JSTOR Daily stories provide background - historical, scientific, literary, political, and otherwise - for understanding our world.

JSTOR Daily

The positives and negatives of our behavioural immune system.

Disgust is often praised for its role in curbing the need for biological protection. Whether you avoid someone coughing or swipe left on a dating app, Louise Fabiani reveals how you are engaging with an ancient reflex thought to reduce contact with the disease but also producing strong reactions to perceived outsiders.

Mikki Hernandez

Is disgust related to morality?

Get to know more about the dispute.

Academic research on Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories provides historical context for recent violence in the region. Eric Schewe explores a variety of research, available for free, that can help better understand what is happening now.

Titles of the mentioned texts:

Joel Beinin, “Mixing, Separation and Violence in Urban Spaces and The Rural Frontier in Palestine,” The Arab Studies Journal, Spring 2013, Vol. 21, No. 1, Twentieth Anniversary Issue, pp. 14-47.

Janet Abu-Lughod, “Israeli Settlements in Occupied Arab Lands: Conquest to Colony,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Winter 1982, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 16-54.

Marina Sergides, “Housing in East Jerusalem: Marina Sergides reports on a legal mission to the Occupied Palestine Territory,” Socialist Lawyer, No. 60 (February 2012), pp. 14-17.

Raja Shehadeh, “From Jerusalem to the Rest of the West Bank,” Review of Middle East Studies, June 2019, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 6-19.

Joyce Dalsheim and Assaf Harel, “Representing Settlers,” Review of Middle East Studies, Winter 2009, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Winter 2009), pp. 219-238.

Sharon Bott

Settlements and the Israel-Palestine conflict: background reading

Although it often gets a bad reputation, sci-fi offers readers a way to rethink social dilemmas.

Books like "Harry Potter" and "The Hunger Games" may be rooted in magical or completely dystopian worlds but at their core, there are "examples of young people grappling with serious social, economic, and political issues that are timely and relevant." In this piece for JSTOR Daily, Esther Jones — Associate Professor of English at Clark University — explains why this is a powerful tool for younglings, as it encourages them to think critically about the real world early in their own lives.

This story was originally published in JSTOR Daily in May 2020.

Sci-fi and fantasy build mental resiliency in young readers

The philosophical answer to why we can't stop daydreaming about adventures gone by.

"Travel is a commodity, a privilege, and a state of mind; a comfort to some and a trial to others." It's the one thing most people around the world weren't able to do in 2020, and one that everyone's hoping to do in 2021. But, how much do we know about the psychological reasons we do it? Lorraine Boissoneault contemplates in JSTOR Daily.

This story was originally published in JSTOR Daily in March 2016.

The end of the tour: why do we travel?

Netflix's hit show "Bridgerton" is based on the famous romantic sub-genre.

The Britsh Regency era lasted less than a decade, but it spawned a staggering number of unlikely fictional marriages, following common traits that "include an anachronistically independent heroine who must contend with strict social rules, a Season packed with balls and dances, vicious gossip that spreads like wildfire, and a happily-ever-after with a reformed rake of a duke (or viscount)." In this insightful piece for JSTOR Daily, Jess Romeo examines the genre's appeal and why it continues to resonate so strongly even today.

David Riley

Why are so many romances set in the Regency period?

A utopian strain in sci-fi fandom brought readers uncomfortably close to an alignment with fascism.

"Science fiction is often a vehicle for social and political ideas, from celebrations of high-tech space colonialism to warnings about the misuse of technology." Livia Gershon explores in JSTOR Daily the self-styled ‘supermen’ of the 1940s, who imagined themselves as the heroes of a sci-fi story about a genetically advanced human race.

The self-styled sci-fi supermen of the 1940s

Our newest culinary trend is also our oldest.

What exactly are comfort foods? Well, while science narrows it down to their nutritional value — often high fat and sugar dishes that provide temporary stress relief — it's also a matter of heartstrings and memory. April White contemplates this gastronomic and emotional question for JSTOR Daily.

Penny Andrews

A brief history of comfort food

The White House Transition project is a pivotal resource for a newcomer government — here is how it works.

We take a look at this piece from Erin Blakemore for JSTOR Daily, where she analyses Martha Joynt Kumar's interviews with White House staffers through the years, giving us interesting insights.

Ken Foster

How do White House transitions actually work?

In American society, white women are often understood as victims. But they can also be perpetrators.

