Emma Willard, the First Woman Mapmaker in America, Creates Pioneering Maps of Time to Teach Students about Democracy (Circa 1851)
We all know Marshall McLuhan’s pithy, endlessly quotable line “the medium is the message,” but rarely...
Cambridge University Professor Cooks 4000-Year-Old Recipes from Ancient Mesopotamia, and Lets You See How They Turned Out
Those of us who’ve dedicated a portion of our isolation to the art of sourdough have not suffered...
An Introduction to Hagia Sophia: After 85 Years as a Museum, It’s Set to Become a Mosque Again
No tour of Istanbul can fail to include Hagia Sophia. The same is true enough of...
The Muppets Sing the First Act of Hamilton
Here's the cast: Alexander Hamilton - Kermit the Frog Aaron Burr - The Great Gonzo Eliza...
Bill Nye Shows How Face Masks Actually Protect You–and Why You Should Wear Them
Like many Americans of my generation, I grew up having things explained to me by Bill...
A Free Stanford Course on How to Teach Online: Designed for Middle & High School Teachers (July 13 – 17)
This fall, many teachers (across the country and the world) will be asked to teach online--something...
Bisa Butler’s Beautiful Quilted Portraits of Frederick Douglass, Nina Simone, Jean-Michel Basquiat & More
Fiber artist Bisa Butler’s quilted portraits of Black Americans gain extra power from their medium. Each work...
An Introduction to Jean Baudrillard, Who Predicted the Simulation-Like Reality in Which We Live
Each and every morning, many of us wake up and immediately check on what's happening in...
Watch the Famous James Baldwin-William F. Buckley Debate in Full, With Restored Audio (1965)
When James Baldwin took the stage to debate William F. Buckley at Cambridge in 1965, it...
Buddhist Monk Covers Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law,” Then Breaks Into Meditation
Back in April, we introduced you to Kossan, a Japanese Buddhist monk who has a penchant...
Does Every Picture Tell a Story? A Conversation with Artist Joseph Watson for Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #51
Storytelling is an essential part of Las Vegas artist Joseph Watson's painting methodology, whether he's creating...
Explore the Beautiful Pages of the 1902 Japanese Design Magazine Shin-Bijutsukai: European Modernism Meets Traditional Japanese Design
We read much about the role of Japanism in the art of late 19th Europe and...
A Chilling Time-Lapse Video Documents Every COVID-19 Death on a Global Map: From January to June 2020
The story of the Coronavirus, at least in the US, has swung between a number of...
Salvador Dalí Explains Why He Was a “Bad Painter” and Contributed “Nothing” to Art (1986)
Not so very long ago, Salvador Dalí was the most famous living painter in the world....
Ennio Morricone (RIP) and Sergio Leone Pose Together in Their Primary School Year Book, 1937
Little did they know where life would take them--and how their futures would be intertwined. A...
The Film Music of Ennio Morricone (RIP) Beautifully Performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra Play: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” & Much More
What we think of as "film music" today is a creation of only a few inventive...
Vintage Science Face Masks: Conquer the Pandemic with Science, Courtesy of Maria Popova’s BrainPickings
If you don’t floss or brush your teeth, they will rot and fall out. If you...
The Ayn Rand Institute Takes a Loan from Paycheck Protection Program: Like Rand Herself, Her Followers Don’t Walk the Talk
Image via YouTube, 1959 interview with Mike Wallace Finally bowing to public pressure, the Trump administration...
Ella Fitzgerald’s Lost Interview about Racism & Segregation: Recorded in 1963, It’s Never Been Heard Until Now
When Ella Fitzgerald took the stage for the first time at the Apollo Theater in Harlem,...
Watch Vintage Footage of Tokyo, Circa 1910, Get Brought to Life with Artificial Intelligence
For more than 200 years, the rulers of Japan kept the country all but closed to...
Did the CIA Write the Scorpions’ “Wind of Change,” One of the Bestselling Songs of All Time?
By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it seemed the fate of the Soviet...
Shannon LaNier Poses as His Sixth Great-Grandfather Thomas Jefferson: Two Portraits Juxtaposed
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are...
Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks’ Timeless Comedy Sketch: The 2000-Year-Old-Man
I read the obits. If I’m not in it I’ll have breakfast. —Carl Reiner Up until...
16th Century Bookwheels, the E-Readers of the Renaissance, Get Brought to Life by 21st Century Designers
Most of us, through our computers or our even our phones, have access to more books...
When Debbie Harry Combined Artistic Forces with H.R. Giger
After four years of phenomenal chart success, the band Blondie went on hiatus in 1981. While...
