Author: Asta Larken
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The Biology of a Myth: Dragons, Fossils, and the Human Need for Something That Breathes Fire
The first dragons were not cute. They did not purr emojis into your DMs or coil politely on YA dust jackets. They arrived as disturbances—fanged weather fronts, teeth set into the grammar of storm—so frightening that the earliest literary convention attached to angels (“be not afraid”) could just as easily have belonged to these other…
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When the Muse Has Wires: AI Love Poems, Dating-App Cyranos, and the Fate of Sincerity
Say you’re in love and the words won’t come. Once upon a time you hired a poet. Petrarch farmed his longing out to the sonnet; courtly troubadours put silk on the tongue of men whose nerves were otherwise rubble. Shakespeare even wrote the instruction manual: Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love—Orlando pinning…
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The New Pilgrimage: Where the Spiritually Restless Are Going in 2025 (and Why)
If you squint past the clickbait, you can see it: a quiet migration of the spiritually restless, moving across borders of music festivals, ashram-adjacent retreats, moonlit parties, and plant-medicine sanctuaries. It isn’t a single scene so much as an ecosystem—a mycelial network of gatherings trading in awe, somatic release, and the soft afterglow of being…
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Vampires: Why We Keep Raising the Undead in Every Century
Some legends refuse to rest. Vampires—those blood-hungry immortals—have roamed from the crypts of Carpathia to your late-night scrolling. They act as culture’s reflecting pool, showing us what we fear, desire, and deny. Why do vampires bite the same necks, across centuries? Because they’re always ready to mirror our darkest yearnings back at us. 1. From…
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Fallen Angels, Angel Numbers & the Human Soul’s Eternal Spectacle
We used to tremble when angels arrived. Their wings were blazing halos, their words shook the heavens, and mortals stammered, “Be not afraid.” But somewhere along the line—through pop culture and viral memes—angels turned gentle: whispering reassurance via license plates or ticking digital clocks. Meanwhile, fallen angels became synonymous with demons; the metaphors got murkier,…
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Are Audiobooks “Reading”—or Are We Just Drowning in Pleasant Noise?
Audiobooks used to live in the glove compartment next to the maps: road-trip companions, a mechanical voice keeping you company between gas stations. Now they’re the fastest-growing slice of publishing, a soundtrack to errands, commutes, workouts, bedtime. Spotify is muscling into a space Audible once treated as a fiefdom; AI voices are almost human, and…
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Why We Love Horror Stories: A Psychological and Historical Dissection
Horror stories shouldn’t exist. At least, not if you believe humans are rational creatures who seek safety, warmth, and reassurance. Why on earth would we gather around fires (literal or digital) to frighten ourselves? Why pay money to watch something that spikes our heart rates and curdles our sleep? The paradox is ancient. From medieval…
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Have We Already Entered the “Dead Internet”?
Sometimes the internet doesn’t feel human anymore. Your TikTok feed, your comment section, your Twitter replies—it all looks eerily … synthetic. This uncanny sense isn’t just your imagination. It’s the creepy premise of the Dead Internet Theory: the idea that most of the web has been quietly taken over by bots, algorithms, and AI—leaving few…
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30 First Grade Math Games That Actually Engage (and Sometimes Trick) Your Students
First grade math is where numbers stop being just squiggles on a page and start turning into tools. But “practice your addition facts” is about as inspiring as a trip to the dentist. Games are the secret: they make fluency feel like play. Here are 30 ways to sneak math into joy. Movement-Based Games (7…
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50 Sanity-Saving Indoor Recess Ideas for Teachers (That Actually Let You Breathe)
Let’s be honest: indoor recess is the school-day equivalent of a partial power outage. The kids are restless, the energy is crackling, and that circle of silence lasts about as long as a wet paper towel. But what if indoor recess could be something other than a symbolic apology for bad weather? What if it…