For younger readers · 9–16
For younger readers
You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.
— Madeleine L'Engle, on why she wrote for children
The 'Sea Peoples' Took the Blame for 3,000 Years — the Real Culprit Was the System Itself
Archaeologists have their own version of "the boogeyman is going to ge…
They Blew Up a Pile of Disco Records at a Baseball Game — What They Really Wanted to Torch Was the People Who Loved It
Picture this: you're fifteen, Black, working as an usher at a Major Le…
'What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up' Might Be the Wrong Question — Soul Almost Gets This Right
Joe Gardner had been waiting his whole life for this one show.
All Animals Are Equal — Until One Night, Someone Added Half a Sentence
Picture a farm gate with seven rules painted on the barn wall in big w…
Anxiety Isn't a Malfunction — It's the Dizziness of Being Free
The night before a test, you're staring at the ceiling, stomach in kno…
Ethics Professors Aren't Necessarily Better People Than You Are — A Sitcom Turned That Fact Into a Punchline
Picture this: you die. You open your eyes and find out you've been sor…
Firemen Whose Job Is Setting Books on Fire — Fahrenheit 451's Sharpest Prediction Is That We Stop Wanting to Read Long Before Anyone Burns a Single Page
Picture this: your job used to be putting out fires.
Growing Up Isn't Caging the Monster Inside You — What the Red Panda in Turning Red Is Really About
You probably remember the images. Mei shoving a drawing under her bed…
He Calls the Whole World Phony. Then Admits He's the Best Liar You've Ever Met — Welcome to The Catcher in the Rye
Ever notice how much of what adults say is basically performance?
He Can See Past, Present, and Future — and Still Can't Stop the Holy War. That's the Most Dangerous Thing About Dune
If you've seen either of Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies, you probably…
He Made a Life, Took One Look, and Ran — Frankenstein Asks: Who's the Real Monster?
If you built something with your own hands, and the second it opened i…
He Threw the Wildest Parties in New York and Never Danced at One — Gatsby Bet His Whole Life on a Green Light He Couldn't Reach
Every weekend all summer long, Gatsby's mansion stays lit up until the…
Hitler Burned the Books. Stalin Rewrote Them — That's the Truly Terrifying Part of 1984
Have you ever known, somewhere in the back of your mind, that somethin…
In My Neighbor Totoro, a Family Bows to a Tree — Miyazaki's Films Believe Everything Has a Soul
When the Kusakabe family first moves into their new house out in the c…
In Spirited Away, Chihiro's Parents Eat Their Way Into Pigs — What Happens When Somebody Takes Your Name
Chihiro is ten years old when her family takes a wrong turn on the way…
No Adults, No Police, Just Boys — Weeks Later They're Hunting Each Other. The Beast Was You All Along.
Ever wondered what would happen if your whole class got dropped on a d…
No Money, No Name, No Standing — Where Jane Eyre Got the Nerve to Say 'Our Souls Are Equal'
Have you ever been looked down on in front of everyone?
No Pain, No Fights, No Choices — Would You Move In? The Giver Says the Price Is Calling It 'Release'
Would you move into a community with no war, no hunger, no poverty, an…
Nobody Can Beat Him, and He's Miserable About It — One-Punch Man's Strongest Hero Has the Emptiest Life
Picture this: you turn on god mode in a video game.
She Judged Darcy a Jerk in Five Seconds, Then Believed a Liar Almost as Fast — That's the Trap Pride and Prejudice Sets
Have you ever met someone and decided, within a minute, exactly what k…
Slaughterhouse-Five Makes Its Hero Come Unstuck in Time — Because War Memories Never Wait Their Turn
If you had to write a book about a single night when over a hundred th…
Spider-Man Recast Himself Three Times. Each Time, So Did America.
You've probably seen more than one Spider-Man.
The Book They Sell as a Classic Romance Is Actually a Revenge Bill Heathcliff Spent Two Generations Paying Off
If someone treated you like a servant your whole childhood — bullied y…
The Elephant Who Heard a Voice Nobody Else Could — And the Bedtime Book You Never Actually Read
You probably had this one read to you as a kid: an elephant, cooling o…
The Real Death Isn't Your Heart Stopping — It's Being Forgotten: What Coco Gets Right
Every year on Día de los Muertos, the land of the dead grows a bridge…
The Recluse the Whole Town Feared Ended Up Saving Her Life — In To Kill a Mockingbird, Another Innocent Man Wasn't So Lucky
Have you ever been scared of a place as a kid, and not really been abl…
Turning Into a Bug Wasn't What Got Him Abandoned — Not Earning Was: The Real Horror of The Metamorphosis
You wake up one morning and you've turned into a giant bug — and the f…
Costco: The Store That Won't Take One Extra Penny From You
Picture this: you and your parents pull up to a supermarket, and a gua…
Nintendo's Wild Ride: How to Win, Lose, and Win It Back
Picture the one kid in school who owns literally every game console, a…
The Invisible Giant Inside Your Phone: TSMC and Grandpa Morris Chang's Story
Pick up your phone. Or your game console.
The Secret Behind the Plumber: Nintendo's 101-Year Comeback Story
Picture this: you hit start on a game console, and a short guy with a…
The Skunk Works: 143 Days in a Smelly Tent That Changed Flight Forever
There's a plane that flies faster than a bullet — about two-thirds of…
3,400 Wasp Species, One Tiny Forest: Why Scientists Think We've Been Undercounting Insects All Along
Before this episode even got started, host Regina Barber asked her co-…
A Brain-Squeezing Trip to Space, an Ocean Full of Fertilizer, and a 2,000-Year-Old Hitchhiker
Picture this: you've just spent six months floating around the Interna…
A Horse Can't Tell What a Jacket Is — but It Never Forgets What It Learned Ten Years Ago
Picture a horse named True. He's four or five years old, wandering aro…
A Magnetic Field That Sings, an Ocean Under the Ice, and a Black Hole on the Run: Space News Went Wild This Week
Did you know Earth's magnetic field actually makes noise?
Gemstone Clouds, a Bullied Moon, and a Storm That Lit Up Cuba: This Week in Space Got Weird
Picture a planet where the clouds aren't made of water vapor — they're…
Moon Robots, a Cosmic Cold Case, and a 24-Mile Icelandic Slog: This Week in Space Got Wild
Picture two robots the size of baseballs, dropped on the moon.
Moving to Mars: 5 Truths That Pop the Hype Bubble
The episode opens with a highlight reel of hype.