'The Boy who Went to Heaven': A bestselling, but fabricated, story

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon.

The "Balloon Boy" event received coverage from news outlets, and a search began after his parents claimed he was trapped inside his balloon. Later that day, the boy emerged from his attic where he had been hiding the whole time. His parents were later accused of orchestrating a hoax.

James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces' was marketed as memoir but revealed as fiction

The addiction book became a huge success after being added to Oprah Winfrey's book club. After it was revealed to be fiction in 2005, Oprah invited Frey on her show and criticized him for deceiving her and his readers.

Near-death experiences have been reported across cultures across for millennia

This collection of ten of the earliest recorded NDEs gives an idea of how pervasive the phenomenon really is. Stories range from ancient Greek philosopher Plato telling the story of a soldier named Er to a first-century Japanese monk who claimed to have visited both heaven and hell.

Why Stephen King bought the van that nearly killed him

Back in 1999, writer Stephen King was struck by a vehicle near his home in Bangor, Maine. It's a story he recounts in his memoir "On Writing," though that sober-minded text doesn't reveal a fascinating bit of trivia: King initially bought the van intending to obliterate it with a sledgehammer. King did end up purchasing the vehicle, though he didn't destroy it himself. This article uncovers why.

The story of the real-life 'Lord of the Flies'

William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies" is about a group of schoolboys who crash land on a remote island and are forced to fend for themselves. It's a situation that ends in chaos and, at least according to generations of English teachers, reveals the cruelty lurking in all of us. But a real-life story eerily similar to Golding's novel suggests something very different.

Turning a profit with terminal illness

After Amanda Riley was diagnosed with cancer, her social media followers rallied to raise funds to ensure their favorite religious influencer could afford one miracle after another. As more than $100,000 of donations poured in, Riley shared glimpses into her health struggles, posting evidence as fake as her diagnosis. Pulling from years of journalistic investigation, this eight-episode podcast series dives into Riley's reality.

Six stories of survivors who fell from the sky

Rarely are there survivors when airplanes explode in air or crash due to the extreme speeds and elevation of the craft. Sometimes, though, people survive. Here are six stories of people who defied the odds and lived after falling from a plane.

How a 6-year-old girl survived the wilderness of Arkansas alone for days

In 2001, a family trip to the Buffalo National River Wilderness in the Arkansas Ozarks took a dark turn, unfolding a tale of bizarre events when six-year-old Haley was lost and reportedly helped by the spirit of a little girl who resembled a child...

A poignant account of what happened on Flight 93

Todd Beamer was a religious family man. Mark Bingham was gay, a PR executive and a keen sportsman. The story of Flight 93 shows how these two very different men became heroes of America.

A biker from Hell's Angels said Hunter S. Thompson's book about the group was mostly 'cheap trash'

Thompson's popular coverage of the motorcycle gang was not necessarily popular with the gang members themselves. In a bizarre and amusing TV interview from 1967, a biker is given the opportunity to confront Thompson about using the gang for profit, misrepresenting them, and failing to buy beer he promised them.

The Faustian Bargain is a classic trope about cutting a deal with the devil

Goethe's "Faust," Broadway's "Damn Yankees," and the American folktale about Robert Johnson all embrace the familiar details of the Faustian Bargain, in which a young, eager striver is offered their wildest dreams in exchange for the rights to their soul.

A 13-year-old was declared brain-dead yet went through puberty on a ventilator

This podcast details Jahi McMath's highly controversial case. She was declared brain-dead in 2013 following surgical complications, but her family, citing religious beliefs, kept her connected to a ventilator for the five years that followed. She continued to grow and went through puberty before being issued a second death certificate in New Jersey.

The legacy of America's most remarkable kid

The short life and legacy of Kevin Cooper, a 14-year-old entrepreneur from Utah with big dreams for his family and rural America, and whose accomplishments most adults don’t pull off in a lifetime.

The accounts of the Resurrection from each of the four Gospels

All four Gospels agree that the tomb was empty and that Jesus appeared to followers—but they diverge on many secondary details: how many women came, at what hour, how many angels were present, and in what order Jesus appeared to whom. Historians often see those divergences as a sign of independent accounts rather than coordinated fabrication.

The Lazarus Effect is when a heart begins beating on its own after declared death

Formally called autoresuscitation, this rare phenomenon occurs when someone is declared dead following a cardiac arrest but their heart beats again without help—making it seem like the person came back to life. Doctors don't know the exact cause.

In the 1980s, excerpts from fake diaries of Adolf Hitler were published in a prominent German magazine

Excerpts from the diaries were published in other publications around the world, like The Sunday Times, despite uncertainty about their authenticity. After forensic analysis, the diaries were proven to be fake. The diaries were produced by Konrad Kujau, a petty criminal who frequently produced counterfeits.

Some vacationers flock to the sites of tragedies

Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Gettysburg, and more have all become tourist destinations, despite the horrible events that have occurred at the sites. The phenomenon is sometimes called "dark tourism," a trend that seems to be spurred by interest in history, morbid curiosity, and popular culture (like HBO's series "Chernobyl").

Steve Jobs mandated that a legendary book on yoga be distributed at his memorial service

The iconic entrepreneur died in 2011, but before he did, he planned the details for his memorial service. One of the instructions was to leave attendees with a parting gift: a brown box that contained Paramahansa Yogananda’s book “Autobiography of a Yogi,” a book he read as a teenager and then returned to annually.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother

Dalí's parents found the miracle of his birth nine months after his brother died to be profound, telling him he was his brother's reincarnation. Dalí carried this belief into his adult life and often cited its deep influence on him, including his preoccupation with death and mortality.

Finding the way home through flavor

In the fall of 1996, 9-year-old Alvin Chang rushed into his family's kitchen to find his grandmother making his absolute favorite dish: kimchi. This interactive story follows Chang's yearslong attempt to recreate the flavor from his childhood home.

O’Connor’s stories feature Southern outcasts thrust into bizarre situations

The Deep South is presented as a shadowy place, filled with scheming figures posing as upstanding citizens, like the conniving door-to-door Bible salesman of “Good Country People,” and smug intellectuals receiving their comeuppances, like the condescending college graduate of “Everything That Rises Must Converge.”

Gay Talese ran up expenses close to $5,000 to pursue ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’

In this retrospective, Talese reflects on the making of the legendary article that pioneered a new literary style. He offers his critiques of the modern state of profiles, arguing the industry no longer produces compelling work.

LaMarcus Thompson wanted roller coasters to save people from Satan’s temptations

The inventor and businessman who is known as “the Father of the American roller coaster” was also a religious Sunday school teacher who wished to distract the public from indulging in popular sinful amusements of the time like saloons and brothels.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Stephen Hawking's children's books help make science fun and accessible for kids

Stephen Hawking co-wrote "George’s Secret Key to the Universe" with his daughter, Lucy, to introduce young readers to big questions about the cosmos. In the first book, the protagonist rides a comet and discovers that black holes aren’t black.

The Shed at Dulwich was a fake restaurant that became the top-rated eatery in London

In 2017, freelance writer Oobah Butler conducted an experiment in which he created a website claiming that his south London garden shed offered a unique fine-dining experience. Butler asked friends to write glowing reviews on Tripadvisor, made the restaurant open only by appointment, and allured audiences with mystery. As a result, hordes of people called and emailed to make a reservation at a restaurant that didn't exist.

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

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

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

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

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

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.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

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.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

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

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 first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

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.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

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

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.