Newsletters

A woman writes in a notebook with a purple pencil in a dark room.

It’s always been hard to make it as an artist in America – and it’s becoming only harder

Joanna Woronkowicz, Indiana University

A man bows his head before a shrine.

‘Only death can protect us’: How the folk saint La Santa Muerte reflects violence in Mexico

Myriam Lamrani, Harvard University

You’ve just stolen a priceless artifact – what happens next?

Leila Amineddoleh, New York University

Museum display featuring a silver tiara and a crown.
How the explosion of prop betting threatens the integrity of pro sports

John Affleck, Penn State

Basketball player in a red and black jersey dribbles while being guarded by a player in a white jersey.
How Hershey’s chocolate survived an attack from Mars − and adopted a business strategy alien to its founder

John Haddad, Penn State

Colorful statues of iconic candy brands on roof of building
‘My gender is like an empty lot’ − the people who reject man, woman and any other gender label

Canton Winer, Northern Illinois University

Blurred silhouettes of people walking across a backdrop of overlapping blue and pink lights, one silhouette standing slightly apart in the foreground
Read our latest Arts and Culture articles

Housing: Visions

A brick, two-story apartment complex with sidewalks and greenery in front of it.

What the world can learn from Uruguay as the global housing crisis deepens

Jennifer Duyne Barenstein, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and Daniela Sanjinés, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

What if universal rental assistance were implemented to deal with the housing crisis?

Alex Schwartz, The New School and Kirk McClure, University of Kansas

Silhouettes of a young woman and her daughter on a bed piled with bags of personal belongings.
To spur the construction of affordable, resilient homes, the future is concrete

Pablo Moyano Fernández, Washington University in St. Louis

Eight computer-generated, concrete home prototypes.
Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing shortage

Eran Ben-Joseph, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

A row of newly built homes.
From Seattle to Atlanta, new social housing programs seek to make homes permanently affordable for a range of incomes

Susanne Schindler, Harvard Kennedy School

A group of people hold green signs next to two people dressed up as anthropomorphic houses.

Sports

Baseball returns to a Japanese American detention camp after a historic ball field was restored

Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Two teams of Japanese American baseball players wearing vintage uniforms line up along the foul lines of a dusty diamond.
Wings, booze and heartbreak – what my research says about the hidden costs of sports fandom

Aaron Mansfield, Merrimack College

A football fan holds out hot dogs while being sprayed with ketchup.
Japan’s sumo association turns 100 – but the sport’s rituals have a much older role shaping ideas about the country

Jessamyn R. Abel, Penn State

Two men in silk loincloths crouch on a dirt floor as another man in ornate red robes looks on.
2025 US Open Squash Championships returns to Philly, considered the birthplace of squash in America

Eric Zillmer, Drexel University

Two women compete on squash court with crowd watching
Read more about sports

Movies

Movie still of young girl colored with a red hue.

4 films that show how humans can fortify – or botch – their relationship with AI

Murugan Anandarajan, Drexel University and Claire A. Simmers, St. Joseph's University

40 years ago, the first AIDS movies forced Americans to confront a disease they didn’t want to see

Scott Malia, College of the Holy Cross

Sickly young man resting his head on a pillow looking forlorn.
‘Jaws’ and the two musical notes that changed Hollywood forever

Jared Bahir Browsh, University of Colorado Boulder

A long line of people stand outside of a movie theater.
A Palestinian-Israeli film just won an Oscar − so why is it so hard to see?

Drew Paul, University of Tennessee

Three men and one woman hold gold statuettes.
What Amazon MGM’s creative control over the James Bond film franchise means for the future of 007

Colin Burnett, Washington University in St. Louis

Man wearing tuxedo aims a pistol with a silencer affixed to it.
Read more about movies

Visual art

Surrealism is better known for its strangeness than the radical politics and revolutionary ambitions of its creators

Tom McDonough, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Person shown from behind standing in front of large colorful painting on gallery wall
How Dorothea Tanning’s ‘Birthday’ painting challenged male-dominated surrealism

Sally Jane Brown, West Virginia University

Vertical oil painting of woman with fantastical creature at her feet in the foreground and a series of open doors in the background
AI has passed the aesthetic Turing Test − and it’s changing our relationship with art

Tamilla Triantoro, Quinnipiac University

Half of the face of a young Black woman with red, curly hair.
A straight face, with a wink – the subtle humor of deadpan photography

Emilia Mickevicius, University of Arizona

A view of a museum exhibition with photographs hanging on the wall, including one of a dog and another of banquet tables.
Read more about visual art

Music

Man with dreadlocks raps into a microphone from a stage with an LED blue bunny head flashing in the background.

