One scholar explains how Shakespeare’s characters can inspire us to be our truest selves.
Author Archives: Mikki Gibson
LBJ Civil Rights Gambit Set Stage for Modern Maneuver
A key legal advance for civil rights in the United States hinged on an obscure procedural ploy by one of the most persuasive presidents of all time.
Chernobyl Might Get a Second Life as a Solar Power Plant
The deadly 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant left an area of over a thousand square miles too contaminated for farming or habitation. With its existing infrastructure, though, it’s well suited to a different kind of power.
Overlooked but Undeterred, a 101-Year-Old Artist Finally Gets Her Due
Carmen Herrera has been creating innovative paintings and sculptures for decades. Gain insight into her striking vision and why her work went largely unnoticed until she was well past the age at which most people retire.
The challenge of the past
How does a country move forward once it has freed itself from a dictatorship? This article discusses the aftermath of oppression in several Latin American nations.
Little Red Riding Hood gets an evolutionary makeover
Using big data, researchers dig deeply into the origins of one of our best-known tales.
Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum
Learn more about the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history and how Americans came together afterward to heal and remember.
‘Humans of the Water’: The untold stories of La. flood victims
In recent years, the low-lying state of Louisiana has faced one disaster after another. See the human face of the 2016 flood.
Tarantula and Bug Petting Zoos Help People Conquer Fears
One way to move past fear of something is to have a positive experience with it. People who fear insects and spiders have an option that sounds strange at first.
Olympic refugee team greeted as heroes on return to Kenya camp
One of the most inspiring stories of the 2016 Summer Olympics was that of the Refugee Olympic Team. Read about how five of these athletes were welcomed back to the refugee camp where they grew up and what the future holds for them.
Where Our Magic Lives: An Introduction to Magical Realism
Author Anna-Marie McLemore argues that magical realism is less a literary genre than a lens through which to view the world.
Schoolkids Write Adorable Book About Orphaned Orangutan
A group of fifth-graders recently put themselves into the mindset of one of our vulnerable primate cousins. Learn about the project and its long-term benefits.
One day, you might be able to banish your biggest fears with a pill
Exposure therapy requires a lot of time and achieves mixed results in overcoming phobias. Now, researchers have discovered an astonishingly quick and effective method.
Milk, Bread, and Eggs: The Trinity of Winter-Storm Panic-Shopping
What do people buy before a blizzard or hurricane? Find out why so many people might buy the same items.
White clergymen urge local Negroes to withdraw from demonstrations
Read the newspaper commentary to which Martin Luther King Jr. responded in his powerful “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Bob Gilruth, the Quiet Force Behind Apollo
Learn about “the father of manned spaceflight,” a modest and unassuming stickler for detail.
Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ Turns 100
Franz Kafka’s disturbing novella about how a family responds to a drastic change still influences writers over a century after its first publication.
How Sojourner Truth used photography to help end slavery
Most Americans know Sojourner Truth as a powerful speaker who advocated for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights. But most don’t realize she was also an astute businesswoman who used the new technology of photography to advance the cause of liberty.
Sonoran Desert Fact Sheets
Learn about the plants and animals that make the Sonoran Desert a surprisingly vibrant habitat.
Colin Powell
Learn more about the life and decisions of Colin Powell.