An imaginary, plausible alternate history that asks a simple question: how exactly did humans decide to start drinking cow’s milk? A fun, weird premise that opens onto a real fact most audiences don’t know — most of the planet is lactose intolerant, and tolerance is a recent development in human history.
Traces how milk became several different foodstuffs over time, and uses the lost origin of that story to ask a bigger, funnier question about just how far people will go to eat.
An 1867 Brooklyn dare, a haunted corner near an old Revolutionary War fort, and a friend who never explained what he saw.
A dark New Jersey road in 1896, a decorated Civil War veteran, and the strangest first in American newspaper history.
A campfire legend about a hook-handed maniac who hunted children on Staten Island — and the real, disturbing history that got tangled up in it.
Humans have existed roughly 300,000 years, and we’ve had language for approximately 135,000 years. And we generally say that writing as langauge started with cuneiform script in Mesopotamia in 3200 CBE, which means humans have had language for roughly 45% of our existence, and only 1.7% of our existence has included written language. And over […]
Notes on a Play – fred chong rutherford
I was at a sleepover for the first time, at Kerry Niesen’s house, decades ago. We’d picked a movie and were having dinner, me, Kerry, Jenny Niesen, and Kerry’s parents Jim and Rita. It was the first memory I have of seeing a family talking and having fun with each other at dinner. I didn’t […]
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