turner

Going for Gold

Joshua Prager on a forgotten Olympic gymnast whose 1904 record still hasn’t been beaten

Paradise Reclaimed

Olivia Laing on the dark histories and utopian dreams of the flower bed

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