‘Namaste’ was popularized in the English language after India gained independence

An 1893 speech in Chicago set the stage for yoga in the US

Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk, spoke to the World’s Parliament of Religions, addressing those in attendance as his “sisters and brothers of America.” The speech—and Vivekananda’s subsequent lecture tours—introduced many in the West to Hinduism, setting the stage for the interest in yoga that would follow in the next century.

Traveling yogis spread the practice across the US

After a 1923 Supreme Court decision ruled that Asians were ineligible for citizenship, many South Asian immigrants had relatively few job opportunities and began moving around the country teaching yoga and spirituality. At the time, yoga was viewed less as a physical practice and more as a mystical one, something many of the teachers embraced to attract students. South Asians regained the right to citizenship in 1946.

A guide to the most popular yoga styles

Not every yoga class is the same. Many follow particular styles, which dictate the poses, format, and general intention behind the session. This guide breaks down 11 of the most popular yoga styles, including vinyasa (sometimes considered the most athletic) and Bikram (which takes place in a sauna-like environment).

'Chin chin' is a Mandarin toast that became popular in Europe

The phrase roughly translates to “please, please” and became popular in Europe after the Renaissance, when travelers, missionaries, and merchants returned from China with some of the customs they’d witnessed. Ironically, it’s rarely used in China today.

'Salud!' is a toast to one's health

The word is a shortened form of “para tu salud,” or “for your health.” The toast has become popular in Spanish-speaking countries as a shorthand for good health and general well-wishing. In Peru, the toast is usually made on New Year’s Eve with a sparkling wine, like Champagne or pisco sour.

A young Steve Jobs visited India on a spiritual pilgrimage

In 1974, Steve Jobs traveled to India after reading a book by the famous American psychologist Ram Dass. Jobs visited the temple of one of Dass’s influences, Neem Karoli Baba. He stayed in India for seven months before returning to the US to found Apple. Jobs’s trip to India helped shape the tech leader’s vision for Apple.

The Declaration of Independence became a global blueprint for freedom

This documentary traces how the Declaration's language of liberty resonated through more than 100 independence movements worldwide, demonstrating how a single revolutionary text helped redefine notions of self-rule, rights, and legitimacy across centuries.

Voyager carries Earth's hopeful greeting into deep space as a message of peace

Along with scientific instruments, each Voyager carried a golden record containing multilingual greetings—ranging from Sumerian and Akkadian to Thai and Cantonese—music, and sounds of Earth intended for any intelligent life that might find it.

'Muggle’ entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003

The Harry Potter term for a nonmagical person became an official English word when the Oxford English Dictionary added it in 2003—cementing the series’ influence on modern language and popular culture.

The standing ovation comes from an ancient Roman military tradition

Ovation is derived from the Latin for “I rejoice” and was a ceremonial salute to military generals who'd been victorious in battle.

India's space program began in a church at Earth's magnetic equator

As the US pushed to land a man on the moon, NASA looked for global partners to help map the conditions of the sky above Earth for launches. After Pakistan's initial attempt was sidelined, India pushed to be that partner. This long read details key episodes of frugality and ingenuity in India's space race, including its beginnings at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Thumba.

Charting the countries with large Sikh populations

While the vast majority of contemporary Sikhs live in Punjab, India, millions have moved elsewhere in the world, especially in anglophone countries. This chart shows which countries host the largest communities of the Sikh diaspora in the world.

The word 'Earth' comes from the German root word for 'ground'

In English, "Earth" means the planet and the land, but many languages identify each with distinct words. Earth is often given a maternal name or one that identifies it as the land of the living.

New York was once called New Amsterdam

Although New York has a long history, it wasn’t actually called “New York” until the late 1600s, when the English beat out the Dutch for control of the area. In 1664, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered what used to be known as “New Amsterdam” to the English, who renamed it New York after the Duke of York.

There's a goddess in South Asia worshipped for her protection against cholera

Both Hindus and Muslims in certain parts of South Asia pray to Oladevi, also known as Olabibi, to help protect against cholera. People also pray to this goddess for protection against epidemics more broadly.

Britain extracted nearly $45T from India during colonial rule

Between 1765 and 1938, Britain drained an estimated $45T in today’s dollars from India through taxes, resource extraction, and coerced trade—wealth that helped Britain’s economic rise while contributing to widespread poverty in the colony.

The unexpected rise of the global romcom

The romantic comedy has mostly fallen out of favor in the US, but it's booming in other parts of the world, including India, Nigeria, and South Korea. Rebecca Liu talks with film scholars and industry veterans to unpack why that happened and whether an American romcom renaissance is possible.

Pizza became more popular in Italy after it took off in the US

Pizza was invented in Naples, though it wasn't particularly popular outside the region. As it grew more popular elsewhere—and as more American and European tourists visiting Italy began asking for it—restaurants across Italy adopted the cuisine. It's something anthropologist Agehananda Bharati calls "the pizza effect."

The simple melody in 'Auld Lang Syne' has led to the song’s repurposing

In addition to becoming a standard tune to ring in the new year, the song has been reworked as a Dutch soccer anthem, a Japanese standard, and the South Korean national anthem. A significant part of its widespread use is that it has no copyright limitations. It helps, too, that it's simple melody is easy for even the most amateur singers to tackle.

Native students fought back against forced assimilation at US boarding schools

Despite harsh conditions, Native American students preserved their identities by secretly speaking their languages, maintaining cultural practices, and, in some cases, running away.

Words used in cannabis business names

As selling recreational cannabis becomes legal in many states across the US, cannabis dispensaries are increasingly common. While one might expect each of these dispensaries to have vastly different names, one study found that the names have some consistent similarities. Businesses with "beach vibes" or "green" in the name seem particularly common. Explore the full data visual here.

Communal iftars are now a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage

The tradition of breaking fast together where strangers and families share a table at sundown has been recognized by the United Nations' cultural body as significant. The designation sheds light on iftar's social side, beyond just the food.

Persia was officially called Iran by the international community in 1935

At the request of Reza Shah, the international community began using "Iran"—the name Iranians had always called their country—replacing the Western term "Persia." The change reflected a broader push for national identity and modernization under the Pahlavi dynasty.

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

Renaming the peak of the Great Smoky Mountains

After two years, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' petition to rename Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, finally succeeded. In 2023, the peak's title officially returned to its original Indigenous name, Kuwohi, which means "the mulberry place." Read to learn more about the mountain's significance as a sacred site for the Cherokee people, who have used the area for prayer, reflection, and gathering mulberries for medicinal purposes.

A popular tag in World War II announced 'Kilroy was here'

The graffito appeared seemingly everywhere throughout the 1940s and followed a similar pattern: A man with an oversized nose peering over a ledge, with the phrase written below it. Scholars believe it was an American form of similar tags that appeared in Australia and England, making "Kilroy" a meme long before the word had entered the lexicon.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

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.'

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

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.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

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

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

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

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

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

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.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.