The Conversation

Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian can help us understand the January 6 riots and their aftermath, as Greece also experienced extreme polarization and civil strife. By Rachel Hadas The second anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is upon us. And each...

The ancient world of Greece and Rome has long permeated America, in everything from museum collections to home furnishings. The design of the nation’s public monuments, buildings and universities, as well as its legal system and form of government,...

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is unquestionably the senior saint within the Christian tradition. Yet we know remarkably little about her. In the New Testament, there is nothing about her birth, death, appearance or age. By Philip C. Almond Outside of...

Christmas is coming around faster the older we get. A survey of 918 adults in the UK found 77 percent of respondents agreed Christmas seems to arrive more quickly with each passing year, but why is this? By Ruth Ogden Think...

From ancient Greece through Puritan New England, witches functioned as easy targets for cultural anxieties about gender, power, and mortality. By Joel Christensen Living on the North Shore in Boston in the fall brings the gorgeous turning of the leaves and...

The business magnate and new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, revealed a while ago that he is autistic. Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, is autistic. How does this explain his behavior? By Punit Shah, Luca Hargitai, and Lucy...

A world in disorder is epitomized by the deterioration in US-China relations, Russia’s war in Ukraine, populism and inflation. By David Bach Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s recent speech to the Communist Party Congress could be one of the most consequential of...

On the 100th year of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire on November 1, 1922, Greek scholar Georgios Giannakopoulos looks at five things you need to know about the empire. By Georgios Giannakopoulos For centuries, empires were the dominant form of...

Planets orbiting a dead star would normally be obliterated. Mysteriously though, a handful of “zombie planets” have been detected orbiting neutron stars. And they are some of the weirdest worlds in the cosmos. By Gareth Dorrian All stars, including the Sun,...

No historical evidence exists to tell us exactly who sang the first song, whistled the first tune, or made the first rhythmic sounds that resembled that which we recognize today as music. By Laura Dallman The short answer is that no...