Distillations magazine

At a fragile moment in U.S. history, a flying roadshow looks to the past.

How a tiny cactus parasite called cochineal became one of the Spanish Empire’s most lucrative commodities.

Meet Jehane Benoît, Canada’s grande dame of culinary nationalism.

Audubon and the Bird of Washington.

Historians unmask the villain who killed off New York’s Paleozoic Museum.

Pyro enthusiasts converge on Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for an annual event known as the Western Winter Blast.

A harrowing eye surgery may have given the impressionist painter the ability to see UV light.

The enduring appeal of tie-dye.

How the often-maligned genre was used to train soldiers, explain the weather, and describe the modern world.

Elia Kazan’s 1950 film noir finds new relevance in a moment gripped by pandemic and social unrest.

Ainissa Ramirez tracks the (sometimes literal) ways technology can shape our lives.

Historian Ingrid Ockert makes a case for the spoken word.

Before Bill Nye the Science Guy, there was Professor Harvey E. White of Continental Classroom.

The silent movie Where Are My Children? is more than a century old, but its central question—who “deserves” access to reproductive rights—still resonates today.

Old films are fragile, flammable, and frequently lost.

The line between science and art was not always so stark.

Sniffing out a peculiar love of books.

An illustration of a biochemist connects two British political icons.