Why Looking for Aliens Is Good for Society (Even If There Aren’t Any) On The Conversation, Ian Crawford makes the case that SETI benefits humanity both scientifically and politically.
100,000 Pages of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust In an Oregon Barn For Decades – Until Now The Intercept covers the story of accidental crusader Carol Van Strum, who lost almost everything in her battle against chemical companies.
The Lost (and Found) Classic Cocktail of San Francisco On JSTOR Daily, April White writes about Pisco Punch, a pre-Prohibition cocktail sold for decades in San Francisco before its home, the Bank Exchange, closed down the night before the Volstead Act came into effect.
Before You Can Be With Others, First Learn to Be Alone Philosopher Jennifer Stitt writes about what we lose when we lose ourselves in the crowd.
The Baldwinsville Homicide On Murder By Gaslight, Robert Wilhelm covers an 1873 robbery-murder in New York.
How Checkers Was Solved Alexis Madrigal writes about the greatest player in the history of the game of checkers, who never lost a match to a human or a computer.
Looking Back at the Most Powerful Earthquake Ever to Strike North America On Fresh Air, Dave Davies interviews the author of a recent book on the great 1964 Alaskan quake.
What Calories Do Nina Mackert writes about the origin of counting calories and traces the ways the concept has been used as an indicator of one’s tendency toward self-control or lack thereof.
I’m always looking for things to read. If you know an interesting article, send it to me at josh@thejoshclarkway.com or drop it in the Comments section below!