Chris Klimek

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

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The Books We Loved

Smithsonian editors choose their favorite (mostly) nonfiction of (mostly) 2023

Nine-year-old Neikoye Flowers (foreground), photographed in 2023 wearing in a Civil War uniform like the one worn by his ancestor, David Miles Moore, Jr. (background),160 years ago.

When Your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Is a Civil War Hero

Can recreating photographs from the 19th century connect a family to its lost heritage?

In 2023, wildfires ravaged communities in Canada, Hawaii and elsewhere across the globe.

Why Wildfires Are Burning Hotter and Longer

As conflagrations become more difficult to contain, a citizen movement to try to manage them through “prescribed burns” is growing

The OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule (foreground) landed in the Utah desert on September 24, carrying samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu (background). 

How NASA Captured Asteroid Dust to Find the Origins of Life

The sample of the space rock Bennu that OSIRIS-REx collected could unlock an ancient existential mystery

Retired Col. Robert Certain returned to the site of the Hanoi Hilton 50 years after he was freed from the infamous prisoner of war camp.

Healing the Wounds of the Vietnam War

Two perspectives on the 20th-century conflict look back, five decades after the fighting stopped, to discuss what was lost and what is remembered today

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How the Osage Changed Martin Scorsese’s Mind

“Killers of the Flower Moon” sets a new standard in its nuanced portrait of Osage life. Decades of prior films about Native Americans didn't even try

The New English Canaan by Thomas Morton criticized the Puritan government in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

A Brief History of Banned Books in America

Attempts to restrict what kids in school can read are on the rise. But American book banning started with the Puritans, 140 years before the United States

Why can't we stop anthropomorphizing our animal friends and foes?

Are Wild Animals Really Just Like Us?

A summer of news reports about orca, otter and bird “attacks” has the public wondering if trying to understand animal behavior in human terms is misguided

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The Remarkable Story of WWII’s 6888th Battalion, as Told by the Women Who Were There

Learn about the accomplishments of the Black Americans who served their country abroad, even as they faced discrimination at home

Left, a few of the ingredients used to build flavor throughout the mead making process at Charm City Meadworks in Baltimore, including honey, hops, comapeño peppers, oak chips, cinnamon sticks and juniper berries. Right, Lynn Pronobis, head mead maker at Charm City, must carefully oversee every step of the production process.

The Nectar of the Gods Is Coming to a Bar Near You

How mead, one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages, could become the drink of the future

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Deep-Sea Tourism or Deep-Sea Science?

Two chroniclers of explorers, including one who profiled OceanGate’s Stockton Rush, reflect on what visiting the depths of the ocean can—and can’t—teach us

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Hear What’s Happening to the Colorado River From a Photojournalist Who Has Spent His Entire Life Alongside It

In the latest episode of “There’s More to That,” learn about the Western waterway that affects the lives of everyone in the United States

Barbie's faithful sidekick, Ken, hit shelves in 1961.

Why the Ken Doll Will Never Truly Emerge From Barbie’s Shadow

The blockbuster film sparks a podcast discussion about why Ken can’t possibly be (k)enough

Illustration by Nina Goldman / Images via Smithsonian Folkways Records

Celebrating 75 Years of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

The vast, eclectic public archive of American music—and other sounds—is featured on a new episode of the Sidedoor podcast

Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio star in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

A Brief History of Long Movies

At the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, "Killers of the Flower Moon" will become the latest movie to ask just how much time we ought to give it

Hosts Emily Martin and Matt Shindell speak with Anisha Abraham and to her actor friend Jo Chim, who has written and directed a 30-minute film called “One Small Visit,” dramatizing a visit the Abraham family (above) enjoyed with the astronaut Neil Armstrong.

A New Neil Armstrong Film Makes One Giant Leap for Kindness

Smithsonian podcasts deliver doses of optimism this month, featuring Bill Nye and a story of a warm welcome from the astronaut’s family

The Smithsonian's podcast Sidedoor uncovers the climate change insights hidden in old paintings (above: Shivalal, Maharana Fateh Singh Crossing a River During the Monsoon (detail), c. 1893).

What Centuries-Old Indian Court Paintings Tell Us About Climate Change

This month’s Smithsonian podcasts include a deep dive into India’s monsoon weather patterns and discussion of animals in flight

The museum's curator Ryan Lintelman says the egg is emblematic of the cultural import of Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley, who battles the magnificently ugly "xenomorph."

Smithsonian Curator Reveals New Details on an Egg From Sigourney Weaver’s Iconic ‘Alien’ Franchise

Get the inside scoop on the iconic prop, now on view in the exhibition “Entertainment Nation”

During World War II, Executive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans (above: In Los Angeles in April 1942, dozens of families wait for a train to Manzanar War Relocation Center in Owens Valley, California).

Japanese American Artists Recall the Trauma of Wartime Incarceration

Smithsonian podcasts explore the legacy of Executive Order 9066 and the camera that almost didn’t make it to the Juno spacecraft launch

The comb found by archaeologists in 2016

What a Comb Can Tell Us About the History of the Written Word

A curious new find yields clues to the origins of the alphabet

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