Smithsonian Associates - Educating and Entertaining Audiences for More Than 50 Years

Smithsonian magazine was launched in the spring of 1970—as was the first Earth Day—and from the start it has been the trusted go-to source on the natural world and environmental issues. Mark these anniversaries by revisiting some of the magazine’s first articles about how we understand our planet with the journalists, photographers, and other experts who brought these stories to life.

Two and a half millennia ago, the Buddha taught that inner peace and freedom could be developed and cultivated through training in the mindfulness, compassion, and insight found in the practice of meditation. Join Deepak Chopra to explore how meditation can serve as a potentially powerful tool to meet the challenges of the moment.

Bakari Sellers, a CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history, examines the plight of the South's dwindling rural population of black working-class men and women. Drawing on his new book My Vanishing Country, he surveys the struggles that shape their lives: gaining access to healthcare, making ends meet as factories shut down, holding on to traditions as towns erode, and forging a path forward without succumbing to despair.

In a special evening that celebrates the late civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III joins Jon Meacham, author of a new biography of John Lewis, to discuss the life, career, and legacy of a visionary who offers inspiration and illumination for Americans today who are working for social and political change.

Drawing on his new biography Eleanor, David Michaelis delves into the inner life of Eleanor Roosevelt—one of the 20th century's greatest figures—covering her troubled childhood, complicated marriage and partnership with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, trailblazing 12 years as first lady, and accomplishments as a diplomat, activist, and humanitarian.