When Galileo Calculated the Precise Dimensions of Hell in Dante’s Inferno
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall17d ago
We venerate Galileo Galilei for daring to speak the scientific truth in the face of severe institutional opposition.
Open Culture
openculture.comadded August 2026
top 51%Rage Against the Machines: From the Luddites to the AI Data Center Backlash
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall20d ago
One often-repeated anecdote about Milton Friedman has the famous economist visiting a canal under construction in nineteen-sixties China.
How Reading Changes the Way Your Brain Works
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall21d ago
Reading is unnatural. This will hardly come as a surprise to any child trying to put off his homework for just one more hour of watching other kids play Minecraft.
The Genius Logic of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet: How It Was Created & How It Works
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall22d ago
Most of us can rattle off the first few words-that-stand-for-letters of the NATO phonetic alphabet.
Watch Footage from the Psychology Experiment That Shocked the World: Milgram’s Obedience Study (1961)
Open Cultureby OC22d ago
For decades following World War II, the world was left wondering how the atrocities of the Holocaust could have been perpetrated in the midst of—and, most horrifically, by—a modern and civilized...
The Radical Ideas of Plato’s Republic: An In-Depth Introduction
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall23d ago
We no longer live in a time when college freshmen get shocked by much of the reading material assigned to them.
Why Incompetent People Think They’re Amazing: An Animated Lesson from David Dunning (of the Famous “Dunning-Kruger Effect”)
Open Cultureby OC23d ago
The business world has long had special jargon for the Kafkaesque incompetence bedeviling the ranks of upper management.
How the Silk Road Actually Worked (and What Could Go Terribly Wrong On It)
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall24d ago
You don’t have to spend a long time reading up on the Silk Road before you see the term itself (“Silk Road”) called a misnomer.
How Martin Luther King, Jr. Used Nietzsche, Hegel & Kant to Overturn Segregation in America
Open Cultureby OC24d ago
The influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel on the revolutionary philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is well known.
Scientists Discover the Earliest Evidence of Drug Use in 25,000-Year-Old Teeth
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall27d ago
Image by Fakhri “Scientists Discover the Earliest Evidence of Drug Use in Really Old Teeth” may sound like odd headline language, at least by the traditional standards of the New York Times.
“Evil Mickey Mouse” Invades Japan in a 1934 Japanese Anime Propaganda Film
Open Cultureby OC27d ago
Before the Japanese fell completely, one hundred percent in love with anything and everything Disney (I mean, seriously, they love it), Mickey Mouse represented something completely different: Pure...
Route 66 Turns 100 This Year: Take a Tour of America’s Most Famous Highway
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall28d ago
This past summer, the United States of America celebrated 250 years of independence. But for a great many Americana-lovers around the world, this year also brings another, even more resonant date...
Download Hundreds of Issues of Jugend, Germany’s Pioneering Art Nouveau Magazine (1896–1940)
Open Cultureby OC28d ago
It’s an ungainly word for English speakers, which is maybe why we do not hear it often: Gleichschaltung. Yet the concept remains central for a clear view of what happened to Germany in the 1930s.
The Ancient Greek Water Clock That Kept the Most Accurate Time for 1,800 Years
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall29d ago
Today, we’re surrounded by technologies we could justifiably describe as time thieves. In ancient Greece, those who wanted to know where their time was going consulted a device they called a “water...
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Secret Career as a Japanese Art Dealer & How It Shaped His Architecture
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall8 Sept 2026
Frank Lloyd Wright was often strapped for cash. In that respect, he had something in common with Vincent van Gogh, who passed most of his much shorter life in more dire circumstances.
How the Japanese Practice of “Forest Bathing”—Or Just Hanging Out in the Woods—Can Lower Stress Levels and Fight Disease
Open Cultureby OC8 Sept 2026
When the U.S. media began reporting on the phenomenon of “forest bathing” as a therapy for mental and physical health, the online commentariat—as it will—mocked the concept relentlessly as yet...
Bertrand Russell Explains Why Karl Marx’s Philosophy Produced the Disaster of Communism
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall7 Sept 2026
In 1927, Bertrand Russell delivered a lecture titled “Why I Am Not a Christian.” At the time, such a declaration was still fairly bold, as was the reasoning he provided for it.
Why Inventing Color TV Was So Difficult
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall4 Sept 2026
Many who read this will remember watching television on a black-and-white set at some point in their lives. Fewer will remember doing so because only black-and-white sets existed.
Wes Anderson Picks Nine of His Favorite Criterion Films
Open Cultureby Colin Marshall3 Sept 2026
Many an internet cinephile has wondered aloud if the Criterion Closet is a real place, or just a set thrown together to make videos when famous directors like Christopher Nolan, Francis Ford...
Discover J.R.R. Tolkien’s Personal Book Cover Designs for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Open Cultureby OC3 Sept 2026
In some rare cases, adaptations and interpretations of a literary work can surpass the source. Despite hundreds of valiant efforts on the part of fans, filmmakers, game/toy designers, and radio...