A Brief History of Chocolate

I'm so grateful that those pre-Columbian cultures figured out the cacao tree's potential...

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-of-chocolate.html

Cixi, the "woman behind the throne" in China

Sometimes I feel like this new job of mine isn't even really a job; I'm getting paid to be a student, and I feel incredibly lucky. As usual, I learned a lot in the process of fact-checking an article about Beijing's Forbidden City for the magazine. I was particularly drawn to the mysterious, powerful character of Cixi, so I wrote a little something about her for the website:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/da-cixi.html