Abstract design in which adults and children are isolated from each other using computers and tablets, floating near a raised Black fist, a mask, and a TV camera.

Apocalypse Then and Now

A dispatch from Wounded Knee that layers the realities of poverty, climate change, and resilience on the history of colonization, settlement, and genocide.
A television news reporter in a segment from the 1990s on juvenile crime

Superpredator

The media myth that demonized a generation of Black youth.
A women in a newsroom covering the election
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Good TV Demands Results on Election Night, but That’s Bad for Democracy

The history of tuning in to televised election returns.
A collage of newspapers declaring various elections to be "the most important election in our lives."

The Most Important Political Platitude of Our Lifetime (and Many Others)

How a simple message came to be used nearly word-for-word in elections large and small for more than 200 years.
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Quoting Irish Poetry, Joe Biden is Making Hope and History Rhyme

Explaining Joe Biden’s fondness for quoting Irish poets.
circulatory system diagram

A Brief History of "The System"

Tracing the twisting path of a resistance slogan, from the Nazis to the hippies to Trump.
President Trump in car

Trump’s Illness and the History of Presidential Health

Are White House doctors keeping the public adequately informed about President Trump’s battle with COVID-19?
President smiling at a debate

Debating. Ourselves.

There has been some famous presidential campaign moments in the past 50 years. However, not everyone knows or remembers these moments.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during an interview for CBS, November 11, 1973.

US Media Talks a Lot About Palestinians — Just Without Palestinians

Although major U.S. newspapers hosted thousands of opinion pieces on Israel-Palestine over 50 years, hardly any were actually written by Palestinians.
Person with a microphone next to newsprint

Peak Newsletter? That Was 80 Years Ago

In the 1940s, journalists fled traditional news outlets to write directly for subscribers. What happened next may be a warning.
Cover of "Little Lindy is Kidnapped"

We Had Witnessed an Exhibition

A new book about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping focuses on the role played by the media.
Cartoon that shows a man struggling to shake a woman's hand because of her wide skirt.

Lampooning Political Women

For as long as women have battled for equitable political representation in America, those battles have been defined by images.
Postage stamp with people in frotn of American flag, with the text "Hispanic Americans A Proud Heritage"

Where Did the Term "Hispanic" Come From?

"Hispanic" as the name of an ethnicity is contested today. But the category arose from a political need for unity.
"A National Game that is Played Out," political cartoon, engraving by Thomas Nast. From Harper's Weekly, 23 December 1876, page 1044.

Who Counts?

A look at voter rights through political cartoons.
Bill of Mortality from the plague, and New York Times list of Covid deaths.

When 194,000 Deaths Doesn’t Sound Like So Many

From plague times to the coronavirus, the history of our flawed ability to process mass casualty events.

The Weight of History

A former Navy lawyer speaks about his decision to leak classified information on detainees at the infamous prison of Guantanamo.

The Evolution of 'Racism'

A look at how the word, a surprisingly recent addition to the English lexicon, made its way into the dictionary.

Tawk of the Town

A review of "You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English."

A Loyalist and His Newspaper in Revolutionary New York

The story of James Rivington, the publisher who got on the wrong side of the Sons of Liberty.

Five Myths About the U.S. Postal Service

It’s not obsolete, and it’s not a business.
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The Racist Roots of the Dog Whistle

Here’s how we came to label the coded language.

Explore 175 Years of Words in 'Scientific American'

Search a 4,000-word database to see how language in the magazine evolved over time.

This One Letter in a Textbook Could Change How Millions of Kids Learn About Race

What the capitalization of "Black" will mean for students and their teachers.

How to Make a Deadly Pandemic in Indian Country

From the 1918 Spanish flu to Covid-19, broken treaties have been the foundation of health crises among Native people.
Fauci speaking at a White House podium with Trump glaring behind him
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Trump’s Campaign Against Fauci Ignores the Proven Path for Defeating Pandemics

When medicine and journalism defeated cholera.
Covers of issues of One magazine, featuring line drawings and article titles including "I am glad I am homosexual," and "I Just Had to Write".

ONE: The First Gay Magazine in the United States

ONE is a vital archive, but its focus on citizenship and “rational acceptance” ultimately blocked it from being the safe home for all that it claimed to be.
Woman looking through zoomed-in newspaper.

How Can the Press Best Serve a Democratic Society?

In the 1940s, scholars struggled over truth in reporting, the marketplace of ideas, and the free press. Their deliberations are more relevant than ever.
Black watercolor painting of trees and grasses.

The Pain of the KKK Joke

There are always three violences. The first is the violence itself.
August 31 1946 Cover of New Yorker magazine

The New Yorker Article Heard Round the World

Revisiting John Hersey's groundbreaking "Hiroshima."

An Oral History of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue

Immediately after 9/11, humorists struggled with what many called ‘the death of irony.’ Then ‘The Onion’ returned and showed everyone the way