With millions of men serving in WWII, the nation needed pilots to ferry planes from the factory to the air bases. That’s when Jackie Cochran proposed a novel idea: why not let women fly?

Selected by Mary Ellen Mark for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses his work

Under exuberant coach, Knute Rockne, Notre Dame set the standards for football excellence. But off the field, the Fighting Irish was a PR sensation, capturing the hearts of a riveted nation.

In 1969, three men traveled to the moon cameras documented their every move

A curator from the Houston Museum of Natural Science explains how the terra cotta warriors were discovered and what they reveal about China’s Qin dynasty

So what exactly factors into how we end up being right or left-handed? In this one-minute video, Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze breaks down the science of being a southpaw.

Transitions: Photographs by Robert Creamer

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

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

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.

The octopus places the arm in its mouth, treating it like food.

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

http://j.mp/196BLpQ From her salon in Maryland, Camille Reed sees more black women embracing natural hair

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

Selected by Bruce Weber for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses his work

The Chesapeake Bay watershed is the winter home for a broad variety of birds, and avid bird watchers flock to the region to find the rarest species (Meredith Bragg)

Selected by Albert Watson for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses his work

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

A museum in Portland, Oregon highlights the multi-layered path of 3D imagery, from stereoscopes of the American West to blockbuster movies

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.

Recently digitized footage shows the Marine assault on Iwo Jima during World War II, including prepping equipment, arriving on the island and raising the flag. (U.S. Marine Corps History Division and Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina)

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

Collector Nakki Goranin leads a tour of her collection (Kenneth Fletcher). Read more at http://smithsonian.com/photobooth

A close look reveals how the famed photographer altered his glass negatives, creating the popular image of Native Americans that still exists today

Smithsonian magazine commissioned Drew Gardner for a project that connects Black Americans today to their lost ancestry. Read about Gardner’s project and process, as well as more details about the subjects of this incredible series here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/descendants-black-civil-war-heroes-wear-heritage-pride-180983397/ Video produced by Sierra Theobald. Special thanks to Drew Gardner Additional credits: Emma MacBeath, WikiTree US Black Heritage project; Ottawa Goodman, research and coordinator; Sam Dole, Penumbra Foundation; Elizabeth Zuck, set design; Calvin Osbourne, props and costume; Angela Huff, hair and make up; Diego Huerta, Lexia Krebs, behind-the-scenes filming; background prints by Fujifilm USA

In 1918, Lulu Hunt Peters—one of the first women in America to earn a medical doctorate—published the best seller Diet and Health With Key to the Calories, making a name for herself as an apostle for weight reduction in an era when malnutrition was a far greater public health threat than obesity. She pioneered the idea of measuring food intake via the calorie, which at the time was an obscure unit of measurement familiar only to chemists.  A century later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm) that 42 percent of American adults are clinically obese and that Type 2 diabetes is on the rise (https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p1229-future-diabetes-surge.html) . With those who can afford it now turning to pharmaceuticals to help them lose weight, we’ll examine why and how calorie counting has failed to help Americans maintain a “healthy” weight.  In this episode of “There’s More to That,” we hear from food historian Michelle Stacey about Peters’ legacy—and from Ronald Young Jr., creator and host of the critically acclaimed podcast “Weight For It (https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/weight-for-it) ,” about how American society continues to stigmatize what he calls “fat folks” for reasons that have nothing to do with public, or even individual, health. A transcript is below. To subscribe to “There’s More to That,” and to listen to past episodes on the complex legacy of Sojourner Truth (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-to-separate-fact-from-myth-in-the-extraordinary-story-of-sojourner-truth-180983820/) , how Joan Baez opened the door for Taylor Swift (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/before-beyonce-taylor-swift-ran-world-joan-baez-180983893/) , how machine learning is helping archeologists to read scrolls (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-artificial-intelligence-is-making-2000-year-old-scrolls-readable-again-180984264/) buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago and more, find us on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theres-more-to-that/id1694965155?ign-itscg=30200&ign-itsct=podcast_box_player) , Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4NYRCRxkYJTLjW71sqYOFv?si=08fa62c3e59d450f&nd=1) or wherever you get your podcasts. Read Michelle Stacey's story about Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters in the June 2024 issue of Smithsonian here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/doctor-pioneered-counting-calories-century-ago-were-still-dealing-with-consequences-180984282/) . Listen to Ronald Young, Jr.'s podcast "Weight For It" here (https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/weight-for-it) . 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.

Manufacturing of bitumen-lined water bottles in the traditional method of Native Californian Indians. Credit: Nicholas Radtkey, UC Davis & Sabrina Sholts

Recently digitized footage shows Marine in dugouts in the field, working on building a hospital and assisting the wounded on the front lines. (U.S. Marine Corps History Division and Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina)

Deep in the jungles of Brazil, photographer Steve Winter explains how he managed to capture stunning images of one of the world's top predators. Read more about jaguars at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/video/Photographing-the-Elusive-Jaguar.html

Richard Saul Wurman, the founder of the popular speaker series, shares his ideas for how to make learning more interesting

Read more about the event here: http://j.mp/TyPfBO The world famous Chinese artist uses pyrotechnics to turn a 40-foot-tall pine tree into an optical illusion.

