While the alternative history Netflix show Bridgerton gives us a sparkling version of the British Regency era, what’s missing is queer and trans culture. There are a few queer characters, and the upcoming fifth season of Bridgerton (slated for 2027) promises a central romance between two women — the grieving widow Francesca Bridgerton (played by…

One hundred years after her birth and 64 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains a champagne supernova that explodes into our collective consciousness when we need her most. In 1953 – as the smiling nude on the cover of Playboy magazine’s premiere issue – she heralded the move away from stultifying, post-war societal mores…

During several recent conversations, people have told me that they’ve stopped checking their phones in the morning. Not because nothing was happening, but because everything was. They described the feeling as standing under a waterfall of perpetual bad news. This experience is far from an isolated one. According to Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report,…

With less than five weeks until kickoff, and hundreds of thousands of visitors expected, Vancouver is preparing for the FIFA World Cup 2026 following British Columbia’s worst measles outbreak in years. Unlike Ontario, where public health officials released a detailed Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment flagging measles and other infectious diseases as risks at mass…

Do you have the sense that summers feel different than when you were younger? That they start earlier, arrive quickly and remain intense until the fall? If you live in the mid-latitudes of either the Northern or Southern Hemispheres, chances are you answered yes. For many, the idea of a longer and warmer summer conjures up images…

In February 2025, the classical pianist Betsy Arakawa died in her New Mexico home from a virus most people had never heard of. Her husband, the actor Gene Hackman, died a week later of heart disease. The pathogen that killed her was hantavirus, almost certainly picked up from deer mouse droppings on the property. Fourteen…