The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday

Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history

All Talk

Ease of communication will not save us

Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart by Nicholas Carr

Burned

“The White Heart of God” by Jack Gilbert

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Paige Ledom

Out of the ordinary

The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend

How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths

Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)

Divided Providence

Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War

Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine

Cudillero

“The Terrorist, He’s Watching” by Wislawa Szymborska

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

Terms of Interment

Medication Nation

Our increasing reliance on drugs—prescribed, over-the-counter, illegal, and ordered online like pizza—suggests we have a deeper problem

Climate Change in a New Light

Photographing the shifting borders of the Alps

A Model Marriage

An intimate portrait of a couple who helped forge a nation

The Washingtons By Flora Fraser

How Chemistry Became Biology

And how LUCA, Earth’s first living cell, became Lucas, my adorable grandnephew

Waves of Change

Five questions about the future of the Pacific Ocean

Son of Gonzo

Living in the aftermath of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll

Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson By Juan F. Thompson

Spotted Opera

An excerpt from a new opera

Awakenings

The advent of new religions in the 1800s led to fierce debates that persist today

Riddles for the Afterlife

Decoding the hieroglyphs that accompanied the dead pharaohs

The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts By Susan Brind Morrow

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