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Drawing depicting Buckminster Fuller in front of a dome

Buckminster Fuller’s Greatest Invention

His vision of a tech-optimized future inspired a generation. But his true talent was for burnishing his own image.
by Rebecca Onion via The New Republic on August 19, 2022
Advertisement for a gold dredging machine from a 1920's magazine.

The Huckster Ads of Early “Popular Mechanics”

Weird, revealing, and incredibly fun to read.
by Clive Thompson via Medium on August 6, 2022
Illustration of screens, electronics, and sound waves.

The Hidden History of Screen Readers

For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs.
by Sheon Han via The Verge on July 14, 2022
Photo illustration of a button causing death courtesy of MIT Press Reader.

How Americans Got Comfortable With Killing at the Push of a Button

For years, the idea seemed immoral and dangerous.
by Rachel Plotnick via Slate on June 20, 2022
Collage of of Stewart Brand peeking out from behind the earth.

Stewart Brand’s Dubious Futurism

What did the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog stand for?
by Malcolm Harris via The Nation on June 13, 2022
Black and white image of Arlington radio towers

When Arlington Set the Nation's Clocks: The Arlington Radio Towers

A century ago, Arlington was home to one of the most powerful radio stations in history, which helped to usher in an era of wireless communications.
by Henry Kokkeler via Boundary Stones on May 23, 2022
A horse trotting photogravure

The Murderer Who Made Movies Possible

When horses gallop, do all four hooves ever leave the ground at once? This episode of The Disappearing Spoon recounts the saga that led to the answer.
via The Disappearing Spoon on May 10, 2022
"Slave Market of America," a broadside published by the American Anti-Slavery Society.
partner

Deep Zoom: 1836 Broadside “Slave Market of America”

Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, this single 77 by 55 centimeter sheet tells multiple stories in both text and illustration.
by William G. Thomas III, Teresa A. Goddu, Dorothy Berry via JSTOR Daily on April 29, 2022
Women deejays at Shyvers Multiphone studio in the Seattle-Tacoma area.

The First Music Streaming Service

In the 1930s, a Seattle entrepreneur created a successful analog streaming platform—and ran it out of a drugstore.
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on April 4, 2022
"We are the Spirit Rappers," 2016, By Amy Friend.

The Weight of Family History

It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on March 21, 2022
BP is trying to divest its share of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft.
partner

Western Oil Companies Ditching Russia is a New Twist on a Familiar Pattern

For more than a century, Western oil companies have cycled into and out of Russia.
by Michael De Groot via Made By History on March 7, 2022
Smiley face with game pieces as facial features against a blue background

What the History of AI Tells Us About its Future

IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue was eclipsed by the neural-net revolution. Now, 25 years on, the machine may get the last laugh.
by Clive Thompson via MIT Technology Review on February 18, 2022
Logo of AT&T used from 1969-1982.

The Breakup of "Ma Bell": United States v. AT&T

The US government broke up AT&T's monopoly over the telecom industry through an antitrust case in 1984, leading to a transformation of communication.
by Jake Kobrick via Federal Judicial Center on February 1, 2022
birds eye view of an intersecting highway with a speeding car

How America Broke the Speed Limit

How we wound up with the worst of both worlds: thousands of speed-related deaths, and a system of enforcement that is both ineffective and inescapable.
by Henry Grabar via Slate on December 15, 2021
Split image - half a 1980s computer, other half a modern laptop; on the screen for both, an hourglass icon that symbolizes loading.

54 Years Ago, a Computer Programmer Fixed a Massive Bug — and Created an Existential Crisis

A blinking cursor follows us everywhere in the digital world, but who invented it and why?
by Sarah Wells via Inverse on December 3, 2021
Bottles of WD-40 on a shelf

How WD-40 Became Rust’s Worst Enemy

The history of WD-40, a chemical substance with an unusual origin story and a rust-fighting ability that has become a standby of workbenches the world over.
by David Buck via Tedium on November 26, 2021
Anthropometric data sheet of Alphonse Bertillon with his picture straight on and in profile

Face Surveillance Was Always Flawed

On the origins, use, and abuse of mugshots.
by Amanda Levendowski via Public Books on November 20, 2021
The full chart of television genres from 1945 to present.

Television Genres Over Time

Here’s how the distribution of genres has changed since 1945 up to present.
by Nathan Yau via FlowingData on October 26, 2021
Illustration of Frankenstein's monster and a terrified woman

The Horror Century

From the first morbid films a hundred years ago, scary movies always been a dark mirror on Americans’ deepest fears and anxieties.
by Aja Romano via Vox on October 19, 2021

Before Interstates, America Got Around on Interurbans

The fate of electrified “rural trolleys” at the beginning of 20th century could offer lessons for today’s train boosters.
by Vince Guerrieri via CityLab on October 6, 2021
This false-color photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil.

A NASA Mission 45 Years Ago Changed Everything

The Viking missions set the gold standard for landing on Mars, but they couldn't resolve the big question — are we alone?
by Jon Kelvey via Inverse on September 2, 2021
Glossographia title page

Why is the English Spelling System so Weird and Inconsistent?

Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology.
by Arika Okrent via Aeon on July 26, 2021
Astronaut John Glenn surrounded by piles of mail

Sexism in the Early Space Program Thwarted the Ambitions of Women

John Glenn's fan mail shows many girls dreamed of the stars.
by Roshanna P. Sylvester via The Conversation on July 13, 2021
Children wiping away sweat

8 Creative Ways People Kept Cool Before Air Conditioning

People have come up with a range of ingenious, harebrained, and sometimes grim but often remarkable ways to stay cool during a summer scorcher.
by Keith Johnston via Mental Floss on July 12, 2021
Space Shuttle Challenger explosion

How Legendary Physicist Richard Feynman Helped Crack the Case on the Challenger Disaster

Kevin Cook on the warnings NASA ignored, with tragic results.
by Kevin Cook via Literary Hub on June 9, 2021
Science under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America

Anti-Anti-Anti-Science

A new book tackles the deep and persistent American intellectual tradition we might call Science-hesitant.
by Michael D. Gordin via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 20, 2021
A group of librarians wearing masks during the 1918 Flu Pandemic.
partner

Libraries and Pandemics: Past and Present

The 1918 influenza pandemic had a profound impact on how librarians do their work, transforming libraries into centers of community care.
by Julia Skinner via JSTOR Daily on April 14, 2021
A couple eating dinner by candlelight in Texas

Experiments in Self-Reliance

Thoreau’s life is a lesson not in self-reliance, but in discerning whom and what to rely on, whether you’re one person or a state of 29 million.
by Jonathan Malesic via Commonweal on February 24, 2021
Background photo shows secret deployment of Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. On the right is a photo of Juanita Moody.

The Once-Classified Tale of Juanita Moody: The Woman Who Helped Avert a Nuclear War

America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative whose story can at last be told.
by David Wolman, Susan Seubert via Smithsonian on February 23, 2021
"The Wikipedia Story"

An Oral History of Wikipedia, the Web’s Encyclopedia

The definitive story of Wikipedia on its 20th anniversary.
by Tom Roston via OneZero on January 14, 2021
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