The Women’s KKK, an affiliated-but-separate racist organization for white Protestant women, courted members through an insincere "empowerment feminism.” Emily Cataneo, from JSTOR Daily, takes a closer look.

A brief history of the women’s KKK

Analysing the psychology of voting.

As author Ben Ambridge explains, psychologically speaking the “rational choice” model alone is not something that can fully account for voting behaviour. So, what does? Here, we revisit his enlightening 2014 piece for JSTOR Daily and find out.

Malk Williams

PSY-Q: “It’s the psychology, stupid.” What really decides elections?

Emperors were also married to women, but their male companions were an important part of their lives.

While 21st century Europe is seen as the leader of modern LGBTQ+ rights, in ancient history, records indicate that Empires such China’s Han dynasty were some of the first to accept queer relationships, explains Sarah Prager in JSTOR Daily.

Sarah Naughton

In Han dynasty China, bisexuality was the norm

Children's world is a lot darker, weirder and perhaps more creatively resilient than adults often assume.

The game of cooties lets children learn about the idea of contagion, but kid culture and wordplay aren’t meant for adults. Amid parents' anxiety to explain the coronavirus crisis to their kids, JSTOR Daily's resident linguist Chi Luu, analyses why communication between kids themselves is often sufficient and resourceful for matters like these.

Teri Schnaubelt

The linguistics of cooties (and other weird things kids say)

Colombia and Haiti have both been ignited by protests - did it start 200 years ago?

As part of what looks like a global uprising against austerity, corruption, and unaccountable politicians, people in Colombia and Haiti have been demanding change on the streets. Writing in JSTOR Daily, Mohammed Elnaiem explains how the seeds may have been planted by Simon Bolívar over 200 years ago.

Betsy Foldes Meiman

Bolívar in Haiti

How do we separate neuro-snake oil from real neural healing and enhancement?

Early scientific results on transcranial direct current stimulation (or tDCS) show promise, but are they enough to support a multi-billion-dollar industry? Sidney Perkowitz writing in JSTOR Daily investigates.

Gary Furlong

Can zapping your brain really make you smarter?

The complicated journey to understand the heart.

For almost a thousand years the belief that our livers were the organ producing our blood was left unquestioned, and for almost half as long we miscredited the scientist who corrected it. Pippo Carmona writing in JSTOR Daily explains.

Michael Satow

Who really discovered how the heart works?

More than 100 years ago, Sylvia Beach, opened the doors to her legendary bookstore.

The first publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses opened the doors to her bookshop, Shakespeare & Co. Jamison Pfeifer recounts in JSTOR Daily the story of the legendary booksellers, from its chaotic beggings to stoic wartime resilience.

Nick Camm

The patron saint of bookstores

“Carpe diem” doesn’t really mean “seize the day". 

Chi Luu writing in Jstor Daily explains how our misinterpretation of Carpe Diem says a lot about our traditional nature.

How “Carpe Diem” got lost in translation

We've all received a scam email, here's how scammers use language to trick their victims.

Nigerian scam emails are one of the internet's oldest tricks, but how can something that seems so obviously fake, manage to fool someone? Writing in Jstor Daily, Chi Luu explains how the combination of polite and eccentric is enough to win over unsuspecting recipients.

The life changing linguistics of… Nigerian scam emails

He wanted to privatise the Grand Canyon. When that failed, he ran for Senate.

Adam M. Sowards, writing in Jstor Daily, chronicles the ventures of Ralph H. Cameron, who upon arriving in Arizona in 1883 took all the avenues necessary to attain his fortune.

The man who tried to claim the Grand Canyon

Analysing the power of organising, even between seemingly disparate groups.

In the late 1960s, young people were leading movements all over the world to oppose war, imperialism, and racism. In Germany, historian Maria Höhn reflects for JSTOR Daily on the odd pairing of radical German students and black US soldiers.

"The collaboration led to the creation of an underground newspaper, Voice of the Lumpen. Its most significant work was following the case of the 'Ramstein Two' — two Black Panthers and former GIs who were arrested after exchanging fire with a German civilian guard outside Ramstein air base. Organizing around the trial gave activists a chance to draw attention to connections between American and German racism, and to West Germany’s collaboration with U.S. foreign policy."

Ashley Klanac

African-American GIs and German radicals: an unexpected alliance

James Graham was a man who captivated London in the late eighteenth-century with his "Temple of Health" - which as it turns out was based on nothing more than great showmanship. Perhaps this man's fate offers a few lessons for a fresh wave of influencers.

