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Arts & Culture

NASA's Stardust capsule returned from a seven-year, three-billion-mile trip to collect dust from comet Wild 2.

Stardust Memories

Cosmic dust may reveal some of the uncovered secrets of our universe

Despite receiving critical acclaim, the Curtis film was a box office failure.

Around the Mall: Old Documentary on Western Tribes Restored

How a Film Helped Preserve a Native Culture

"The Batwomen of Panama," one of nearly a hundred films now showing on the Smithsonian Channel, unlocks the mysteries of bat behavior.

From the Castle: Success at Smithsonian Channel

In just under two years, the award-winning Smithsonian Channel has created a strong library of fascinating documentaries

Dogfish Head Brewery, featured in the New Yorker.

In the News: ‘Green Thanksgiving,’ Futuristic Food, Extreme Beer, and Farmer in Chief

A roundup of recent food-related features worth checking out

Thanksgiving Turkey.

Gobble, Gobble

Here’s a little theme music for your turkey dinner

A proud turkey.

The Eat-ymology of the Turkey

What do you really know about where the turkey came from?

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The Eat-ymology of the Turkey

Turkeys Are Having a Pretty Bad Month

Animal-abuse scandal at a turkey-breeding farm in West Virginia

Healthy Holiday Eating Strategies

Tips for navigating the treacherous terrain of holiday parties

For decades, Native American groups requested the return of artifacts and human remains. Though there were occasional repatriations, the protests either fell on deaf ears or tribes lacked the financial and legal support necessary to complete the process.

The Road to Repatriation

The National Museum of the American Indian works with Native Tribes to bring sacred artifacts home again

A ‘New Dawn’ for Ugly Vegetables

Crooked carrots, rejoice!

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Wish They All Could Be California Chicks…

Californian voters just approved a proposition that could make your omelette more expensive

What Is American Food?

Pigeons and pork bellies, apparently

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It’s a Blog!

John Hodgman, the author of "More Information Than You Require," is a preeminent authority on fake trivia.

John Hodgman Gives “More Information Than You Require”

John Hodgman, best recognized as the “PC” in the Apple advertising campaign, discusses how humans distinguish fact from falsehood

Courtesy of Municipal Gallery in Lenbachhaus. Two riders before the red, 1911, woodblock, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Feeling Blue: Expressionist Art on Display in Munich

Visitors catch a glimpse of the groundbreaking, abstract art created bypreeminent 20th century expressionists

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Letters

Readers Respond to the September Issue

"Politicians made more sense when they relied on oracles and omens."

In Politics, Just Follow the Signs

Politicians made more sense when they relied on oracles and omens says Joe Queenan

Frank sought to compile "a spontaneous record of a man seeing this country for the first time." Indianapolis, 1956 is typically short on particulars but laden with symbols.

Robert Frank’s Curious Perspective

In his book The Americans, Robert Frank changed photography. Fifty years on, it still unsettles

Now seen as early evidence of prehistoric worship, the hilltop site was previously shunned by researchers as nothing more than a medieval cemetery.

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey’s stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization

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