Object Lessons

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. What's an eye chart and how does it work? Desert nomads tested their vision by distinguishing

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The sapiens of the sea, whales are the other most intelligent, social, and loquacious animals

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.From a young age, Matthew Newton understood that the shopping mall offered visitors far more t

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Unraveling the sock's history, construction, and necessity, Kim Adrian's Sock reintroduces us

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Can the veil be an instrument of feminist empowerment? Does veiled anonymity confer a degree

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. When the Sony Walkman debuted in 1979, people were enthralled by the novel experience it offe

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Jet lag is a momentary condition resulting from the human body and its inner clock being pitc

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Tumor takes readers on an intellectual adventure around cultural concepts and attitudes that

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Nicole Walker's Egg offers a series of short reflections on eggs as food, as art objects, as

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.It towers over us and yet fades into background. Its lifespan outstrips ours, and yet its wisd

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Earth is at once too large and too small. It exceeds human scale, and yet even medieval manusc

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Traffic has filled the world. From livable, coastal Trondheim, Norway, to gridlocked Moscow an

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Questionnaires are everywhere: we fill them out in doctor's offices and at job interviews, to

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Passwords are crucial to our lives. They regulate our finances, protect our communications, an

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Hair, a primary marker of our mammalian nature, is a remarkably powerful indicator of economic

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Smokers, survivalists, teenagers, collectors…. The cigarette lighter is a charged, complex, ye

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.We all wear hoods: the Grim Reaper, Red Riding Hood, torturers, executioners and the executed,

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.No matter how much you fight against it, dust pervades everything. It gathers in even layers,

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.The shipping container is all around: whizzing by on the highway, trundling past on rails, unl

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.What is silence? In a series of short meditations, novelist and playwright John Biguenet consi

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.The phone booth exists as a memory to those over thirty, and as a strange, curious, and dysfun

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Pause and look, and you will see that you are surrounded by glass: light reflects off and refr

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.During the breakdown of an unhappy marriage, writer Joanna Walsh got a job as a hotel reviewer

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.When you are born, the first thing you do is scream. Be it a response to fear, anger, sadness, or happiness, the scream is a declaration of being alive. The metal vocalist cupping the microphone blares out a deafeningly harsh scream. The drill instructor screams out commands to their soldiers. And then there’s the bloodcurdling screams we know from horror films. A scream has many meanings, but it is an instinctive and reflexive action that, at its core, reveals raw emotion.Investigating popular and alternative cultures, art, and science, Michael J. Seidlinger tracks the resonance of the scream across media and literature and in his own voice. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic .

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.What can underground pipes tell us about human eating habits and the spread or containment of disease, such as COVID-19? Why are sewers spitting out plastic and trash into waterways around the world? How are clogs getting gnarlier and more numerous? Jessica Leigh Hester leads readers through the past, present, and future of the system humans have created to deal with our own waste and argues that sewers can be seen as a mirror to the world above at a time when our behaviors are drastically reshaping the environment for the worse. Sifting through the muck offers a fresh way to approach questions about urbanization, public health, infrastructure, ecology, sustainability, and consumerism― and what we value. Without understanding sewers, any attempt to steward the future is incomplete. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic .

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.The haunted doll has long been a trope in horror movies, but like many fears, there is some truth at its heart. Dolls are possessed―by our aspirations. They're commonly used as a tool to teach mothering to young girls, but more often they are avatars of the idealized feminine self. (The word "doll" even acts as shorthand for a desirable woman.) They instruct girls what to strive for in society, reinforcing dominant patriarchal, heteronormative, white views around class, bodies, history, and celebrity, in insidious ways. Girls’ dolls occupy the opposite space of boys’ action figures, which represent masculinity, authority, warfare, and conflict. By analyzing dolls from 17th century Japanese Hinamatsuri festivals, to the ‘80s American Girl Dolls, and even to today’s bitmoji, “Doll” reveals how the objects society encourages us to play with as girls shape the women we become.Object Le