The prince of quacks (and how he captivated London)

One microorganism has been tirelessly producing a tenth of all the oxygen on earth. But these bacteria, known as Prochlorococcus, are in jeopardy. Lena Zeldovich in JSTOR examines how plastic pollution within our oceans could be costing us our most precious resource. 

Karl Miller

Is plastic pollution depriving us of oxygen?

Where did the prestige for economic success as a worker derive from, and what does it tell us about a growing group of people who would rather earn less money to have a fulfilling job. Livia Gershon, writing in JSTOR daily, dives deeper.

How YouTube is shaping the future of work

It’s real. And it will use quantum entanglement to generate true mathematical randomness. Here’s why that matters.

The quantum random number generator and here’s why that matters

August 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the famous Woodstock festival, which epitomized a generation. And Matthew Wills, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at how the rock concert was fraught with controversy before it even happened.  

Rex Anderson

Woodstock: sex, drugs, and zoning

We've all heard of Stockholm Syndrome: the pop psychology phrase born in 1973. But, what really happened on that summer day in Stockholm? Kristin Hunt unfolds the events and what they reveal about our cultural attitudes toward violence.

Stockholm Syndrome: cultural attitudes toward violence

2019 marks the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth, the American poet, essayist, and journalist who also referred to black people as “baboons” and “wild brutes”. Lavelle Porter, writing in JSTOR Daily looks at the answers from Black America to his work - and considers if or how we should celebrate a problematic artist.

Should Walt Whitman Be #Cancelled?

“When government wouldn’t fund female fieldwork, Agnes Chase pulled together her own resources”, writes ​Lina Zeldovich ​in Jstor Daily. Chase, a researcher with a particular penchant for grass, defied the odds when her activism was threatened.

The woman agrostologist who held the earth together

Can metaphors be used as a mechanism for mass persuasion and to shape political perceptions? James Tapper writing in JSTOR Daily uses the example of Brexit and its accompanying metaphors to highlight the significance and persuasive powers of metaphors.

The many metaphors of Brexit 

Mary Anning, dressed in a petticoat and bonnet, climbed precarious cliffs to find prehistoric fossils and whose contribution to paleontology may be even greater than we know.

The Female Fossilist Who Became a Jurassic Period Expert

Why Can’t the TSA Just Go on Strike? Eric Schewe, writing in JSTOR, reveals that the post- 9/11 expansion of federal powers in the US over transportation security was  also an extension of power over the security workforce.

Why Can’t The TSA Just Go On Strike?

Jeannette Cooperman, writing in JSTOR, investigates what is causing the rise of hoarding disorder and why is it so prevalent.

Guest Narrator

What’s Causing the Rise of Hoarding Disorder?

Mark Sussman, writing in JSTOR Daily, reveals the plan to sell Texas to Great Britain.

The Plan to Sell Texas to Great Britain

Livia Gershon, writing in JSTOR Daily, makes the case for lowering the voting age.

Andi Arndt

The Case for Lowering the Voting Age

Neither banning nor recycling will rid us of Styrofoam. Katherine Martinelli, writing in JSTOR Daily, considers whether the 30- Year-long styrofoam war is nearing its end.

Alexia Kombou

Is the 30-Year-Long Styrofoam War Nearing Its End?

Eric Schewe, writing in JSTOR Daily, considers whether a Universal Basic Income could lead to economic security in the United States.

Can Universal Basic Income Achieve Economic Security?

Amy Shearn writes in JSTOR Daily about the time when 19th-century novelists Harriet Beecher Stowe and George Eliot were penpals.

Gina Mellotte

Little-known history gem:  George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe Were Penpals

Farah Mohammed, writing in JSTOR Daily, examines an 18th-century social contract of pirates, which reveals just how organized and codified pirate societies could be.

Allyson Johnson

The Pirate Creed: how organized were 18th-century pirate societies?

Looking for the ghosts of the Morris-Jumel mansion.

‘Eliza, is that you?’ Sarah Laskow, from Lapham's Quarterly, investigates the hunt for the ghost of one remarkable 18th-century woman, in a Manhattan mansion.

The haunting of a heights house

The differences between "women's tastes" and "men's tastes" are long entrenched in American cultural history.

"As the stereotype goes, meat is manly and women love salad.
Or is it that simple? A look back at the food writing directed at men in the period following the Second World War reveals a different relationship between men and salad. In this era, making and eating a salad wasn't frilly and feminine, but was actually one of the most masculine things a man could do." Manisha Claire, for JSTOR Daily, reminisces about the days when, unlike today, salad was considered a manly meal.

