The Jazz Pictures the FBI Silenced
Fearing for her safety, Lisette Model buried her photos of artists like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, but a new book reveals them to the world.
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The Case for Boycotting the 2026 Venice Biennale
A boycott targets the infrastructure of complicity — in this instance, the social and cultural normalization of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Fanny Wright and the Radical Courage of Being Real: The Forgotten Woman Who Pioneered Scientific Thinking and Free Love in America
This essay is adapted from Traversal. Just before the eleven-year-old Walt Whitman dropped out of school to begin his first job, his parents diverted a portion of their meager working-class means toward a subscription to the radical paper The Free Enquirer, inspired by The
The Uncertain Future of Colombia’s Museum of Memory
Originally envisioned as a center for collective memory and mourning amid the country’s 70-year armed conflict, the building still sits empty in the middle of Bogotá.
IDSVA Extends PhD Program to BA and BFA Applicants
Earn your PhD in Art Theory, Aesthetics, and Philosophy with the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA).
“For months, callers to the Washington state...
“For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who have requested automated service in Spanish have instead heard an AI voice speaking English in a strong Spanish accent .”
A Hockey Dad, a Cartel, and a $12 Million Fraud
"Kota Youngblood told his neighbors there were hits out on their lives — and only he could save them."
Liz West Transforms a Bristol Parking Garage into a Kaleidoscopic Passageway
What does it feel like to be inside a rainbow? Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Liz West Transforms a Bristol Parking Garage into a Kaleidoscopic
A 2-hour mix of music compiled by Thom Yorke that plays...
A 2-hour mix of music compiled by Thom Yorke that plays before Radiohead’s European shows.
Finding God at the Brooklyn Museum
The Ancient Egyptian “Book of the Dead” turned me into a believer. We talked to the curators and conservators to learn how it came to be.
The Candy Factory
Ann Ballentine bought an old candy factory building in Brooklyn in 1979. She filled it with working artists and became something of a fairy godmother to them all . It entails someone who’s not as money driven, because you’re not gouging people for huge rents, and it requires
Do people still worship the ancient Greek gods?...
Do people still worship the ancient Greek gods? “Hellenism – also called Hellenic ethnic religion, or Dodekatheism – which is the practice of worshipping ancient gods, has been growing in popularity since the 1990s.”
Jimi Hendrix Was a Systems Engineer ....
Jimi Hendrix Was a Systems Engineer . “Hendrix’s mission was to reshape both the electric guitar’s envelope and its tone until it could feel like a human voice.”
Marks found on 40,000-year-old artifacts might be a...
Marks found on 40,000-year-old artifacts might be a proto-language . “They found that these sign sequences displayed an information density very similar to the earliest examples of the cuneiform forerunner called proto-cuneiform.”
The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can
The aluminum soda can is a humble testament to the power and scope of human ingenuity. If that sounds like hyperbole, you should watch this video, which features eleven solid minutes of engineering explanation and is not boring for even a second. More science/engineering
Pope Leo XIV to his priests: stop using AI to write...
Pope Leo XIV to his priests: stop using AI to write sermons . “‘To give a homily is to share faith,’ he said, and AI ‘will never be able to share faith.’”
A Pair of Elephant Seal Pups Wins the 2026 Underwater Photographer of the Year
Matthew Smith's capture of two elephant seals in the Falkland Islands earns him to the Underwater Photographer of the Year award. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per
Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate...
Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees. “Composition II with Red, Blue, and Yellow is in the U.S. public domain. It has been since January 1, 2026. No amount of Spanish law or invented ‘dual copyright’ theories changes that.”
The Vampire Problem: The Paradoxical Psychology of Why It Is So Hard to Change
"Many of [life's] big decisions involve choices to have experiences that teach us things we cannot know about from any other source but the experience itself."
The Courage to Be Yourself: E.E. Cummings on Art, Life, and Being Unafraid to Feel
"To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight."
The Battle of Berlinale
Gaza overshadows the German film festival, accusations of theft at the High Museum, three Community columns, and Juliette Lewis turns into a chair in a new movie.
This Is the Worst Thing That Could Happen to the International Space Station
"There’s a good way to throw out the ISS. And then there’s a really bad way."
There are no psychopaths
Virtually everything you think you know about psychopathy has been thoroughly debunked. Why does this zombie idea live on? - by Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen Read on Aeon
Justice and luck
Orson Welles may have said, “Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.” I think it’s more productive to imagine that “Justice is how society deals with luck.” Good and bad.
How Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Created the Blueprint for Modern Science Fiction (1927)
A vast, miserable proletariat squanders its days in meaningless toil. Society is under the control of ultra-wealthy business magnates. In order to pacify the underclass, the ruling class pins its hopes on a technological solution: artificial intelligence. Welcome to the year
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: subsea storytelling, a preservation paradox, achieving serpentine symbiosis, an investigation into infinity, and a marijuana mystery.