The Weather Scientists Who Can Forecast a National Security Threat

The Federal Air Resources Lab Quietly Helps Prevent Plane Crashes and Chemical Attacks

Zócalo’s editors are highlighting some of our favorite pieces from the archive. This week: Science historian Roger Turner highlights the work of the Air Resources Laboratory, which measures how dangerous things like radioactive debris move around in the air.

You’ve probably never heard of the Air Resources Laboratory. I hadn’t until two years ago, when I was hired to preserve a trove of oral histories recorded in the early 1990s. Those audio cassettes held a history of hidden science, full of amazing stories about nuclear …

How Fireworks Helped Spark a Scientific Revolution

The Shock and Awe of Pyrotechnic Displays Boosted Understanding of the Natural World

Night falls. A crowd assembles. A kaleidoscope of exploding colors and noise entertains us to the sound of oohs and aahs. All around the world, throughout the year, fireworks dazzle, …

California Can Reconceive the Arts by Offering More Choices and Ways to Participate

Demographic and Technological Shifts Could Let Arts in the Golden State Better Serve Communities

California is undergoing massive changes in technology, demography, the nature of work and, thus, in leisure activity. So is its cultural sector, with consequences for how Californians experience art and …

Staging a Life-Changing Project in El Salvador with Canada’s Stratford Festival

A Cultural Partnership Is Reviving Suchitoto, a Beautiful, Historic Town in a Troubled Nation

This piece was adapted from an interview with Antoni Cimolino, Edward Daranyi, and Mark Smith of Canada’s Stratford Festival.

The Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, is a 64-year-old Canadian repertory theater …

Spin the Wheel and Land on Community

As a Performer and Arts Consultant, I Learned That Arts Should Serve People—Not the Other Way Around

Recently, as I was walking home and mulling over what to write for this essay on arts engagement, I saw a multi-colored pinwheel stuck to a signpost on a street …

Bringing Shakespeare and Shaw Live from the Stage to the Screen

The National Theatre's Cinema Simulcasts Have Used Tech to Build Global Audiences

Since its founding in 1963—with Laurence Olivier as artistic director and Kenneth Tynan as dramaturg (plus a rep company that included new faces Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, and …