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Thomas Edison exhibiting the phonograph to visitors at his laboratory

Bottled Authors

The predigital dream of the audiobook.
Headshot of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Trouble with Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman authored the beloved short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," but also supported eugenics and nativism.

The Library of Possible Futures

Since the release of "Future Shock" 50 years ago, the allure of speculative nonfiction has remained the same: We all want to know what’s coming next.
19th century illustration of an airship

The Great White Reunion: On Duncan Bell’s “Dreamworlds of Race”

Could the separation of the Revolutionary War have been patched in the late 19th century? Some powerful men tried...

Signs and Wonders

Reading the literature of past plagues and suddenly seeing our present reflected in a mirror.

How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future

When J.F.K. ran for President, a team of data scientists with powerful computers set out to model and manipulate American voters. Sound familiar?
Galaxy in space.

Sanctuary or Battlefield?

Fighting for the soul of American space policy.

Panel Mania

An excerpt from a new graphic biography of Jack Kirby, the "King of Comics."

What Our Contagion Fables Are Really About

In the literature of pestilence, the greatest threat isn’t the loss of human life but the loss of what makes us human.

Story-Shaped Things

Historians tell stories about the past. A new book argues that those stories are often dangerously wrong.

Apollo 11 Capsule Foil and Memories of Plucking NASA’s Moonmen From the Sea

A recollection of a NASA employee's experiences with Apollo 11 and 12.

Hollow Words

Exploring John Cleves Symmes Jr.’s obsession with a hollow Earth.

Time-Bombing the Future

Synthetics created in the 20th century have become an evolutionary force, altering human biology and the web of life.
Sign showing a hand pushing a button.

Cute as a Button? Think Twice

A new book examines the first generation of button-pushing Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
The book "The Handmaid's Tale"

Margaret Atwood on How She Came to Write The Handmaid’s Tale

The origin story of an iconic novel.

The 100 Pages That Shaped Comics

From Mickey to Maus, tracing the evolution of the pictures, panels, and text that brought comic books to life.

Is It Time for a 21st-Century Version of ‘The Day After’?

It’s beginning to feel like the 1980s all over again.

The 1968 Book That Tried to Predict the World of 2018

For every amusingly wrong prediction in “Toward the Year 2018,” there’s one unnervingly close to the mark.
A house with Christmas lights, and wildfires advancing towards it.

Southern California’s Uncanny, Inevitable Yuletide Fires

The current level of fire danger is so high that the U.S. Forest Service has described them using the color purple, to signify “extreme.”
Detail from the Russian poster for the 1957 Polish film Kanal, directed by Andrzej Wajda and set during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Photo by Getty

The Strange Political History of The ‘Underground’

Subterranean metaphors have been a powerful tool of political resistance. Today, is there anywhere left to hide?
The media fueled fears of a parrot-fever pandemic; then the story went into reverse. Illustration by Laurent Cilluffo.

The Spread

Jill Lepore on disease outbreaks of pandemic proportions, media scares, and the parrot-fever panic of 1930.

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