When salad was manly AF

Amelia Soth writes in JSTOR Daily about The Book of Stones, a central alchemical text from the 8th century which contained the formula to create living tissue from ordinary matter.

How to Create a Human Being

Roe v. Wade left Americans with the idea that privacy can be expected. Alexandra Samuel, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at the ground-breaking case’s legacy in the digital age.

Melissa Moran

What Roe v. Wade Means for Internet Privacy

Martha Henriques writes in JSTOR Daily about how ventriloquism tricks our brains, which place more weight on vision than hearing when we try to identify the source of a sound.

How Ventriloquism Tricks the Brain

Amelia Soth, writing in JSTOR Daily, tells the story of the Medieval French castle that pranked its visitors with sadistic slapstick.

The Medieval Castle That Pranked Its Visitors

Peter Feuerherd, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks back at the allegations that Leftist Jews fixed the 1919 World Series.

When “Foreigners” Were Blamed for a Baseball Scandal

Mary Cappello, writing in JSTOR Daily, delves into the meaning of entrapment and escape throughout history. 

How We Escape It: An Essay on escapism and literature

Naomi Elster, writing in JSTOR Daily, explains how DNA evidence can lead to wrongful convictions.

How forensic DNA evidence can lead to wrongful convictions

Britain's forgotten language.

Marginalised by society, gay, lesbian and queer people had to invent their own secret languages. Chi Luu tells us the remarkable history of polari.

"Polari (or Parlary, Palarie, as it’s also known, from the Italian 'to talk') is one lost language from Britain that became primarily associated with gay men (and to a lesser extent with lesbians). Its rich, rollicking, madcap patchwork linguistics was cobbled out of the threads of the secret 'anti-languages' used by subcultures on the very edges of society, the low slang used by thieves, itinerant sailors, fishmongers, travelling circus performers, beggars, prostitutes, and (of course) theatre people. Seemingly a linguistic home to everyone from everywhere, it creatively mixed in elements from Elizabethan thieves’ cant, the Italian-influenced carnival speech Parlyaree, Cockney rhyming slang, backwards slang, Yiddish, and Lingua Franca, the sailors’ argot."

The unspeakable linguistics of camp 

Is it possible for anything positive to come of mass fish die-offs caused by hippopotamus excrement? Lina Zeldovich, writing in JSTOR Daily, finds the silver lining. 

Hippo poop kills fish, but there’s an upside

Understand the world better: our current political climate is loaded with hateful language.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones”... you know the rest. If words cause harm, do they constitute violence? Kevin Litman-Navarro writing in JSTOR Daily tackles the difficult question with help from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘language-game’ theory. 

Andy Field

Wittgenstein on whether speech is violence

The more we learn about the universe, the less we understand it. Research suggests that dark matter and dark energy make up most of the universe, up to 70 per cent, in fact, in the case of dark energy. But as James MacDonald, writing in JSTOR Daily points out, we also have no clue what this dark matter and energy consists of. We are, quite literally, in the dark about it.

Dark Matter in the Universe: What in the world is it?

MTurk has ushered in a golden age in survey research, so is it ethical?

"The sudden availability of a conscientious, diverse, non-student source of survey respondents has led to something of a golden age in survey research." Alexandra Samuel, writing in JSTOR Daily, considers.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk has reinvented research

A splatter of red. A man looking terrified. The words “So shocking it was filmed behind locked studio doors” in capital letters. It’s the poster for the 1949 film, ‘The Red Menace.’ Peter Feuerherd, writing in JSTOR Daily, explains how Hollywood thrived throughout the Cold War by producing anti- Communist films. 

How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare

Could the unwavering success of the Harry Potter stories be attributed to the influences of Arthurian Romance? Amy Shearn, writing in JSTOR Daily, examines how JK Rowling’s books rework the iconic hero stories of medieval French Arthurian romances.

Harry Potter, the Arthurian Romance

While it’s nearly impossible for celebrities today to maintain any sort of private life, it would appear that much can remain unknowable in even a well-chronicled life from almost two centuries ago. Matthew Wills, writing in JSTOR Daily, examines the very big possibility that Mark Twain pulled a prank on the radical abolitionist Boston Vigilance Committee in 1854.

Was Mark Twain a Con Man?

