Nellie Bly, the Heroine Nobody Hears About

Elizabeth Jane Cochran, actually. Nellie Bly was her pseudonym. She landed her first newspaper job by writing a furious letter to the editor, words leaping off the page to slap a misogynist columnist. This was in 1885. Then she moved to New York and spent four penniless months persuading Joseph Pulitzer to hire her at the New York World.

Fifty Songs Featuring Cities and Urban Life

For almost every metropolis—and even a few towns—with streets, neighborhoods, and businesses there is a song with melody, harmony, and a beat.

Books, Family, Loss, and Growth

Throughout Read Until You Understand Griffin entwines her personal account of life as a Black woman in America—tragic encounters with police, teachers who either misrepresent her or open her mind to new thoughts—with those books that underscore the way in which her life functions as a synecdoche for her Black, Philadelphian neighbors.

From Yiddish Theater Actor to Mainstream Film Auteur

Maura Spiegel’s approach simultaneously favors the intimate and the sensational, painting a portrait of America’s most unassuming cinematic auteur that emphasizes both his workaday normalcy and the rarified place he occupies in the nation’s artistic and cultural landscape. It is an unabashedly hagiographic work.

Fifty Songs Featuring Cities and Urban Life

For almost every metropolis—and even a few towns—with streets, neighborhoods, and businesses there is a song with melody, harmony, and a beat.

Los Diablos Tejanos: An Honest Look at the Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers are held up as an emblem of Texas exceptionalism, the American protectors in the wild west. First appearing in cinema in 1910, they were depicted as handsome saviors galloping into town to implement law and order in the dusty wake of their stallions’ hooves. For Tejano communities inside Texas and along the border, however, the Texas Rangers were private agents of Anglo terror, responsible for little-known acts of violence that only now are being told.

Talking Suicide Blues

Turning grief around, using sorrow’s dark energy to help others—that was what Brandon Grossheim wanted to do, too. In his mind, suicide was a matter of free will. But when someone is young, inexperienced, swept by intense emotion, refusing professional counseling and prescribed medication, and preferring the swift release of drugs, booze, maybe even death—how “free” are they?

The Uncanny Parallels Between Islamic and American Extremists

In "Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and the Journey Back From Extremism," Carla Power—a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award—moves slowly, gently, into a terrifying psychology.

Ninety-eight Years Ago on January 27, India’s Most Famous Film Star Was Born

His screen tests bowled over Korda, Flaherty, and everyone connected with the film. He was absolutely the most winning child they had ever encountered. He was, well, utterly gorgeous, not just his looks, but his manner, his air, his aura. Selar Shalik, who would come to be known simply as "Sabu," did not speak a word of English.

That Controversial Jab Could Help Prevent Mental Illness

Researchers found that people with schizophrenia had two and a half times the average risk of dying from COVID-19, even after controlling for other risk factors as well as age, sex, and race. Meta-studies consistently show worse COVID-19 outcomes among people with depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

Skip to content