A Meditative Tour of Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architectural Masterpiece
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is a “house museum,” first designed as a residence, and now open...
Miles Davis’ Album On the Corner Tried to Woo Young Rock & Funk Fans: First Considered a Disaster, It’s Now Hailed as a Masterpiece
Miles Davis didn’t put out any studio albums from 1973 until the middle of 1981. In...
Hōshi: A Short Documentary on the 1300-Year-Old Hotel Run by the Same Japanese Family for 46 Generations
Hōshi, a traditional Japanese inn in Komatsu, Japan, holds the distinction of being the second oldest...
The Roman Colosseum Deconstructed: 3D Animation Reveals the Hidden Technology That Powered Rome’s Great Arena
Most tourists in Rome put the Colosseum at the top of their to-see list. (My own...
The 1924 Soviet Chess Match Where The Chess Pieces Were Real Soldiers and Horses
Let’s time travel back to Leningrad (aka St. Petersburg) in 1924. That’s when an unconventional chess match...
How Zaha Hadid Revolutionized Architecture & Drew Inspiration from Russian Avant-Garde Art
Zaha Hadid died in 2016, at the age of 65. She certainly wasn’t old, by the...
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi–Walt Disney’s 1943 Film Shows How Fascists Are Made
During World War II, Walt Disney entered into a contract with the US government to develop...
The Extreme Life and Philosophy of Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo Journalism and the American Condition
Hunter S. Thompson has been gone for two decades now. When he went out, as the...
James Joyce, With His Eyesight Failing, Draws a Sketch of Leopold Bloom (1926)
James Joyce had a terrible time with his eyes. When he was six years old he...
Carl Sagan Issues a Chilling Warning About the Decline of Scientific Thinking in America: Watch His Final Interview (1996)
Until the end of his life, Carl Sagan (1934–1996) continued doing what he did all along...
The Real Story of Easter: How We Got from the First Easter in the Bible to Bunnies, Eggs & Chocolate
Popular culture has long since claimed Easter as an occasion for trickster rabbits, dyed-egg hunts, and marshmallow...
How to Evade Taxes in Ancient Rome: A 1,900-Year-Old Papyrus Reveals an Ancient Tax Evasion Scheme
It was surely not a coincidence that the New York Times published its story on the trial...
How to Enter a ‘Flow State’ on Command: Peak Performance Mind Hack Explained in 7 Minutes
You can be forgiven for thinking the concept of “flow” was cooked up and popularized by...
Why Most Ancient Civilizations Had No Word for the Color Blue
In an old Zen story, two monks argue over whether a flag is waving or whether...
The Ark Before Noah: Discover the Ancient Flood Myths That Came Before the Bible
The Lord said to Noah, there’s going to be a floody, floody; then to get those...
William Faulkner’s Review of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Images via Wikimedia Commons In the mid-20th century, the two big dogs in the American literary...
What the World Will Look Like in 250 Million Years: Mapping the Distant Future
Most of us now accept the idea that all of Earth’s continents were once part of...
What Was Smoot-Hawley, and Why Are We Doing It Again? Anyone? Anyone?
When most Americans think of the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs, they think of economic disaster. But if you...
How Chinese Characters Work: The Evolution of a Three-Millennia-Old Writing System
Contrary to somewhat popular belief, Chinese characters aren’t just little pictures. In fact, most of them...
Hear the World’s Oldest Known Song, “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” Written 3,400 Years Ago
Do you like old timey music? Splendid. You can’t get more old timey than Hurrian Hymn...
What Is Kafkaesque?: The Philosophy of Franz Kafka
It’s difficult to imagine that there was ever a time without the word “Kafkaesque.” Yet the...
Actor John Lithgow Reads 20 Lessons on Tyranny, Penned by Historian Timothy Snyder
In 2017, historian Timothy Snyder wrote the concise book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth...
The Medieval Manuscript That Features “Yoda”, Killer Snails, Savage Rabbits & More: Discover The Smithfield Decretals
As much as you may enjoy a night in with a book, you might not look...
The Map of Mathematics: Animation Shows How All the Different Fields in Math Fit Together
Back in December, you hopefully thoroughly immersed yourself in The Map of Physics, an animated video–a visual...
Isaac Asimov Describes How Artificial Intelligence Will Liberate Humans & Their Creativity: Watch His Last Major Interview (1992)
Artificial intelligence may be one of the major topics of our historical moment, but it can...
