CURRENT ISSUE
October 2022
Features
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Founding Force
How America’s “first politician” galvanized a colony—and helped set a revolution in motion
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Glen Canyon Reveals Its Secrets
Water woes threaten America’s second largest reservoir—but leave new vistas in their wake
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Tolkien's World
Haunted by the approach of another world war, the beloved fantasy author created a new story of Middle-earth that few people even knew about—until now
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Ray of Hope
The giant fish faces threats from poachers, boat strikes and climate change
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Scents and Sensibility
From the lab to the art gallery, the latest efforts to understand the fragrant, musky, stinky and utterly baffling world of your nose
Departments
Flying High
The Smithsonian museum reopens to the public, transforming the way we tell the story of aviation
All That Jazz
The plucky institution staged a brassy comeback for America’s signature music
Plugged In
In bold, symbolic canvasses, the painter was inspired by a broken iPhone
The Drive for Equality
In the 1930s, Florence St. John and her co-workers at an automotive plant won a hard-fought victory for fairness
Paper Trail
An 1836 blaze destroyed thousands of records that catalogued the young nation's ingenuity, but recent discoveries indicate that originals may still exist
Breaking the Barrier
The speeding-bullet design propelled Chuck Yeager into history
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