The real reason conservatives are furious about Bad Bunny’s forthcoming Super Bowl performance

Ediberto Román, Florida International University and Ernesto Sagás, Colorado State University

How Philly anarcho-punks blended music, noise and social justice in the 1990s and 2000s

Edward Avery-Natale, Mercer County Community College

Large crowd of mostly young men crowdsurfing and smashing cardboard robots
Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ still speaks to a nation vacillating between hope and despair

Louis P. Masur, Rutgers University

Black and white photo of young bearded man with curly hair singing into a microphone with his eyes closed.
How bachata rose from Dominican Republic’s brothels and shantytowns to become a global sensation

Wilfredo José Burgos Matos, Lehman College, CUNY

Man and woman seen dancing closely in nightclub
Sly Stone turned isolation into inspiration, forging a path for a generation of music-makers

Jose Valentino Ruiz, University of Florida

Black man wearing sunglasses smokes cigarette while speaking into microphone.
Read more about music

Literature and writing

Etching of two creatures approaching two women from behind.

What’s the difference between ghosts and demons? Books, folklore and history reflect society’s supernatural beliefs

Penelope Geng, Macalester College

Many book bans could be judging titles mainly by their covers

Alex Wermer-Colan, Temple University and SaraGrace Stefan, Temple University

Shelves of books with a banner reading 'Words Have Power' andn a sign pronouncing the library 'a sanctuary for banned books.'
Too many em dashes? Weird words like ‘delves’? Spotting text written by ChatGPT is still more art than science

Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis

Graphic of blurry, blue face with lines over text superimposed over it.
AI is making reading books feel obsolete – and students have a lot to lose

Naomi S. Baron, American University

Old books lined up on a shelf with cobwebs covering them.
Latin American literature contains warnings for American universities that yield to Trump

Charlotte Rogers, University of Virginia

Older man with mustache waves out of a bus window as a crowd gathers.
Read more about books

Media

Watchdog journalism’s future may lie in the work of independent reporters like Pablo Torre

Alex Volonte, University of Florida

An illustration of a hand holding a magnifying glass.
Charlie Kirk and the making of an AI-generated martyr

Art Jipson, University of Dayton

A collection of flowers, American flags and an image of a young man touching foreheads with Jesus Christ.
Even as Jimmy Kimmel returns to the airwaves, TV networks remain more vulnerable to political pressure than ever before

Sage Meredith Goodwin, Purdue University and Oscar Winberg, University of Turku

Portrait of bearded, middle-aged man wearing a tuxedo standing in front of a blue and black backdrop.
Is there any hope for the internet?

Aarushi Bhandari, Davidson College

A smartphone falls into an open toilet seat.
Read more about media

History

Rolling fields with flowers and grave markers. Three boys ride bikes in the distance.

A white poet and a Sioux doctor fell in love after Wounded Knee – racism and sexism would drive them apart

Julie Dobrow, Tufts University

Pharaohs in Dixieland – how 19th-century America reimagined Egypt to justify racism and slavery

Charles Vanthournout, Université de Lorraine

A colorful engraving of African tribespeople bring their tributes before the Pharaoh.
The Erie Canal: How a ‘big ditch’ transformed America’s economy, culture and even religion

Matthew Smith, Miami University

An outdoor scene of a calm river surrounded by banks with leafy trees, and a rust-colored bridge in the distance.
A staircase in a small, decorative arts museum tells a harrowing story of terror, abuse and enslavement

Susanna Ashton, Clemson University and Mollie Barnes, University of South Carolina Beaufort

A wooden stairwell installed in a museum.
Censorship campaigns can have a way of backfiring – look no further than the fate of America’s most prolific censor

Amy Werbel, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

A group of protesters hold signs – with one reading 'Hands Off! Free Speech' – with an American flag in the foreground.
Read more about language