Watch Composer Wendy Carlos Demo an Original Moog Synthesizer (1989)
She’s worked with Stanley Kubrick *and* “Weird Al” Yankovic, and helped Robert Moog in the development...
Dante’s Inferno: A Visitor’s Guide to Hell
In most places across the world, speak the name of Dante, and your listeners will think...
Who Really Built the Egyptian Pyramids—And How Did They Do It?
Although it’s certainly more plausible than hypotheses like ancient aliens or lizard people, the idea that...
How Italy Became the Most Divided Country in Europe: Understanding the Great Divide Between North & South
Prada, Alfa Romeo, Pellegrino, Ferrari, Illy, Lamborghini, Gucci: these are a few Italian corporations we all...
The Steps a President Would Take to Destroy His Nation, According to Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot, Grok
Just out of curiosity, and apropos of nothing, we asked Grok (the AI chatbot created by...
Why the Romans Stopped Reading Books
Nobody reads books anymore. Whether or not that notion strikes you as true, you’ve probably heard...
Watch Jazz ‘Hot’, the Rare 1938 Short Film With Jazz Legend Django Reinhardt
Here’s a remarkable short film of the great jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stéphane Grappelli and...
The 1927 Film Metropolis Created a Dystopian Vision of What the World Would Look Like in 2026–and It Hits Close to Home
Ultra-tall high-rises against dark skies. A huge distance between the rich and the poor. Robber barons...
Watch Bob Dylan Make His Debut at the Newport Folk Festival in Colorized 1963 Footage
?si=l7KWVf9NZBUkPyM6 In July 1963, Bob Dylan made his first appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. On...
The Only Illustrated Manuscript of Homer’s Iliad from Antiquity
Despite its status as one of the most widely known and studied epic poems of all...
The Great Gatsby: A Free Audio Book
April 10th will mark the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, The Great...
Did the Tower of Babel Actually Exist?: A Look at the Archaeological Evidence
For all the means of communication and exchange we’ve established between the cultures of the world,...
A Rare Smile Captured in a 19th Century Photograph
Just look at this photo. Just look at this young girl’s smile. We know her name:...
Superman vs. the KKK: Hear the 1946 Superman Radio Show That Weakened the Klan
Years ago, back in 2016, we featured a 1950 Superman poster that urged students to defend...
This Is What a Nuclear Strike Would Feel Like: A Precise Simulation
Though certain generations may have grown up trained to take cover under their classroom desks in...
The Best Photographer You’ve Never Heard Of: An Introduction to Tseng Kwong Chi
Once, the United States was known for sending forth the world’s most complained-about international tourists; today,...
Man Ray’s Surrealist Cinema: Watch Four Pioneering Films From the 1920s
Man Ray was one of the leading artists of the avant-garde of 1920s and 1930s Paris....
When Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Pastor, Theorized How Stupidity Enabled the Rise of the Nazis (1942)
Two days after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer took to...
Spike Jonze Creates a New Short Film (aka Commercial) for Apple
?si=UQ0XdCH-cVGe26AC With his iconic Super Bowl ad in 1984, Ridley Scott began a tradition of accomplished...
When The Twilight Zone Imagined Fascism in America in a 1963 Episode Starring Dennis Hopper
Watch through The Twilight Zone, and you’ll find yourself spotting no end of familiar faces: Julie...
NASA Visualizes the Ocean Currents in Motion: A Mesmerizing View of Earth’s Underwater Highways
The mesmerizing video above lets you visualize the ocean currents around the world. Using data from...
How Dave Brubeck’s Time Out Changed Jazz
Music video essay maestro Polyphonic is back. What I dig about his videos is that he...
Every Hidden Detail of New York’s Classic Skyscrapers: The Chrysler, Empire State & Woolworth Buildings
Currently, the tallest buildings in New York City are One World Trade Center, Central Park Tower,...
The Most Iconic Electronic Music Sample of Every Year (1990–2024)
Hear a second or two of Vernon Burch’s “Get Up,” and you’re back in 1990; of...
Why There Isn’t a Bridge from Italy to Sicily – And Why the 2,000-Year-Old Dream of Building the Bridge May Soon Be Realized
We’ve all heard of the great American road trip. If you’ve ever dreamt of taking a...