Mother Superior Benedetta Carlini was a well-respected nun in seventeenth century Italy. That is until the revelation that she was having sexual relations with another woman at the convent had her hard- earned but fragile status taken away. Hannah Steinkopf-Frank, writing in JSTOR Daily, details the transgressive life of a remarkable woman, and speaks to Judith Brown, a historian who faced obstacles of her own when writing her 1986 book ‘Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy’.

Lesbianism (!) at the Convent

Does running on a treadmill at the gym sometimes feel like torture? Well, that’s because it’s meant to. Diane Peters, writing in JSTOR Daily, runs us through the surprising history of the machine.

Treadmills Were Meant To Be Atonement Machines

In his famous book ‘Walden’, Henry David Thoreau wrote: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life." But Erin Blakemore, writing in JSTOR Daily, suggests that his dwelling in the woods was far from “essential”.

The Myth of Henry David Thoreau's Isolation

Nintendo’s video game, Super Mario Odyssey, and Homer’s original epic poem have a lot more in common than you might think. Grant Shreve, writing in JSTOR Daily, explores their fascinating, parallel depictions of marriage.﻿

Super Mario, Homer’s Odyssey, And The Meaning Of Marriage

Is contemporary rapper Kendrick Lamar continuing Tupac Shakur’s legacy as a hip hop saviour? 

Monica Miller, writing in JSTOR Daily, takes a look at the mythic themes in Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 number 1 album, 'To Pimp a Butterfly'. 

Butterfly Flow: Tupac, Kendrick Lamar, And The Resurrection Of New Black Godz 

Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1868 novel Little Women has been adapted into many films and television series over the years. Benjamin Winterhalter, writing in JSTOR Daily, reminisces about the summer he spent as a child, watching every adaptation, and shares his thoughts on each.

Scott Ciscon

My summer of watching Little Women

We are all born optimists. As we grow up our failures and hardships turn us into cynical adults, but children still display a positivity bias: a tendency to selectively process information that promotes positive judgments about things. Janet Boseovski, writing in JSTOR Daily, details the pros and cons of this optimism, and what we adults can learn from it. 

Children Are Natural Optimists (Which Has Its Ups And Downs)

On his way from Virginia to New York to take up the presidency, George Washington decided to immerse himself in the communities he would soon govern. But some of the inns and public houses he stayed in were less than impressive. His handwritten reviews still exist, and Rachel Bernstein, writing in JSTOR Daily, shares what is effectively the founding father’s eighteenth-century Yelp account.

George Washington's "Yelp reviews"

Almost all addiction memoirs follow the same story of struggle, realization and rehabilitation. And yet, as a genre, they are extremely popular. Lisa Levy, writing in JSTOR Daily, reviews The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath, by former alcoholic Leslie Jamison, who wonders what it is that makes such narratives so compelling despite their sameness: is it the dark addiction years or the hopeful ending?

The new sameness of Leslie Jamison's addiction memoir

Lina Zeldovich grew up in a family of scientists, listening to bedtime stories about volcanoes. Writing in JSTOR Daily, she shares the tale of how a volcanic eruption may have influenced Iceland’s conversion to Christianity.

Volcanoes, climate change and the birth of Christianity

In the popular children’s TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred Rogers pioneered a world where creativity reigned, emotions could be discussed, and supportive adults listened. Cynthia Greenlee, writing in JSTOR Daily, pays tribute to the show’s progressive legacy.

Long live Mr. Rogers' quiet revolution

Doctor Charles Knowlton was imprisoned for writing about birth-control. His 1832 book, Fruits of Philosophy, also contained the first detailed writing about the female reproductive system ever published in the United States. Amy Sohn writes in JSTOR Daily about the book, the man, his trials, and legacy.

Charles Knowlton, the father of American birth control

By spraying a painful brew of boiling hot chemicals, the bombardier beetle punches well above its weight. James MacDonald, writing in JSTOR Daily, profiles one of nature’s most terrifying and surprising creatures. 

Bombardier beetles are terrifying nightmare insects

James MacDonald, writing in JSTOR Daily, shares the remarkable story of how the wisdom of Navajo elders helped climate scientists fight Hantavirus outbreaks in the American West. 

Solving a medical mystery with oral traditions

In many #MeToo stories, crucial signals, verbal and non-verbal cues, are sent but not received. Is it due to willful passivity, willful ignorance… or something else altogether? Linguist Chi Luu, writing in JSTOR Daily, provides a guide to navigating the indirect language and cues of consent. 

