Amy Crawford

Amy Crawford

 

Amy Crawford is a Michigan-based freelance journalist writing about cities, science, the environment, art and education. A longtime Smithsonian contributor, her work also appears in CityLab and the Boston Globe.

Your Weekly Sermons, Illustrated

Artist John Hendrix finds divine inspiration every Sunday when he goes to church

Is It Ethical to Collect Homeless People’s Signs as Art?

On the streets, a few words on a piece of cardboard can tell a life story

The computing power of an infant's brain still astounds.

Sleeping Babies Can Sense When Mommy and Daddy Are Fighting

The infant brain is even more impressionable than previously thought

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Buzz Aldrin on Why We Should Go to Mars

The Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon dreams of a future where Americans are the first to walk on Mars

Cowboy boots, like this oversized 40-foot-tall pair in San Antonio, are synonymous with Texas, a state that some say is “like a whole other country.”

Why Every State Should Be More Like Texas

Reporter Erica Grieder sees wisdom in the Lone Star State’s economic model. No verdict on if it has the best barbecue, however

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Where ‘An Eye for An Eye’ Should be the Letter of the Law

The courts have failed victims of violent crimes, according to one Fordham law professor, but does that mean that vengeance is justified?

Countries will begin vying for new shipping routes and untapped natural resources as the North Pole continues to melt.

When an Iceberg Melts, Who Owns the Riches Beneath the Ocean?

The promise of oil has heated up a global argument over the Arctic’s true borders

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Why Dogs are More Like Humans Than Wolves

The dumb dog days are over, says evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare

Constitution of the United States

Should the Constitution Be Scrapped?

In a new book, Louis Michael Seidman claims that arguing about the constitutionality of laws and reforms is the cause of our harsh political discourse

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Why the Best Success Stories Often Begin With Failure

One writer’s unexpected bout of unemployment inspired him to catalogue the misadventures of those who came before him

Superachiever Martina Navratilova competes at the 1989 French Open.

Why Are Superachievers So Successful?

Two authors spoke to dozens of the highest-achieving people in the world. Here’s what they learned

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What Traditional Societies Can Teach You About Life

A new book from best-selling author Jared Diamond tells us how we can learn a lot from people who live like most of us did 11,000 years ago

According to author Kevin Dutton, psychopaths have a distinct set of personality characteristics. Pictured is Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho.

The Pros to Being a Psychopath

In a new book, Oxford research psychologist Kevin Dutton argues that psychopaths are poised to perform well under pressure

About 90 miles north of San Francisco lies Fort Ross, a site chosen to be the Russian empire's only colony in what would later become the contiguous United States. Pictured is a Russian Orthodox chapel at Fort Ross.

When Russia Colonized California: Celebrating 200 Years of Fort Ross

A piece of history on the Pacific Coast was almost lost to budget cuts, until a Russian billionaire stepped in to save the endangered state park

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How Trees Defined America

Historian Erik Rutkow argues in a new book that forests are key to understanding how our nation developed and who we are today

"Most people from the Western world would think that imagery is forbidden in Islam and that Islamic art is fact geometry—the arabesque," says Sabiha Al Khemir.

Sabiha Al Khemir on Islam and the West

The museum curator and author predicts that relations between the United States and the Muslim world will improve

A soup tureen by Meissonnier

Curves Ahead

At the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Rococo experiences a revival

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Mounds vs. Vegans

In drawings and paintings, Trenton Doyle Hancock pits archetypes against each other

“Lending to somebody,” says Flannery, “sends the message that you’re treating them as an equal. It’s a dignifiedway to interact.”

I, Lender

Software engineer Matt Flannery pioneers Internet microloans to the world's poor

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Faith Healer

Religious historian Reza Aslan calls for a return to Islam's tradition of tolerance

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