One of my favorite sites on the internet is openculture.com. As the name implies, it’s a curated collection of the best permanently free culture on the web, from free college courses, movies, images, audiobooks, and history lessons.
Here’s a recent post that I found weirdly fascinating. It’s about how the ancient Romans had fewer cavities and dental problems than we might expect. What was their secret? (Hint: it has to do with less sugar.) I think I liked it because it ran contrary to the tendency most modern books and movies have when it comes to dramatizing the past. Usually, it’s portrayed as unremittingly violent and brutal, or (even worse) nostalgically sweet and winsome.
My guess is that most people in the past lived lives that, while not exactly happy or carefree, were not that different from our own. (And, no, I wouldn’t like to trade places with them.)
Why the Ancient Romans Had Better Teeth Than Modern Europeans
Ash Clifton, Writer 