Lifestyle

ViewApart/iStock via Getty Images When it comes to tradition, a cherry-picked approach normally makes sense. Take the fun rituals and customs, leave the offensive stereotypes and archaic divisions of household labor. The holiday season, and Christmas in particular, is obviously laden with hugely enjoyable traditions—but the one where Mom does everything while Dad just throws back beers while...

Lee Jung-jae in Netflix's Squid Game. Noh Juhan, Netflix What a year it’s been for new Netflix shows. As 2021 winds down, it’s time to take a look back and watch some of the great ones you may have missed. Netflix has its most impressive lineup of shows ever coming in 2022. We’re getting new seasons of Stranger...

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our “Intelligent Life” issue in September, 2021. Do you ever feel like someone is watching you? They could be. And I’m not talking about the odd neighbors at the end of your street.This summer, at the...

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our “Universality” issue in April, 2021. I grew up in a small village in a very rural part of England. It was a landscape capped with the huge skies of a low-lying coastal zone. Gently rolling...

Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our “Wonder” issue in February, 2021. Suppose aliens existed, and imagine that some of them had been watching our planet for its entire four and a half billion years. What would they have seen? Over most...

In 2021, scientists identified what is believed to be the earliest known human victim of a shark attack. lindsay_imagery/E+ via Getty Images While many of us spent the bulk of 2021 stuck inside (again), we learned—for the second year in a row—that groundbreaking discoveries in archaeology, paleontology, astronomy, and Skeet Ulrich’s filmography don’t stop just because of a...

Rankin/Bass's version of a leprechaun, from The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold (1981), is your new worst nightmare. Warner Home Video Some holiday TV specials have become part of the festive fabric. Who didn’t grow up watching the super-charming A Charlie Brown Christmas every December, for example? But not every seasonal offering brings as much yuletide cheer. Here’s a look...

Xsandra/iStock via Getty Images After you’ve bought Christmas gifts for friends, family, and co-workers, wrapping all of them nicely may seem like too high of a hurdle. We’ve all just stuck a present in a gift bag from the dollar store and called it a day—but it’s surprisingly to tie a ribbon bow and take your gift wrapping...

It doesn’t feel right to see a toddler walking down the street by themselves. Toddlers don’t just go rogue, and if they do they are quickly chased down by a parent or grandparent or teacher and brought back where they belong. Most planets are like toddlers: They follow a well-behaved orbit around a star. It could be a...

Hero Collector/Amazon If you're the type of die-hard Beatles fan who still listens to Abbey Road from start to finish regularly and knows who "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was actually named after, chances are you'll be able to ace this new puzzle book based on Yellow Submarine. The Beatles Nerd Search: A Yellow Submarine Puzzle Book—by...