Selected by William Coupon for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses her work

Fossils found in Colombia indicate that a giant snake may have roamed the earth 60 million years ago

Host Eric Schulze digs into the science behind these depressions.

Megan Leftwich, an engineering professor at George Washington University, is building a robotic flipper based on her observations of sea lions

In this time-lapse video, watch how workers built a visitor’s center in South Africa using ancient Roman techniques such as the arched ceiling, or vault

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, begins this week in Dubai. A new topic on the agenda this year is how wildfires are emerging as a serious health risk not just to those in their immediate vicinity, but even to people thousands of miles away. Last summer, smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted not only as far south as the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, but even across the Atlantic Ocean. We speak with John Vaillant, whose book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World recounts a 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray, Canada that dislocated tens of thousands of people and caused billions of dollars in damage. That natural disaster seemed like a terrifying outlier when Vaillant began his reporting, but 2023’s unprecedented fire activity suggest that Fort McMurray was merely the shape of things to come. John explains how climate change is making wildfires hotter and harder to contain. Next, we’re joined by photojournalist Andria Hautamaki, who observed a “prescribed burn” in Plumas County, California. Andria shares how these kinds of carefully planned, intentionally set fires can be a useful tool for preventing more destructive blazes. Read an excerpt from John’s book Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-worlds-first-wildfire-tornado-blazed-a-path-of-destruction-through-australia-180982309/) , and learn more about John and his other books here (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58679/john-vaillant/) . Andria’s reporting for her wildfires story (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fighting-fire-with-fire-california-180981810/) y from the April/May 2023 issue of Smithsonian was supported by the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources (https://www.ijnr.org/) . You can learn more about Andria and her work at her website (https://ahowdyphoto.com/About/1) . Andria recommends these resources for anyone seeking more information about prescribed burns: • Your state’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/conservation-by-state) • The Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils (https://www.prescribedfire.net/) • The Great Plains Fire Science Exchange (https://gpfirescience.org/) , which can help you find Prescribed Burn Associations in your area • The National Fire Protection Association, aka Firewise USA (https://www.nfpa.org/) • The Cooperative Extension of any universities in your region Find prior episodes of our show here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/podcast/) . There’s More to That is a production of Smithsonian magazine and PRX Productions. From the magazine, our team is Chris Klimek, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Adriana Rosas Rivera, Genevieve Sponsler, Terence Bernardo, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Fact-checking by Stephanie Abramson. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.

You can describe what a journalist does in any number of ways. One definition that’s as accurate as any is that a journalist is someone who liked having homework back when they were in school so much that they decided to keep doing homework for a career. That certainly describes the team here at Smithsonian magazine. We’re all big readers. So we thought that before our brief winter hiatus—a time when many of us are trying to think of gift ideas to please the empathetic, curious people in our lives—we’d poll the staff of Smithsonian on their favorite books they read this year. Because we’re primarily a history and science magazine, we tried to steer them toward nonfiction published in 2023, but as you’ll hear, we weren’t sticklers for either criterion. We thought it better to let you hear from our staff about the books they were most genuinely excited to share. You’ll recognize some of these voices if you’re an avid listener, but this episode also provides the chance to hear from some of the talented staffers we haven’t been able to feature on the show before now. Find prior episodes of our show here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/podcast/) . There’s More to That is a production of Smithsonian magazine and PRX Productions. From the magazine, our team is Chris Klimek, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Adriana Rosas Rivera, Genevieve Sponsler, Rye Dorsey, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Fact-checking by Stephanie Abramson. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.

Saber toothed cats, temperature and things that go bump in the night, Eric Schulze explains

To find out, we need to get down to the basics. Eric Schulze explains

Fallow deer are the first species outside of primates to be able to make auditory discernment of social dominance

Hours after the Titanic sank, news organizations latched onto a telegraph message that seemed to say that the ship and all its passengers had been rescued. It would turn out to be a tragic case of fake news.

The first plane to fly nonstop from New York to Paris will reside on the ground level of the National Air and Space Museum for the next five months as it undergoes preservation (Courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum)

When plasma falls to the surface it results in a dazzling display known as coronal rain

It's 1933 and Mae West is just arriving at Grauman's Chinese Theater for the premiere of I'm No Angel. It draws fans from all over the country—as well as an organized protest from conservative religious groups.

The newly discovered Lllacme plenipes has up to 750 legs, more than any other known creature

At age 23, the former chairman of SNCC stepped up to the podium to deliver a powerful speech to thousands on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Take an animated tour of the future Giant Magellan Telescope

Our giant of a host, Eric Schulze, explains why size mattered in prehistory.

In 1619, George Yeardley, the newly appointed governor of Jamestown, made history: He convened 22 elected members of a burgeoning commonwealth, creating the first democratic assembly in America.

Around the Mall bloggers sit down and talk with a few old friends from Sesame Street (Narration and Video by Megan Gambino / Anika Gupta as Intrepid Reporter / Beth Py-Lieberman as the voice of Big Bird / Script by Jesse Rhodes / Jesse Rhodes as the voice of Cookie Monster and Oscar). Read more at http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2008/10/sesame-street-redux/

Learn more about color blindness: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ask-smithsonian-how-does-world-look-the-color-blind-180960415/ Have a question in mind? It's your turn to Ask Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ask-smithsonian/ask-form/

Yacouba Sawadogo, a farmer from Burkina Faso, has become a pioneer in the fight against desertification – succeeding where many international agencies have failed

Selected by Reza for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses her work

Have you ever wondered if the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a catastrophe waiting to happen? In this one-minute video, Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze explains how architects and engineers spent the last eight hundred years or so making things go from bad to worse, bringing the gravity-defying tower to the brink of disaster

What makes human and orangutan brains different? Researchers at the National Zoo hope to find out by playing customized computer games with the savvy primates.

