Burning Man’s countercultural messages have influenced Silicon Valley’s work culture

Burning Man is more than a decadent hippie festival

Burning Man is often associated with lawlessness, debauchery, and controversies, but the actual festival has many complex parts, including an ethos that promotes radical self-acceptance and caring for your community.

Burning Man started with 30 people. Now it's a globally recognized festival

Burning Man initially gained momentum thanks to the bohemians of San Francisco's 1980s countercultural scene. Artists and other influential figure helped spread the word to make it one of the largest festivals in the US.

Burning Man promotes 10 core principles to live by in Black Rock City

While attendees or "burners" are living in the desert and creating a new city for themselves, they are encouraged to follow 10 principles that promote an ethos of civic responsibility, community, and individual expression.

Mark Zuckerberg, Katy Perry, and other celebrities have attended Burning Man

Burning Man is an expensive endeavor, most attractive and accessible to those with deep pockets and an interest in artistic endeavors. Therefore it’s no surprise the event attracts various famous innovators and entertainers, including the world's richest people.

Larry Harvey wanted an authentic, creative community when he founded Burning Man

Larry Harvey, the co-founder of Burning Man, wanted to create a bohemian retreat from everyday society by offering a break from commercialization while providing time to focus on autonomy, shared experience, and "transcendence."

Burning Man's artists and architects create without seeking profit or fame

Each year Burning Man's Black Rock City sees major achievements in design. Many creators remain anonymous and do not seek fame, profit, or acclaim, valuing the process of creating, and seeking to cultivate culture and identity.

Silicon Valley’s reign over tech, money, and politics

Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and others are getting into politics. From Musk’s role in President Trump’s second term to Hoffman’s spending on former Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign, more tech CEOs are expanding into politics. This podcast episode by WBUR and American Public Media discusses what the impact could be with so many tech figures engaging in American politics. Listen here.

The top 100 companies in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley has pumped out some of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple, Meta, and Google. Thousands of companies operate in the area, ranging from valuations in the trillions to startups only worth thousands.

See an analysis of the similarities between the characters in 'Silicon Valley' and the real people who inspired them

The HBO show "Silicon Valley" follows the story of an engineer who is trying to get his startup to take off in Silicon Valley. While one tech CEO said the show is like a documentary, many speculate the show is based on real life tech figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel.

The ritual burns of California forests

Many ecosystems around the world have adapted to regularly occurring wildfires. Some human cultures saw the advantage of such fires and integrated them into their community rituals. Learn about similar tribal traditions looking to better manage California's forests today.

Y Combinator changed the way startups around the world are built

Many of the philosophies that the leaders of Y Combinator have infused into the program’s portfolio companies have become the playbook for building the next big thing, such as its focus on founder personality and more.

X's quirky culture clashed hard with Elon Musk's extreme leadership style

Investigative journalists have written that social platform X's open, sometimes chaotic workplace stopped when control shifted irreversibly from Jack Dorsey to Elon Musk. They claim the stark contrast in personalities left little protection for existing employees, culture, or users.

Influencers have changed what music festivals look like

One major criticism of Coachella is that it's a playground for ultrarich people, with celebrities and influencers posing for selfies at a polo club. This article dissects the legitimacy of that stereotype and argues that the backlash to it has altered the festival's cultural standing.

Long before Coachella, Steve Wozniak attempted a similarly-minded festival

In 1982, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak was on a hiatus from Apple after a near-fatal plane crash. In his spare time, he decided to throw a festival that would bring together cutting-edge music and technology—a Woodstock for the 1980s. The result was the US Festival, an early ancestor of Coachella that brought world-class acts like Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads, the Grateful Dead, and the Ramones to a rustic venue outside Los Angeles.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

How Elon Musk's businesses have shaped Texas' Bastrop County

After deadly wildfires in 2011 burned a significant portion of the county, the tech boom in Austin pushed development eastward. Elon Musk has since made the region a key hub of his businesses, including a Tesla gigafactory considered one of the largest factories in the world by volume. Watch this reporter visit the town to hear the pros and cons of the transformation.

The Beat Generation inspired significant parts of 1960s counterculture

The Beat Generation championed the transformative power of psychedelics, rebelled against the post-war social order, and called for more radical politics. With a strong foothold in San Francisco, it's no surprise these themes were carried over to the city's 1960s counterculture, informing the larger national hippie movement.

Take a tour of Google's headquarters

With its vibrant and cutting-edge design, the so-called "Googleplex" is synonymous with Silicon Valley and surrounds employees with lush green space and unique artwork. Amenities include massage therapy, a medical clinic, and nap pods to inspire creativity.

Science fiction or new technology?

Dystopian literature is no longer relegated to the page, with innovations like the Tesla Cybertruck and Meta virtual reality headsets mirroring the aesthetics of texts like "The Running Man" and "Neuromancer." In this essay, Casey Michael Henry argues that the images from these works remain while their messages have faded.

By 2022, Meta was betting strongly on a metaverse strategy for its products

Moving beyond the controversies over fueling misinformation, division, and harm worldwide, Mark Zuckerberg expressed optimism about technology's role in connecting people. Meta's multibillion-dollar investments in integrative AR and VR technologies have further evolved its founder's vision.

Watch Ray Dalio's TED Talk on building an 'idea meritocracy'

In 2017, Dalio gave a TED Talk called "How to Build a Company Where the Best Ideas Win," which largely focused on Bridgewater's highly documented company culture and leadership principles. Dalio's TED Talk focused on one of his most well-known principles, "radical transparency," as a way to create an idea meritocracy.

Hustle culture is what happens when the belief that working extremely hard will put people on the path to success becomes the norm in a workplace or other group

From pulling all-nighters at the office to never taking a weekend off, hustle culture has been known to lead to employee burnout. The Worklife with Adam Grant podcast explains hustle culture and its effects in depth in this episode.

The iPhone reshaped culture, media, and communication through innovation

Cultural moments, such as Ellen's viral Oscars selfie and Taylor Swift's iPhone Notes statement, have demonstrated how deeply integrated the device has become into society. The film "Tangerine" and Kendrick Lamar's "Pride" were created with the iPhone, underscoring its use in media creation.

Here is a visualization of the creator economy as an ecosystem

From social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, to major advertisers paying influencers to promote their brands, to the consumers watching online content, quite a few engines have to keep firing to make the creator economy run smoothly.

Visit the official CES site for event info, tech trends, and innovation awards

The CES Las Vegas site features everything from event schedules and exhibitor lists to coverage of emerging tech trends and highlights from CES Innovation Award winners across various categories, including AI, health, and sustainability.

My experience with biohacking

A general approach that employs technology to enhance the functioning of the human body, biohacking enthusiasts are continuously seeking new ways to optimize their performance. Martin Kremmer, an entrepreneur who became interested in the topic after experiencing burnout, explores his own experiences in biohacking his own diet and lifestyle in pursuit of a longer, healthier life.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Firework or sparkler burns, even if they cover a relatively small area of skin, can significantly affect our range of motion.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.