There's More to That

None

Oppenheimer Has a Long History On Screen, Including the Time the Nuclear Physicist Played Himself

Now with 13 Academy Award nominations to its credit, the blockbuster film comes after nearly eight decades of mythologizing the father of the atomic bomb

None

The Books We Loved

Smithsonian editors choose their favorite (mostly) nonfiction of (mostly) 2023

Nine-year-old Neikoye Flowers (foreground), photographed in 2023 wearing in a Civil War uniform like the one worn by his ancestor, David Miles Moore, Jr. (background),160 years ago.

When Your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Is a Civil War Hero

Can recreating photographs from the 19th century connect a family to its lost heritage?

In 2023, wildfires ravaged communities in Canada, Hawaii and elsewhere across the globe.

Why Wildfires Are Burning Hotter and Longer

As conflagrations become more difficult to contain, a citizen movement to try to manage them through “prescribed burns” is growing

The OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule (foreground) landed in the Utah desert on September 24, carrying samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu (background). 

How NASA Captured Asteroid Dust to Find the Origins of Life

The sample of the space rock Bennu that OSIRIS-REx collected could unlock an ancient existential mystery

Retired Col. Robert Certain returned to the site of the Hanoi Hilton 50 years after he was freed from the infamous prisoner of war camp.

Healing the Wounds of the Vietnam War

Two perspectives on the 20th-century conflict look back, five decades after the fighting stopped, to discuss what was lost and what is remembered today

The New English Canaan by Thomas Morton criticized the Puritan government in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

A Brief History of Banned Books in America

Attempts to restrict what kids in school can read are on the rise. But American book banning started with the Puritans, 140 years before the United States

Why can't we stop anthropomorphizing our animal friends and foes?

Are Wild Animals Really Just Like Us?

A summer of news reports about orca, otter and bird “attacks” has the public wondering if trying to understand animal behavior in human terms is misguided

None

The Remarkable Story of WWII’s 6888th Battalion, as Told by the Women Who Were There

Learn about the accomplishments of the Black Americans who served their country abroad, even as they faced discrimination at home

None

Deep-Sea Tourism or Deep-Sea Science?

Two chroniclers of explorers, including one who profiled OceanGate’s Stockton Rush, reflect on what visiting the depths of the ocean can—and can’t—teach us

None

Hear What’s Happening to the Colorado River From a Photojournalist Who Has Spent His Entire Life Alongside It

In the latest episode of “There’s More to That,” learn about the Western waterway that affects the lives of everyone in the United States

Barbie's faithful sidekick, Ken, hit shelves in 1961.

Why the Ken Doll Will Never Truly Emerge From Barbie’s Shadow

The blockbuster film sparks a podcast discussion about why Ken can’t possibly be (k)enough

Page 1 of 1