Historically feared by humans, brown bears were once aggressively hunted in the contiguous U.S. Because of this, 95% of these majestic creatures live in Alaska.

Researchers from South Korea have discovered a unconventional way to produce gasoline.

Ever the media gadfly himself, the pop artist was fascinated by newspapers, especially the tabloids, as explored in a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Bringing-Andy-Warhols-Shadows-to-the-Hirshhorn.html

Are you the kind of person who needs to know what keeps satellites from plummeting to the Earth in a big, fiery ball? Then you need to watch this one-minute video, where Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze gives us the lowdown on what-in-the-name-of-science makes those satellites stay up.

Primatologist Tetsuro Matsuzawa studies chimps in hopes of uncovering how they learn and communicate

Fifteen-year-old Esteban, a clarinetist from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, uses music to survive his chaotic environment Reporting by Dominic Bracco II / Prime and Susana Seijas

Aziz Ansari | Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Award Winner for Performing Arts The actor, comedian and author is being honored for his starring role as Dev Shah in “Master of None,” the Netflix series that he created with Alan Yang. Like the character he plays, Ansari is the son of Indian immigrant parents, and his smart, surprising take on life, love, technology and cultural identity in the United States has helped make the show “the year’s best comedy straight out of the gate,” as the New York Times put it. Among Ansari’s other accomplishments are his unforgettable portrayal of the loopy Tom Haverford on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” his best-selling book about dating in the internet age, Modern Romance (co-authored with Eric Klinenberg), and his blockbuster stand-up act that sold out Madison Square Garden. Read more about Ansari’s work: http://smithmag.co/jvdAaL | #IngenuityAwards And more about the American Ingenuity Awards: http://smithmag.co/77xPqy

The Director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum predicts what the museum's collections will hold in the next 40 years Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Arts-Bold-New-Direction.html

Prepare to be amazed.

Thomas Edison's 1902 trick film, "Hindoo Fakir," depicts an Indian fakir-yogi performing a magic act.

In between trips to archaeology digs around the world, scientist Bruno Frohlich uses 3-D imaging to uncover what makes a great stringed instrument. Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/scanning-a-stradivarius-13807009/

How do spiders make such intricate webs? Don’t get too tangled up about it. In this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian host, Eric Schulze, weaves his way to the answer.

An oral history of the March on Washington: http://j.mp/1feuQK3 John Lewis, Eleanor Holmes Norton and others relive the pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement.

Christopher Nolan's epic new film "Oppenheimer" is no mere biopic… nor is it the first attempt to capture the father of the atomic bomb in fiction. We look at prior dramatizations of this very complicated man—including one wherein J. Robert Oppenheimer played himself!—and examine why they worked or didn't. In this episode: Physicist-turned-photographer Minesh Bacrania shares his experience photographing inside the top-secret labs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where J. Robert Oppenheimer and other scientists created the first nuclear weapon. Next, with Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer exceeding commercial expectations, Smithsonian magazine writer Andy Kifer discusses the complexities of Oppenheimer's genius and how prior attempts to depict him in film and television and on stage have fared. Read Andy Kifer’s “The Real Story Behind Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer” here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-christopher-nolans-oppenheimer-180982529/) . See Minesh Bacrania’s photographs of Los Alamos and read Smithsonian senior editor Jennie Rothenberg Gritz’s text here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/exclusive-behind-scenes-look-los-alamos-lab-where-robert-oppenheimer-created-atomic-bomb-180982336/) or in the July/August 2023 issue of Smithsonian. Original release date: July 27, 2023 There’s More to That is a production of Smithsonian magazine and PRX Productions. From the magazine, our team is Chris Klimek, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Genevieve Sponsler, Adriana Rozas Rivera, Terence Bernardo, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.

From tumultuous love affairs to violent betrayals, the six wives of Henry VIII all left marks on the Tudor dynasty – and shaped the course of history. READ MORE about these women here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-history-behind-six-the-musical-about-henry-viiis-wives-180978781/ --- For more videos from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/ Digital Editorial Director: Brian Wolly Supervising Producer & Scriptwriter: Michelle Mehrtens Video Editor: Sierra Theobald

The power behind the music of Our Native Daughters comes from giving voice to the struggles of those who came before us—and few have struggled to be heard as much as black women.

In 1945, Maraquita Sargeant was admitted to a mental institution in Australia against her will and remained their for 22 years - produced by Matt Cleaves and George Clipp

Filmed by the famous photographer during the Spanish Civil War, this clip debuted at the 2010 Orphan Film Symposium

Humans don't just impact the interconnected web of life—we depend on it.

What is it about junk food that makes it so hard to resist? Find out how this empty-calorie food is designed to keep us wanting more in this one-minute video with Ask Smithsonian host, Eric Schulze.

Smithsonian's own jazz man, John Edward Hasse, gives a lesson on the influential music genre. Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-smithsonians-ambassador-of-jazz-53620539/

Honeybees get a caffeine buzz and memory boost when they drink coffee nectar