The brilliant Lisa Congdon introduces a new project titled My Nordic Adventure, in which she’ll be illustrating visual mementos from her recent trip to Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. Pictured here, Nordic doors.

Lisa’s most recent project, The Reconstructionists, a yearlong illustrated celebration of world-changing women, is a collaboration with yours truly.

“Cities smash us together. Cities force us to interact and interaction is good. Human friction is very, very healthy.”

Jonah Lehrer, author of How Creativity Works, on why cities are the knowledge engines of the 21st century.

Legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead and celebrated poet Allen Ginsberg define “beatnik” and discuss the Beat Generation – rare 3-minute audio excerpt from a 1959 interview courtesy of the PennSound archives.

Photographer Rania Matar captures the inner worlds of teenage girls through their bedroom interiors, from the American upper class to the refugee camps of the Middle East. What emerges is part James Mollison’s Where Children Sleep, part JeongMee Yoon’s Pink and Blue Projects, part something else entirely. 

A visual anthropology of the world’s last living nomads from Dutch photographer Jeroen Toirkens.