Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first issue of Smithsonian magazine appeared on newsstands in 1970. Edward K. Thompson received a request from S. Dillon Ripley to create this publication for the Smithsonian Institution that same year.
Michael Caruso served as editor-in-chief until 2019 when Debra Rosenberg took over the position alongside Terence Monmaney. Carey Winfrey had previously led the publication through the 1990s and early 2000s until his retirement in 2001.
The Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards ran from 2012 until 2019 as a recognition program for innovation in the arts sciences and technology. Winners included Bryan Stevenson Elon Musk Lin-Manuel Miranda OK Go John Krasinski Dave Eggers Aziz Ansari Rosanne Cash Jeff Bezos Fred Armisen Bill Hader and David Lynch.
Over 1,400 museums participated in the annual event known as Museum Day or Smithsonian Day in 2018. This initiative drew millions of people into cultural institutions nationwide across all fifty U.S. states.
Richard Conniff contributed articles exploring natural history and environmental science topics to the pages of Smithsonian magazine over many years. Other contributors included Frank Deford Eileen Gunn Penn Jillette Jon Krakauer Jill Lepore David McCullough Susan Orlean Nathaniel Philbrick Paul Theroux Lindsay Stern Jerry Adler Elizabeth Royte and Alan Lightman.