Inspiring

August 21, 2025

Scuba Diving Instructor Finds 99-Year-Old Message in a Bottle From WWII Veteran

For centuries, people have slipped notes into bottles and set them adrift, hoping that their words might one day be discovered by a stranger. In June 2021, Jennifer Dowker—a boat captain and scuba diving instructor who runs Nautical North Family Adventures in Cheboygan, Michigan—was cleaning the windows of her glass-bottom boat on the Cheboygan River when she noticed a small green bottle resting on the seabed below.

Read Article

August 12, 2025

Kindergarteners in 1949 Drew Their Dads from Memory, and Life Magazine Captured the Results

In 1949, Doris Morcom, a kindergarten teacher at Sedgwick Elementary School in West Hartford, Connecticut, had a playful idea for the school’s upcoming Father’s Night. She asked her young students to draw their dads entirely from memory. The resulting portraits were both surprisingly accurate and hilariously imperfect, capturing the way each child saw their dad in their mind’s eye.

Read Article

August 10, 2025

Hear How Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains the Difference Between Art and Science

Despite being known as an astrophysicist and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson can wax poetic on the humanities as well. Over a decade ago, he took to Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session, where he outlined the eight books that he believed “every single intelligent person on the planet” should read, including Gulliver’s Travels and The Age of Reason.

Read Article

August 4, 2025

96-Year-Old Who Learned To Read Late in Life Earned a Near-Perfect Score in Her First-Ever Exam

According to Trading Economics, the literacy rate among women over 65 years old was only 30.29% in 2018. While the tide is turning for the better, this low number was due to many of these women marrying and starting a family at a young age, in addition to dealing with long-standing gender inequality, limited access to education in rural areas, and systemic poverty.

Read Article

My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.