A generation ago, what you ate for dinner depended heavily on what month it was. Corn in August. Root vegetables in winter. Strawberries when strawberries were actually ready. Then industrial agriculture and refrigerated freight quietly rewired the American plate — and we traded seasons for aisles that never end.
Mar 13, 2026
In 1910, driving from New York to California wasn't a vacation — it was a survival test. Mud, breakdowns, and roads that barely deserved the name turned a cross-country journey into a months-long ordeal. Here's how America rewired itself, and what we gave up along the way.
Mar 13, 2026
In the early 1970s, a cross-country road trip cost almost nothing in fuel, required a paper map and a willingness to improvise, and unfolded through a roadside America that no longer really exists. The journey is still out there — but almost everything about how we take it has changed.
Mar 13, 2026