--- title: Five Best: Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages description: Giving the Middle Ages a fresh look, understanding why we blame the poor for their poverty and more. canonical: https://time.com/4896927/shining-a-new-light-on-the-middle-ages/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-11T16:00:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:35.336Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4896927/shining-a-new-light-on-the-middle-ages/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 11, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 11, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**The Middle Ages get a bad rap. This project is shining a new light on medieval times.**](http://news.stanford.edu/2017/08/04/bringing-medieval-texts-contemporary-audience/) By Emily Goodling at Stanford University **2\.** [**Why do we think poor people are poor because of their own bad choices?**](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/05/us-inequality-poor-people-bad-choices-wealthy-bias) By Maia Szalavitz at the Guardian **3\.** [**Facebook Messenger bots are helping monitor violence after Kenya’s contentious election.**](https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-messenger-bots-help-monitor-kenya-election-violence/) By Katie Collins in CNET **4\.** [**Why doesn’t music education include modern instruments and styles?**](https://qz.com/1049431/21st-century-music-teachers-should-model-themselves-after-electronic-producers/) By Clint Randles in Quartz **5\.** [**‘Best of’ lists are the worst — and they’re making us less smart.**](https://theoutline.com/post/2075/best-of-lists-are-the-worst) By Ann-Derrick Gaillot in the Outline  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ Five Best: Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4896927/shining-a-new-light-on-the-middle-ages/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4896927/shining-a-new-light-on-the-middle-ages/"},"headline":"Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages","datePublished":"2017-08-11T16:00:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:35.336Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4896927/shining-a-new-light-on-the-middle-ages/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Music","facebook","Lists"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4896927/shining-a-new-light-on-the-middle-ages/","name":"Shining a New Light on the Middle Ages"}}]}] ```