Bad Bunny likes to remind the world where he and his music come from. In “EoO,” a song from his 2025 album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS,” he raps, “‘Tás escuchando música de Puerto Rico” (“You’re listening to music from Puerto Rico”). Similarly, in the album’s second track, “VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR,” he announces that...
This year the cities of Trenčín in Slovakia and Oulu in Finland took the helm as Europe’s cultural beacon cities. As the Old Continent redefines its role on the global geopolitical stage, the European Capitals of Culture (ECoC) programme is at a turning point. The European Commission recently launched a public forum initiative to collectively...
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and love stories are in the spotlight. While binge watching romance films can be a fun way to celebrate the season, Virginia Tech experts Sarah Ovink and Rose Wesche say formulaic depictions of love may set unrealistic expectations for real-life relationships. Ovink, associate professor of sociology, said media’s role in shaping expectations of love starts...
The holidays are the perfect time to gather friends and family, and nothing sets the mood like a thoughtfully crafted cocktail. This season, elevate your celebrations with San Martín Tequila, an exceptional spirit that blends craftsmanship with a refined, artful aesthetic. You don’t need an elaborate bar setup to impress. These simple, popular cocktail recipes...
Few workers face more scrutiny than professional athletes. Every movement is measured, every outcome quantified, and every performance evaluated against objective standards. So when UC Berkeley Haas researcher Tim Sels wondered how America’s deepening political polarization was affecting workers’ performance, he turned to one of the most comprehensive data sets on individual human performance: the...
The world feels heavy again. Politics seethes with bitterness. Civil liberties bend under pressure. Wars erupt in places that once seemed far away but now echo through our daily lives. The news scrolls endlessly across our screens, a litany of anxiety and outrage. Even those who try to keep perspective sense a low hum of...
When a life-size skeleton dressed like the Grim Reaper first appeared on a street altar in Tepito, Mexico City, in 2001, many passersby instinctively crossed themselves. The figure was La Santa Muerte – or Holy Death – a female folk saint cloaked in mystery and controversy that had previously been known, if at all, as...
In July 2025, Uganda’s courts swiftly dismissed a petition challenging the legality of polygamy, citing the protection of religious and cultural freedom. For most social scientists and policymakers who have long declared polygamy a “harmful cultural practice,” the decision was a frustrating but predictable setback in efforts to build healthier and more equal societies. In...
The burying ground looks like an abandoned lot. Holding the remains of upward of 22,000 enslaved and free people of color, the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in Richmond, Virginia, established in 1816, sits amid highways and surface roads. Above the expanse of unmarked graves loom a deserted auto shop, a power substation, a massive...
A research group led by Professor Emeritus Takuji Hoshino of Okayama University of Science (OUS) has successfully developed a new wine grape variety named “Muscat Shiragai”, created by crossing the wild species Shiraga grape—native only to the Takahashi River basin in Okayama Prefecture—with Muscat of Alexandria. The group has filed for new variety registration with Japan’s Ministry...
