Chris Klimek

Chris Klimek is a writer and former podcast host for Smithsonian.

The Island, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, single-channel video, color, 5.1 surround sound, 42 minutes, 2017

See a Film That Reimagines History on the Malaysian Island That Served as a Refugee Site After the Vietnam War

The work, now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, tells the story of two characters on the island—the last people alive in the world

Quincy Jones at an awards ceremony in 2014

Quincy Jones Was a ‘Musician’s Musician’ Who Was Uniquely Beloved in the Cutthroat Music Industry

A Smithsonian curator reflects back on the artistic legend, a "Renaissance man" with 28 Grammys to his name, who died Sunday at 91 years old

Blossom Time, Willard Metcalf, oil on canvas, 1910

How Century-Old Paintings Reveal the Indigenous Roots and Natural History of New England Landscapes

Seven guest collaborators bring new eyes to a Smithsonian museum founder’s collection of American art

Electric taxis known as Electrobats drive through Manhattan in 1898. A similar vehicle fatally struck Henry Hale Bliss on September 13, 1899.

On This Day in 1899, a Car Fatally Struck a Pedestrian for the First Time in American History

Henry Hale Bliss' death presaged the battle between the 20th-century automobile lobby and walkers in U.S. cities

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As Hurricanes Bear Down and Get Stronger, Can a $34 Billion Plan Save Texas?

A massive project prompted by the wildly destructive Hurricane Ike offers a solutions-based preview of our climate future

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How to Sweat Like an Olympian

This summer, don’t be embarrassed by those pit stains or your drenched workout clothes. Our expert on the science of sweat says perspiration is what makes humans faster, higher and stronger

Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in Fly Me to the Moon, a new movie directed by Greg Berlanti

How 'Fly Me to the Moon' Pokes Fun at Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories

The new Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum film presents an alternative history in which government officials prepared to fake the moon landing before NASA pulled off the feat for real

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The Wild Story of What Happened to Pablo Escobar’s Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Ever since the demise of the infamous drug kingpin, his pet hippos have flourished, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem and terrorizing local communities

Richard Loeb (left) and Nathan Leopold (right) sought to plan "the perfect crime."

'The Crime of the Century,' a Century Later

In the summer of 1924, the Leopold and Loeb murder case triggered a media frenzy and a debate over whether anyone can truly know what’s inside the mind of a cold-blooded killer

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America’s Best New Restaurant Celebrates the Flavors of West Africa

The James Beard Award-winning Dakar NOLA is at the forefront of a generation of fine-dining establishments determined to educate foodies about the true origins of “Southern” cuisine

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How Americans Got Hooked on Counting Calories More Than a Century Ago

A food history writer and an influential podcast host tell us how our thinking about health and body weight has—and hasn’t—evolved ever since Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters took the nation by storm

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How Artificial Intelligence Is Making 2,000-Year-Old Scrolls Readable Again

The innovative “Vesuvius Challenge” unlocked a mystery that had confounded archeologists for centuries

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What Happens When Animals Cross the Road

Our byways are an unnatural incursion into the natural world, especially when they’re allowed to fall into disuse. Meet a roadkill scientist and a journalist tracking how roads mess with nature—and what we can do about it

Suzan-Lori Parks' Sally & Tom makes its New York debut on April 16.

This Play Within a Play Confronts the Power Dynamic Between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson

In "Sally & Tom," Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks continues her investigation of American myths

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Why We Love Eclipses

Two perspectives on the astronomical phenomenon that has fascinated humans for as long as we’ve been watching the skies

Lili Taylor as Mary Lincoln and Hamish Linklater as Abraham Lincoln in the AppleTV+ miniseries "Manhunt"

The Man Behind 'Manhunt,' the New Apple TV+ Show About the Lincoln Assassination

Meet James Swanson, the lifelong Abraham Lincoln obsessive who wrote the nonfiction thriller that inspired the acclaimed miniseries

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Before Beyonce and Taylor Swift Ran the World, There Was Joan Baez

Today’s artists—especially women—are sometimes criticized for speaking out, but for Baez, art and activism were indivisible

Mario Van Peebles directs and stars in a new film titled Outlaw Posse.

How a Century of Black Westerns Shaped Movie History

Mario Van Peebles' "Outlaw Posse" is the latest attempt to correct the erasure of people of color from the classic cinema genre

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How to Separate Fact From Myth in the Extraordinary Story of Sojourner Truth

Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresented

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Oppenheimer Has a Long History On Screen, Including the Time the Nuclear Physicist Played Himself

Now with 13 Academy Award nominations to its credit, the blockbuster film comes after nearly eight decades of mythologizing the father of the atomic bomb

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