There's More to That
How to Sweat Like an Olympian
This summer, don’t be embarrassed by those pit stains or your drenched workout clothes. Our expert on the science of sweat says perspiration is what makes humans faster, higher and stronger
The Wild Story of What Happened to Pablo Escobar’s Hungry, Hungry Hippos
Ever since the demise of infamous drug kingpin, his pet hippos have flourished, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem and terrorizing local communities
'The Crime of the Century,' a Century Later
In the summer of 1924, the Leopold and Loeb murder case triggered a media frenzy and a debate over whether anyone can truly know what’s inside the mind of a cold-blooded killer
America’s Best New Restaurant Celebrates the Flavors of West Africa
The James Beard Award-winning Dakar NOLA is at the forefront of a generation of fine-dining establishments determined to educate foodies about the true origins of “Southern” cuisine
How Americans Got Hooked on Counting Calories More Than a Century Ago
A food history writer and an influential podcast host tell us how our thinking about health and body weight has—and hasn’t—evolved ever since Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters took the nation by storm
How Artificial Intelligence Is Making 2,000-Year-Old Scrolls Readable Again
The innovative “Vesuvius Challenge” unlocked a mystery that had confounded archeologists for centuries
Why We Love Eclipses
Two perspectives on the astronomical phenomenon that has fascinated humans for as long as we’ve been watching the skies
The Man Behind 'Manhunt,' the New Apple TV+ Show About the Lincoln Assassination
Meet James Swanson, the lifelong Abraham Lincoln obsessive who wrote the nonfiction thriller that inspired the acclaimed miniseries
Before Beyonce and Taylor Swift Ran the World, There Was Joan Baez
Today’s artists—especially women—are sometimes criticized for speaking out, but for Baez, art and activism were indivisible
How to Separate Fact From Myth in the Extraordinary Story of Sojourner Truth
Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresented
Oppenheimer Has a Long History On Screen, Including the Time the Nuclear Physicist Played Himself
Now with 13 Academy Award nominations to its credit, the blockbuster film comes after nearly eight decades of mythologizing the father of the atomic bomb
The Books We Loved
Smithsonian editors choose their favorite (mostly) nonfiction of (mostly) 2023
When Your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Is a Civil War Hero
Can recreating photographs from the 19th century connect a family to its lost heritage?
Why Wildfires Are Burning Hotter and Longer
As conflagrations become more difficult to contain, a citizen movement to try to manage them through “prescribed burns” is growing
How NASA Captured Asteroid Dust to Find the Origins of Life
The sample of the space rock Bennu that OSIRIS-REx collected could unlock an ancient existential mystery
Healing the Wounds of the Vietnam War
Two perspectives on the 20th-century conflict look back, five decades after the fighting stopped, to discuss what was lost and what is remembered today
A Brief History of Banned Books in America
Attempts to restrict what kids in school can read are on the rise. But American book banning started with the Puritans, 140 years before the United States
Are Wild Animals Really Just Like Us?
A summer of news reports about orca, otter and bird “attacks” has the public wondering if trying to understand animal behavior in human terms is misguided
The Remarkable Story of WWII’s 6888th Battalion, as Told by the Women Who Were There
Learn about the accomplishments of the Black Americans who served their country abroad, even as they faced discrimination at home
Deep-Sea Tourism or Deep-Sea Science?
Two chroniclers of explorers, including one who profiled OceanGate’s Stockton Rush, reflect on what visiting the depths of the ocean can—and can’t—teach us
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