The megadrought gripping the western states is only part of the problem. Alternative sources of water are also imperiled, and the nation’s food along …
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Bleep This: Sunday Reads for August 28, 2022
A frank talk about what the public still doesn’t understand about water scarcity is a swift kick in the pants to start conserving now. "Heightism" is another thing to be aware of. Not only do we subliminally view taller people as more capable, but tall women face discrimination in a way tall men don't. Also of note: the 99% Invisible podcast covers the origins of the bleep, and a rare license plate from 1904 offers a cool bit of automotive history.
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Heightism is hard to identify. Yet there’s evidence that our biases around stature help shape our careers. In 2010, when Imran found work as a security guard at a private university in Karachi, Pakistan, he threw himself into it wholeheartedly. Working the graveyard shift, he strove to project …
Mirrors lie. They reverse things. That face you see in the bathroom every morning, in your makeup compact: that is “opposite you” — the inverse of the face everyone else sees. We all know this, in theory. And yet, for the past two years or so, this simple fact has riveted and sometimes deeply upset …
Note: This episode contains references to adult language, and might not be suitable for younger listeners. You’ll likely know within the first …
MANY people have seen the way a Mimosa pudica plant, also called the touch-me-not, folds its leaves when they are touched. Fewer know that if you put …
A new book challenges us to abandon greatness in favor of more attainable goals. In 1953, the British pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott began writing about the idea of “good-enough” parenting—a term he coined, and one he’s still famous for today. According to Winnicott, after infancy, …
The creative exchange between two titans gave clothing a voice of its own. The late Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake held a rare appreciation …
The first time I went to a Game of Thrones dinner at the restaurant Elizabeth, the room was decked out in banners bearing ancestral sigils, while dozens of vinyl figurines were stuffed into every possible gap and onto every ledge. It was April 2017, a seventh season of the show would air in a couple …
In April 1991, the cast and crew of NBC’s seminal late night institution Saturday Night Live were rehearsing for their upcoming show, and its host was …
Attention, auto enthusiasts: The "holy grail" of Chicago license plates is up for auction. A black-and-white aluminum plate stamped with just the single numeral "1" gives bidders a chance to earn a piece of automotive history. The plate was made in 1904, the first year that Chicago made metal …
