Hello subscribers to The Pudding, as well as our special supporters on Patreon.
We’ve got 3 new stories coming at you:
Ethical NBA Champions… As Aristotle once said, “The Golden State Warriors are frauds”
A Brief History of Restaurant Menus… I’ll have what she’s having (bisque d’ecrevisses, a crayfish soup made cognac and cream)
A love story… L! is for “Longitudinal survey of couples…”
Oh brother, here we go again!
Ethical NBA Champions
Following in the tradition of his ancient Greek ancestors, our resident philosopher-king Russell wants to start an argument with all you basketball fans. His provocation: “I believe there have only been five truly ethical NBA champions in the last 25 years.”
Those five teams will SHOCK and SURPRISE you. Doctors don’t want you to know which five NBA champions are worthy. Click here to learn the one weird trick that makes an NBA champion ethical!
If you like this story, check out our other basketball stories: nba redraft, basketball courts, nba spelling bee
A Brief History of Restaurant Menus
“Hello, garçon? I’d like to order a visual essay and explorable database of 5,000 antique restaurant menus, preferably from the New York Public Library’s archive.”
If you’ve ever said this, I’ve got just the thing for you! In these two projects, Matt and contributor Stephen Lurie embarked on some sort of Ratatouille collaboration to investigate the early days of modern dining. Read to learn about the evolution of the restaurant, and how these changes reflect a changing society. Sacré bleu!
If you liked this article, check out our other food stories: allergies, beer, kimchi
A love story
It’s a tale as old as time: boy meets girl, they fall in love, they get married, highly infectious virus escapes from lab somehow spreads across the globe, and they live happily ever after!
At least, that’s how it went for Henry and Mary, one couple featured in a Stanford study tracking relationships from 2017-2022. Using this data, Alvin investigated how social disruptions, like the pandemic, affect our most important connections. As Alvin puts it, “Our history reveals that love stories are shaped by the world in which we live.”
If you liked this article, check out our essays about feelings: emotion wheel, love songs, happy map
From the archive — National Anthem Divas
America 250! Let’s gooooo! Officially older than than the oldest known Giant Tortoise! It’s 2026 and everyone loves the United “MF” States of America!
What better way to celebrate all of the American government’s policies than listening to 138 different renditions of the national anthem?
Quick asides
Have a cool essay idea that you want to make? Check out our pitch guidelines.
Want to hire our team to create data-driven, visual stories? Visit our sister studio, Polygraph.
#stuff-we-love at The Pudding
Here are some special links shared on our Friends of The Pudding Slack (get access via Patreon)!
No quiet at home, The Straits Times
How A Nation of Immigrants Trace Their Roots, The New York Times
An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time, Vesuvius Challenge
Thanks for reading!
Kevin & The Pudding team
You just read issue #50 of The Pudding. You can also browse the full archives of this newsletter.