The Place of the Moon
15 minutes
The same Moon rises everywhere, but, for me, the Moon is part of the US West. It rose over my first house near Logan, Utah; three houses in Tucson, Ar...
Cultures of Tarhana: A Tale of Humans and Microbes
18 minutes
The cultures of tarhana—a fermented instant soup base—come with a long-practiced culinary tradition in the Middle East and the Balkans. Although often...“Everybody Talks About the Weather”
16 minutes
One summer day in 1966, the 23-year-old secretary Margot Müller was serving coffee at the McCann advertising agency’s Frankfurt office. In the confere...Stew of the Earth
11 minutes
Besides the leaves that a bag gathers, all you need for a cup of tea is hot water, and in the town of Furnas the earth boils it directly. I ...Avian Escapees and Budgie Snugglers
28 minutes
Late one evening soon after I had arrived in Australia for a sabbatical, I was out strolling with my daughter through a Sydney park, seeking relief fr...
Handling Heat: A Conversation with Elspeth Oppermann
by Elspeth Oppermann and Daniel Dumas
22 minutes
Critical geographer Elspeth Oppermann worked on the UK–ESRC-funded Cool Infrastructures project, which brought her to the Rachel Carson Center (RCC) a...
Australia Burning
21 minutes
In November 2019, as forest fires worked their way south along the Great Dividing Range, I walked for a week in the Australian Alps. The wild granite ...“We Have Always Known”: On the Trails of People, Plants, and Humboldt
by Paula Ungar
12 minutes
I am trying to focus on my writing, I really am. But my phone buzzes again. This time, the message is difficult to ignore. I see a photograph of my be...In the Teeth of History: Dental Decay in the Longue Durée
by Frank Zelko
27 minutes
In recent years, I have been writing a book on the history of water fluoridation, a practice that is dental dogma in a handful of countries, particula...Talking Fungus: Finding Language for a Troubled Kingdom
10 minutes
Language greatly colours the way we perceive life. Words and concepts shape our perception of nature, and not all organisms receive equal consideratio...Seeing with a Forager’s Eye: A Conversation with Martin Saxer
by Martin Saxer and Christof Mauch
17 minutes
Martin Saxer leads the research project “Foraging at the Edge of Capitalism,” based at the Rachel Carson Center (RCC). When this project began, he rem...The Value of Fragments: Making a Hotspot in Mount Nimba, Liberia
by Emmanuelle Roth and Gregg Mitman
28 minutes
Faint high-pitched sounds echo up from the cavernous pit into which we peer. At twilight’s edge, the dry season’s intense midday sun has mellowed into...