Bagging a New Generation

Madi McCool was driving in downtown Philadelphia in the summer of 2020 when she first spotted it: a reusable cloth mask that was actually cute. It was baby blue, orange and white, with a distinctive, bold daisy pattern. It caught her eye immediately. After some internet sleuthing, she tracked the mask down: It was by…

The New War on Bad Air

In January 1912, in the depths of a New York City winter, an unusual new apartment complex opened on the Upper East Side. The East River Homes were designed to help poor families fend off tuberculosis, a fearsome, airborne disease, by turning dark, airless tenements inside out. Passageways led from the street to capacious internal…