The bowerbird, which lives on the east coast of Australia, has an abiding eye for anything blue. Solitary males travel great distances to bring back all manner of blue objects to decorate their nests. Shells, flowers, plastic bottles, and feathers are all fair game, and bowerbirds have even been known to grind up blue pigments […]
Smithsonian Magazine
Posted inReading List
Monsters, Mothers, Mulieres: A Reading List on The Women of Classical Antiquity
Five stories of ambitious empresses, fearsome gladiators, and ordinary working-class residents — glimmering snapshots of the female experience in the classical world.
Posted inCuration, Nonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Josefa Velasquez, Wufei Yu, Tom Foster, Tim Requarth, and Ellen Ruppel Shell.
Posted inReading List
Gone For a Hike: A Reading List on Wilderness and Survival
Five captivating reads on adventures you never want to have.
Posted inNonfiction
A Tall Tree Reading List
Let’s go down to the woods today … with a reading list all about trees.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Forced to Perform As Aretha Franklin
How soul singer Mary Jane Jones was forced to perform as Aretha Franklin before she took control of her life and career.
Posted inHistory, Quotes
Oral History Project Grounds Story of Monticello in the Lives of the Enslaved
“Monticello was a Black space. People of African descent shaped the entire landscape: how the food tasted, what the place sounded and felt like.”
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
Blame It All on Tibbles: The Case for Keeping Fifi Indoors
At Smithsonian Magazine, Rachel E. Gross explores why keeping your pet cat inside is for the birds.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Moral Cost of Cats
Pete Marra, head of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, is pushing a controversial conservation idea: that as the single-biggest man-made danger to bird and small mammal populations in the United States, outdoor and feral cat populations should be controlled, either by keeping pets inside, or by euthanasia and sterilize-and-return programs.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
How Are There Still Beauty Pageants When Feminists Have Been Protesting Them for 50 Years?
Roxane Gay considers the lasting impact of protests against the Miss America Pageant that took place half a century ago.