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December 2021

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Features

Jeffrey Peter cleaning caribou hide

Keeping Faith in Caribou Country

Journey to the far north of Alaska, where the Indigenous communities hunt caribou, the backbone of the region's ecosystem

OPENER - mining shafts

Quest for Copper

Beneath a desert in Israel, a scholar and his team are unearthing astonishing new evidence of an advanced society in the time of the biblical Solomon

OPENER - Alan Case on salt flat

The Long Mile

In dogged pursuit of an exotic world record, an engineer heads to the desert with archery equipment you can't get at a sporting goods store

A cave in southern France.

Reign of Terroir

In France, makers of the odorous food are singing the blues

Departments

From the Castle

A House Full of Ideas

One of Smithsonian’s most storied buildings is reopening with an eye toward humanity’s great potential

Prologue

The Caregiver

Two hundred years after her birth, her pioneering commitment to public health has only become more salient

Prologue

Beyond Realism

Raw and affecting depictions of rural life in the early 20th century were strikingly modern

Prologue

Pictures That Deceive

Today’s video hoaxes can be downright ugly. But image-makers have been fooling viewers from the beginning

Prologue

Satchmo and Santa

Shortly before he died, the jazz legend offered his own rendition of the classic holiday poem

Prologue

Faster Than Sound

The spirited aviator came out of poverty to soar to great heights

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