Document Deep Dive: http://j.mp/SUXoTF How the Emancipation Proclamation Came to Be Signed: http://j.mp/12q5SE0 What did it take to pull together a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln's inkwell and his pen?

A true-life saga involving organized crime, racial prejudice, and evolving American identity, David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. seemed at first glance like a perfect fit for Martin Scorsese, the beloved filmmaker whose dozens of critically adored movies include Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, and The Departed. But when Jim Gray, a former chief of the Osage Nation, and other Osage leaders invited the filmmaker to Oklahoma to hear their concerns about his new project, Scorsese came. Scorsese listened. And then he rewrote and reconfigured Killers of the Flower Moon from soup to nuts, with a result that has earned a rapturous response from Native viewers like Gray and journalist Sandra Hale Schulman, and from the broader critical community, too. The movie opens in theatres tomorrow and will appear on the Apple+ streaming service before the end of the year. In this episode, Schulman walks me through a brief history of how Native Americans have been depicted in a century’s worth of movies. Then, Chief Gray tells me about his personal connection to Killers of the Flower Moon, the pattern of Native American erasure from national discourse, and how he and his colleagues persuaded Scorsese to rethink the new movie. A transcript of this episode can be found here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonianmag/how-the-osage-changed-martin-scorseses-mind-180983094smithsonianmag.com/smithsonianmag/how-the-osage-changed-martin-scorseses-mind-180983094) . Sandra’s Smithsonian story about Native representation in cinema is here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-native-representation-in-film-180983043/) . You can learn more about Sandra and her work at her site (http://www.sandraschulman.com/) . Dennis McAuliffe Jr.’s The Deaths of Sybil Bolton: An American History, which Chief Gray cites as formative in this episode, is here (https://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Sybil-Bolton-American-History/dp/081292150X) . 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.

Smithsonian magazine's poetry consultant recites his poem commissioned for a special photography issue

ARTICLE: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-veterans-come-alive-in-audio-and-video-recordings-97841665/ In this exclusive clip from the 1930s, Confederate veterans step up to the mic and let out their version of the fearsome rallying cry.

After reviewing more than 30,000 photos, the editors of Smithsonian magazine are proud to announce the winning submissions. Learn more about the finalists and winners of 2024 here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/see-winners-21st-annual-smithsonian-magazine-photo-contest-180984001/. --- 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

Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights activist, suffered unspeakable violence and intimidation at the hands of white supremacists and police. Her response: to elevate her cause by launching a long-shot campaign for the U.S. Senate

Credit: Cade Martin / © & ™ Lucasfilm Ltd

Recently digitized footage shows the 5th Div. cemetery dedication on Iwo Jima with band, gun salute and officers speaking. In the final scene, tow Marines kneel over the temporary resting place of 3/13 PFC Ernest T. Langbeen. (U.S. Marine Corps History Division and Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina)

Before it was even published in 2006, historian James Swanson’s book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer attracted the notice of Hollywood. After several prior attempts to adapt the nonfiction thriller for the screen, the first two episodes of the seven-part Apple TV+ miniseries Manhunt finally premiered on March 15, with the subsequent five arriving weekly. Meet Swanson — a self-described Lincoln obsessive — and hear about what moved him to write the book, what his role in its long-gestating adaptation was, and how he came to be so obsessed with our most-admired president in the first place. Smithsonian magazine related articles: The real history behind the events dramatized in “Manhunt,” (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-apple-tvs-manhunt-and-the-search-for-abraham-lincolns-killer-180983943/)   James Swanson’s favorite Lincoln artifacts (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-blood-relics-from-the-lincoln-assassination-180954331/) . 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.

Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Nikita-in-Hollywood.html As part of a diplomatic mission, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev traveled across the United States, meeting Americans from New York to Iowa to California.

It’s a tradition that dates back more than 100 years, but have you ever wondered why? Learn more about why we cast our votes on a seemingly random weekday - and its roots in past customs. --- For more videos from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/ Digital Editorial Director: Brian Wolly Supervising Producer & Scriptwriter: Michelle Mehrtens Producer: Nicki Marko Video Editor: Sierra Theobald

The National Gallery of Art organized a comprehensive exhibit of Robert Frank's work (Images courtesy of: National Gallery of Art; Produced by: Diane Bolz and Brian Wolly)

[Harry Carney Home Movies], Ruth Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

In the years before digital cameras, the process of getting shots from the field to the printers was incredibly complicated and dangerous. Video by Adam Grossman | Good Dog Media

From Smithsonian.com's story on Dave Shealy, Florida's self-proclaimed skunk ape expert: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trail-floridas-bigfoot-skunk-ape-180949981/

Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Herman-Leonards-Eye-for-Jazz.html With just a camera as his ticket, Herman Leonard captured jazz icons performing on and off stage.

Archaeologists uncover an exciting find: a tomb that predates most of the others in the area by around 2,000 years. Inside, is a series of perfectly preserved inscriptions on a panel known as a "false door’."