Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy was one of the most beloved children’s book series of the 2000s — and one of the most frequently banned, too. Tragic, philosophical, and fervently opposed to classic Christian dogma, Pullman’s series sparked widespread outcry and religious boycotts. This week, Pullman released The Rose Field, the final volume in […]

Love — or at least sex — was in the air of the small, windowless, biosecure room at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas. Sixteen rectangular, clear plastic bins lined the room’s back and side walls, tiny stages for unlikely romances.  Each bin contained a plastic green pond plant — the kind you would buy […]

A Vox reader asks: Why is Dubai chocolate suddenly everywhere?! My husband and I have noticed that we suddenly see it everywhere from small town ice cream shops, national chains, grocery stores — and it appears to be across the country. Since we are DC people, our brains immediately went to wondering whether there was […]

In the heart of southern India’s centuries-old textile industry, tens of millions of garment workers spin cotton fibers into yarn each year.  They then dye large swaths of that yarn a dusty indigo hue before weaving it into a denim fabric that will eventually be cut and sewn into your favorite pair of light-washed low-rise […]

The idea of extinction — the permanent loss of life — is frightening. Yet the stakes of losing plants and animals are often unclear. If an already-rare bird vanishes from the forest, most people probably won’t feel the impact. But a troubling situation unfolding in Florida is different. Following a record-shattering heat wave in 2023, two marine […]