Christmas trees might seem timeless today, but American decorating habits have shifted dramatically over the decades. Long before tinsel, flocking or LED lights, winter greenery carried deep symbolic meaning.

Who is Santa Claus and what's his origin story? Why do we decorate a pine tree with lights? What is Yule and why does it have a log? When did gift-giving become a thing for Christmas? They're the questions you probably have or get from your kids every holiday season. Dr. Katherine Walker wants to make sure you're armed with the answers.

Of the many nightlife options on the Las Vegas Strip, The Pinky Ring is unique. It’s not a concert venue per se, but once you’re inside, it’s impossible not to gravitate toward the stage, which floats at the edge of a cozy, rotunda-like room. A six-piece band supplies a steady stream of funk and R&B hits from the 1980s and ’90s, and the warm, pulsating sound has the exhilarating effect of a tabernacle choir. Everyone wears the dazed, relieved look of someone who’s stumbled into a party they actually want to be at.

In a chamber beneath the Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood, 11 seekers gather around a seance table. Deliberately left without a medium to channel the dead, they’re sequestered with their imaginations, what the event organizer calls “the liminal space between belief and disbelief in the paranormal.”

Halloween brings out familiar symbols like witches, jack-o’-lanterns and black cats. But the season also beckons a more macabre figure lurking inside homes, classrooms and front lawns—the skeleton.

The Metal Gear video game series is known for its innovations in game design, as well as stories that confront heavy philosophical themes — like the relationship between people and technology.