An Animated Introduction to the Pioneering Anthropologist Margaret Mead
Modern Western societies haven't solved the problem of sex, but Samoa has the answer. Or at...
An Animated Introduction to Noam Chomsky’s Groundbreaking Linguistic Theories
Most people who know Noam Chomsky know him equally as a giant in academic linguistics and...
John Prine’s Last Song Was Also His First to Go No. 1: Watch Him Perform “I Remember Everything”
It feels cosmically ironic that Great American Songwriter John Prine died of COVID-19 in early April,...
Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance” and Hero Worship: A Pretty Much Pop Culture Podcast Discussion (#50)
The 10-part ESPN documentary dissecting Michael Jordan and the Bulls' six championships has provided some much...
How Ornette Coleman Shaped the Jazz World: An Introduction to His Irreverent Sound
Ornette Coleman “arrived in New York in 1959,” writes Philip Clark, “with a white plastic saxophone...
A 1947 French Film Accurately Predicted Our 21st-Century Addiction to Smartphones
When we watch a movie from, say, twenty years ago, it strikes us that both nothing...
How Two Teenage Dutch Sisters Ended Up Joining the Resistance and Assassinating Nazis During World War II
Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and quickly overpowered the country’s small forces. Nazis arrested and...
When the Beatles Refused to Play Before Segregated Audiences on Their First U.S. Tour (1964)
When American rock and roll made its way to the UK in the 1950s and 60s,...
An Immaculate Copy of Leonardo’s The Last Supper Digitized by Google: View It in High Resolution Online
Romantic poets told us that great art is eternal and transcendent. They also told us everything...
Rewatch Every Episode of The Sopranos with the Talking Sopranos Podcast, Hosted by Michael Imperioli & Steve Schirripa
The Sopranos premiered on January 10, 1999, and television did not change forever — or rather,...
The Beastie Boys & Rick Rubin Reunite and Revisit Their Formative Time Together in 1980s NYC
The Beastie Boys’ record-shattering Licensed to Ill is thirty-four years old. This fact might mean nothing...
Milton Glaser (RIP) Explains Why We Must Overcome the Fear of Failure, Take Risks & Discover Our True Potential
Milton Glaser died last week at the age of 91, a long life that included decade...
Behold Octavia Butler’s Motivational Notes to Self
Handwritten notes on the inside cover of one of Octavia E. Butler’s commonplace books, 1988 I...
Milton Glaser (RIP) Presents 10 Rules for Life & Work: Wisdom from the Celebrated Designer
“None of us has really the ability to understand our path until it’s over,” the celebrated...
Saxophonist Plays into Large Gas Pipes & Then Uses the Echo to Accompany Himself
The best saxophonists play just as well unaccompanied as they do accompanied — but they also...
Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe: They’re Now Digitized and Free to View Online
Lake George Reflection (circa 1921) via Wikimedia Commons What comes to mind when you think of...
Nile Rodgers Tells the Story of How He Turned David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” from Folk to New Wave Funk
When David Bowie invited Chic guitarist and all-around funk/disco guitar genius Nile Rodgers to make an...
Get a First Glimpse of Foundation, the New TV Series Being Adapted from Isaac Asimov’s Iconic Series of Novels
Five years ago we told you about the plans to create a mini-series out of Isaac...
Hear Brian Eno’s Rarely-Heard Cover of the Johnny Cash Classic, “Ring of Fire”
"Ring of Fire" has been covered many times and in many ways since Johnny Cash released...
Hear the Voices of Americans Born in Slavery: The Library of Congress Features 23 Audio Interviews with Formerly Enslaved People (1932-75)
“During the last three decades of legal slavery in America,” writes Lucinda MacKethan at the National...
The End of an Era: A Short Film About The Last Day of Hot Metal Typesetting at The New York Times (1978)
This is usually what happens when I write a piece for Open Culture: As I drink an...
How Georgia O’Keeffe Became Georgia O’Keeffe: An Animated Video Tells the Story
When Georgia O’Keeffe first saw the home in Abiquiú, in Northern New Mexico that she would...
Martin Amis Explains His Method for Writing Great Sentences
Why does Martin Amis writes sentences well? As a novelist, he naturally has a high degree...
Neil Armstrong Sets Straight an Internet Truther Who Accused Him of Faking the Moon Landing (2000)
Image via Wikimedia Commons People have been graduating from college this year who are as old...
Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #49 Considers Conspiracy Theories as Pop
Ex-philosopher Al Baker works at the UK-based Logically, a company that fights misinformation. He joins your hosts...