“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is released this weekend. While Mercury is best known for his soaring vocals, readers might be surprised to learn that he came from a family of Zoroastrians. University of Florida religion professor Vasudha Narayanan tells the story of the ancient Persian religion that influenced Christianity, Islam and Judaism, but has only around 150,000 adherents today.

Eighty years ago, everyone was going crazy for Seabiscuit. The thoroughbred was a late bloomer, but eventually hit his stride and was voted 1938 Horse of the Year. Steven Tammariello heads the Institute for Equine Genomics at Binghamton University. After recently gathering Seabiscuit’s DNA from a most unlikely source, he and his team are piecing together some of the performance genes that made the horse a star.

One of our obsessions at The Conversation is understanding how scholars find their fields of study. This week, Sarah Cook of Georgia State University, a respected expert on violence against women, picks up that theme. Cook tells us the story of how the beginning of her career was forever altered by a violent attempted rape – and how the #MeToo movement has affected her both personally and professionally.