by Marissa Price Bringing Shakespeare into the 21st Century is no mean feat. His plays are the ultimate classical texts on par with the greats of the past including Cicero and Plato. His effect on the Western literary canon is phenomenal and enduring. And as a high school teacher with a broad spectrum of students, explaining that William Shakespeare was once a person, just like them, who had a job and did it well helps to humanize him. They love to…
by Trish Cantillon “The days are long, and the years are short,” writes Gretchen Rubin in her book, The Happiness Project. It has never felt truer than now, four weeks away from an empty nest. My daughter is already a junior in college, but my son—number two of two—leaves for his freshman year across the country soon. The only parent-life that I have known where my fingerprints have been all over every decision is ending. It’s not necessarily that there…
by Dawn Raffel In 1898, a mysterious European named Dr. Martin Couney introduced Americans to a new machine at the Omaha World’s Fair. This life-saving invention was the infant incubator. Visitors to the midway could pay to see it in use—with live babies inside it! The story of the proprietor was so bizarre that I spent four years researching him for my new nonfiction book, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney. By 1903, Martin Couney had set up shop on…
by Nausheen Eusuf I recently had the wrenching experience of seeing a friend lose her mother to cancer. By the time the cancer was diagnosed, it had already metastasized. Treatment would be palliative, not curative, the oncologist explained. One-and-a-half to two years was the prognosis. This summer, she died at the one-and-a-half year mark. What was horrifying wasn’t the death itself—which was a welcome release—but the suffering that preceded it. The unrelenting pain, the flesh coming loose from the bone,…
by Lauren Jonik Lauren Jonik: You’ve had an incredible career as an astronaut, an aquanaut and an artist. What inspired you to pursue these fields? Nicole Stott: My inspiration all started with parents who shared what they loved with me. My mom is very creative– sewed all our clothes growing up and enjoyed things like macramé and pottery– and she always included me and my sisters. She also encouraged me to take ballet and play softball, and she was the…