At Undark, Amy Maxmen follows the archaeologists and scientists who are racing to document what’s left of the ancient African civilization of Nubia.

“A simple question, posed at eight o’clock on a Saturday night. I got 5,000 comments back.” At the Village Voice, Mikel Jollett writes on music’s power to evoke memory and a sense of loss.

If you love soccer, you probably enjoy a good underdog story. Here’s Uruguay’s: a small country with a rich World Cup legacy, which Candace Rose Rardon lovingly retells in her illustrated essay on Longreads.

Anny Gaul, a scholar of North African and Middle Eastern culinary traditions, takes us on a deep dive through the centuries-long history of Bstila (or Pastilla), one of Morocco’s signature dishes (bonus: recipe included).

Sweden-based travel photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström reflects on the invisible barriers that stand between her (and every traveler’s) camera and the strangers that become the subjects of many of her most powerful photos.

Cultural historian Benjamin Wild writes on a newly discovered portrait of Tudor monarch Elizabeth I — one that, unlike previously known depictions, doesn’t show her as a perfectly poised queen.

Medievalist Lucy Allen writes on the recent move among women in academia to add the title “Dr” to their Twitter name, which she views as “an act of faith, a promise to myself to keep my work from being erased.”

“…I think about all the photos of fat ladies with bodies like mine that have been used as objects of ridicule on funny cards and websites, because they dared do something as transgressive as wear a bathing suit at the beach, as though they were human or something.”

The creator of The Wire and Treme remembers his years of friendship and collaboration with the late Anthony Bourdain.

Lisa Lim creates a comic about her favorite matriarch in life, her grandma. It’s about a long Chinese tradition of loving boys over girls just because they’re boys. “It’s about a woman who scares the sh*t out of me, and the world, but who inspires me every day to be just as bad ass.”

At Longreads, Paris-based pastry chef Frances Leech reflects on taste, memory, and literature’s most famous confection: the humble madeleine, immortalized in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

At Two By Tour, Yvette Benhamou and J. Endress explore the sites and streets of Cuenca, Ecuador. In their latest adventure, they wander the El Museo de Cultura Prohibido, a museum of sacrilege with dubious “artifacts,” see graffiti and street art, and explore a Belgian brewery in the Andes Mountains.

Liana Aghajanian on the food traditions of Armenian-Americans: “Having lost property, cultural heritage, and identity in addition to the millions who were killed, food became the most transportable cultural marker that could be made tangible with the right ingredients, as Armenians were forced to migrate across the world.”