The Murky Linguistics of Consent

From Karel Čapek’s 1920 play, Rossum’s Universal Robots and the 1982 cult film, Blade Runner, to HBO’s 2016 hit series, Westworld. The prospect of artificial consciousness has enticed us for decades, but as it increasingly becomes plausible, Sidney Perkowitz, writing in JSTOR Daily, considers whether we have moral obligations to robots. 

Do we have moral obligations to robots?

“My name is James Hinds. I am shot in the body and shall live only a few minutes.” Erin Blakemore, writing in JSTOR Daily, tells us the forgotten story of James Hinds, the Arkansas politician who was murdered for supporting the rights of African-Americans in the 19th century. 

Allyson Ryan

The White carpetbagger who died trying to protect African-Americans’ civil rights

Social media and instant messaging may have devalued many of our supposed friendships, but they have also revived a dying literary form. Alexandra Samuel, writing in JSTOR Daily, examines how staying connected online has allowed for a flourishing of the epistolary friendship.

How Facebook revived the epistolary friendship

Ernst Röhm’s homosexuality was no secret. Hyper-masculine and head of the Brownshirts, he was one of Hitler’s most important right-hand-men. Matthew Wills, writing in JSTOR Daily, uncovers the story of the most powerful gay Nazi. 

Ernst Röhm, the highest-ranking Gay Nazi

They saw miniature fairies inside of everything. Olivia Campbell, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at the Victorian obsession with the magic of microbiology and how it affected our appreciation of science.

Under victorian microscopes, an enchanted world

Are children as guilty as adults when they commit a crime? 

Katie Rose Quandt, writing in JSTOR Daily, explores how the US criminal system is the only one in the world to give life sentences to minors.

Why does the U.S. sentence children to life in prison? 

Democracy is about letting the people rule. But asking everyone’s opinion on every political decision would be impossible. So why do we sometimes have referendums and do they even help democracy? Farah Mohammed, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at both sides of the question. 

Emma Powell

Are referendums good for democracy?

There was nothing sexy about going to the greengrocer’s, then the butcher’s, then the bakery. But when the supermarket arrived, what it meant to be a housewife changed drastically. Erin Blakemore, writing in JSTOR Daily, charts a history of gender, power and shopping carts.

Sex and the Supermarket

Do androids dream of electric Mr. Darcys? Matt Langione, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at the attempts to humanise AI programs by feeding them works of literature. 

Will reading romance novels make artificial intelligence more human?

Pop pills to pay the bills. From lawyers to dentists, we’re all on amphetamines now. Kate Bielamowicz, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at the spread of performance-enhancing drugs in the American workplace. 

America's Workforce Runs on Uppers

With floods devastating parts of the UK and Venice, can we re-engineer cities to be more 'absorbent'?

Devastating floods ravage cities around the world almost every year and urbanization may be partly to blame. With so many people at risk, can we re-engineer cities themselves? Poornima Apte, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at how some cities are being turned into sponges.

How to build a city that doesn’t flood? Turn it into a sponge

Googling has profoundly changed the way that we access information. But Alexandra Samuel, writing in JSTOR Daily, reveals how it wasn’t Google’s founders who invented the first search engine, it was a Barbadian called Alan Emtage.

Meet Alan Emtage, the Black Technologist Who Invented ARCHIE, the First Internet Search Engine

Leaves brewing, the empire expanded. Livia Gershon, writing in JSTOR Daily, reveals the very un-British origins of tea and how it came to define the growth of the British Empire. 

The extremely un-British origins of tea

Queer lives follow their own temporal logic.

Straight people spend their twenties and thirties learning how to be adults. But for LGBTQ-identifying people, maturity often comes about on a very different time scale. Sara Jaffe explores the notion of queer time.

Queer time: the alternative to "adulting"

Is Facebook evil or are we just using it wrong? Farah Mohammed, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at the potential that the social network has to actually improve our social bonds and mental health. 

Why Facebook can be good for your health

Life is good and extinction is bad… right? Kevin Litman-Navarro, writing in JSTOR Daily, considers the ethics of eradicating a whole species, even if it is the mosquito that spread the Zika virus and the Dengue Fever. 

Aaron Landon

What do we lose when we lose a species?

Silence ruled the Ottoman empire. Amelia Soth, writing in JSTOR Daily, looks at how a secretive sign language came to dominate the inner sanctum of the Sultan’s court. 