Gender and sexuality

Why are women’s shoes so pointy? A fashion expert on impractical but stylish footwear

Michael Watson, University of South Carolina

Close-up of feet wearing pointy black shoes
We’ve been tracking the number of Americans who identify as transgender – soon, there will be no reliable way to measure them

Jody L. Herman, University of California, Los Angeles and Andrew Ryan Flores, American University

A graphic of a large fingerprint, colored light blue and pink.
As Mexico’s LGBTQ+ community battles for inclusion, two drag performers have become internet stars – with more than 2 million TikTok followers

Francisco Tijerina, Washington University in St. Louis

Two drag mascots -- one wearing a donkey costume -- appear on stage in front of a pink backdrop.
With Hooters on the verge of bankruptcy, a psychologist reflects on her time spent studying the servers who work there

Dawn Szymanski, University of Tennessee

Young woman working as a waitress talks to a customer.
Read more about gender and sexuality

Cities

Large vintage sign reading "Hawkes Plaza" next to a large billboard of a man in a red jacket holding a briefcase.

Trump administration aims to slash funds that preserve the nation’s rich architectural and cultural history

Michael R. Allen, West Virginia University

Group of Black people pose next to a van.

Could a bold anti-poverty experiment from the 1960s inspire a new era in housing justice?

Deyanira Nevárez Martínez, Michigan State University

Read more about cities

Television

Black and white photo of men escorting handcuffed man with mustache and beard and wearing a leather jacket

How mobsters’ own words brought down Philly’s mafia − a veteran crime reporter has the story behind the end of the ‘Mob War’

George Anastasia, Rowan University

How ‘South Park’ could help Democrats win back the young voters the party lost to Trump

Nick Marx, Colorado State University

Two middle-aged men sit in chairs on a stage holding microphones.
Jimmy Swaggart’s rise and fall shaped the landscape of American televangelism

Diane Winston, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

A man in a gray suit and tie gestures with his hand as he speaks into the microphone.
In pardoning reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, Trump taps into a sense of persecution felt by his conservative Christian base

Diane Winston, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Young blonde woman smiles and clasps her hands at her abdomen while standing next to middle-aged man wearing blue polo shirt who's also clasping his hands at his abdomen.
Is a ‘friend-apist’ what we really want from therapy?

David E. Tolchinsky, Indiana University

Cast members of a television show sitting on a bench outside.
Read more about television

Lifestyle

Graphic of two faces confronting one another.

After Charlie Kirk’s murder, the US might seem hopelessly divided – is there any way forward?

Lee Bebout, Arizona State University

Astrology’s appeal in uncertain times

Shiri Noy, Denison University; Christopher P. Scheitle, West Virginia University, and Katie E. Corcoran, West Virginia University

Young Black woman with short air with her arms outstretched surrounded by colorful planets.
Why do so many American workers feel guilty about taking the vacation they’ve earned?

Karen Tan, Middle Tennessee State University

A desk in an office featuring a phone and computer monitor in the foreground, with a calendar hanging on the wall with one week marked off in red text that reads 'Vacation.'

Food

Would you eat a grasshopper? In Oaxaca, it’s been a tasty tradition for thousands of years

Jeffrey H. Cohen, The Ohio State University

Arms of a woman wearing a blue blouse and holding a large batch of tiny brown bugs.
Green gruel? Pea soup? What Westerners thought of matcha when they tried it for the first time

Rebecca Corbett, University of Southern California

Two plastic cups of milk and ice with bright green liquid being poured into them.
Filipino sailors dock in Mexico … and help invent tequila?

Stephen Acabado, University of California, Los Angeles

A young woman arranges bottled tequila in a factory.
3 basic ingredients, a million possibilities: How small pizzerias succeed with uniqueness in an age of chain restaurants

Paula de la Cruz-Fernández, University of Florida and Avi Ackerman, University of Florida

Four square pizzas, each with different toppings, are seen in a photograph taken on May 19, 2025.
Read more about food

Most read this week

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3 basic ingredients, a million possibilities: How small pizzerias succeed with uniqueness in an age of chain restaurants

Paula de la Cruz-Fernández, University of Florida and Avi Ackerman, University of Florida

3 basic ingredients, a million possibilities: How small pizzerias succeed with uniqueness in an age of chain restaurants