In 2022, a Minneapolis news station stumbled upon footage of Prince as a child

Prince was known as a genre-crossing polymath

The son of two Minneapolis jazz musicians, Prince was surrounded by music from a young age. His full name, Prince Rogers, was actually derived from his father's group, the Prince Rogers Trio. He eventually learned how to play his father's piano, teaching himself the themes to popular TV shows. Eventually, he learned other instruments and expanded his music tastes, indulging in records by Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, and more. Below is his junior high school yearbook photo.

Explore a map of Prince's Minneapolis

Prince might be the most famous and influential musician from a city brimming with them. This interactive map from Prince's estate lets you explore the city's locales that shaped him, from early residences to concert halls and recording studios.

A tour of Paisley Park, Prince's artistic oasis

The compound, located in the suburbs of Minneapolis, was Prince's residence, recording studio, and a concert venue. (In the '80s and '90s, it was also Prince's record label, funded by Warner Bros.) After his death in 2016, it was turned into a museum for the Purple One. In the video below, a Vice journalist takes a tour of Paisley Park, allowing you to see the grounds without traveling to Minnesota.

Watch a long, personal interview with Prince from 1999

Prince often avoided press junkets, especially after he became a superstar. In 1999, though, in advance of a televised New Year's Eve concert, he sat down for a lengthy interview with Larry King, speaking about his childhood, career, and his conflicts with Warner Bros. He noted that it was uncharacteristic for him to spend so much time reflecting. "As I go through this journey, I don't look back much at all," he told King. "I try to stay in the now and live in the now."

Watch the live debut of 'Purple Rain'

Prince debuted the song at Minneapolis' historic First Avenue venue on Aug. 3, 1983. That live version was recorded and released on the "Purple Rain" album with minimal overdubs. You can watch that performance below.

After Warner Bros signed him at 18, Prince wrote a song to thank them

The label scooped the young artist in 1977, eager to ink a deal with the promising young savant. In response, Prince wrote a song called "I Hope We Can Work It Out," which suggested together they'd make "Music for the young and old, music bound to be gold." An official recording of the song was never released, but the Minnesota Historical Society acquired the original handwritten lyrics in 2017. You can see them below.

Prince's first TV appearance was in 1980

Prince appeared on "The Midnight Special" on Jan. 11, 1980, and played two songs from his self-titled album, "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad." It's a goofy, lip-synced performance, as was not uncommon for music on TV at the time, but the 21-year-old, clad in thigh-high boots and leopard print, made the most of the performance, offering a preview of the over-the-top persona he'd refine over the next few decades.

A collection of Prince's hilarious encounters with comedians

Charlie Murphy's story about Prince on "Chappelle's Show" became an oft-quoted touchstone in the 2000s, but it's not the only funny story a comedian has about the Purple One. This article collects some of the best from Conan O'Brien, David Alan Grier, and, yes, Charlie Murphy.

The locksmith who posthumously opened Prince's music vault

When legendary musician Prince died in 2016, he left behind thousands of unreleased songs in a locked vault, and no one knew the combination (even Prince had forgotten it before his death). Safecracker Dave McOmie was called in to break the 6,000-pound Mosler American Century vault by microdrilling into it and using a periscope to view the combination lock.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Photographer finds 120-year-old time capsule, develops the photos

Photographer Mathieu Stern found a century-old time capsule in his family home containing a little girl’s mementos and two glass plate negatives. He used Cyanotype to develop the photographs, unveiling images of the child’s pets. Stern documented the process in a video on YouTube and Instagram, showcasing the final prints of the animals.

A 19-month-old boy went viral for his natural drumming skills

A mother gifted her husband a drum set for Christmas, but was surprised to find their young child take a liking to the instrument. The musician couple noticed that over time the young boy taught himself proper form and how to keep up with the beat of the music. TikToks they filmed of their son went viral and amassed millions of views.

Exposing a beloved British personality as a pedophile

After Jimmy Savile's 2011 death, comments damning him began populating an online networking site for an "emotionally disturbed girls" residential school. These comments pricked the ears of two BBC journalists whose desks had been slowly covered in rumors of abuse by the public figure and former BBC presenter. This podcast series focuses on how journalists bring stories to light and is one of two episodes detailing Savile's story.

Watch this behind-the-scenes interview about the first person ever diagnosed with autism

Two reporters from The Atlantic tell the story behind their effort to track down the first diagnosed autism patient, Donald Gray Triplett, in Forest, Mississippi, and how his life turned out decades later.

The ghost of Bobby Dunbar

In 1912, a four-year-old Louisiana boy went missing for eight months. Contemporary accounts differed in his mother's reaction upon seeing him; some claimed she was overjoyed, others that she didn't recognize him. Shortly after, a second woman claimed the child was hers, though he remained with the first woman. In 2004, DNA analysis determined the child had not been related to the family, suggesting the kidnapping was never solved.

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.

An early Sly and the Family Stone live recording was discovered in 2002

A live recording of the legendary funk band in 1967—shortly before their mainstream breakthrough—was found in 2002 by two of the band's unofficial archivists. However, the full recording, "The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967," wasn't released until 2025.

‘Nipple-gate’ helped spark the creation of YouTube

After Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson during Super Bowl XXXVIII, frustrated viewers searching for clips inspired Jawed Karim and his partners to build YouTube as a platform for sharing missed moments.

Hear from those who reported on the ground in Minneapolis amid immigration raids

In this podcast episode, journalists reporting from Minneapolis describe ICE enforcement actions, street protests, and community fallout—offering firsthand accounts of how immigration crackdowns are unfolding in the Midwestern city.

Before 'SNL,' producer Lorne Michaels was a performer

Michaels was a costar on "The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour," a popular show on the Canadian network CBC. As these clips show, it was a standard variety show, something Michaels would intentionally react against with "SNL."

A stolen Norman Rockwell painting was found in Stephen Spielberg's collection

In 1989, the famed director purchased "Russian Schoolroom" from a legitimate dealer. He remained unaware that it was looted years prior from a gallery in Missouri until his staff spotted the painting on an FBI list of stolen works of art. In 2007, the FBI confirmed its authenticity.

Why one city in Minnesota isn't on Google Maps

North Oaks, Minnesota, is a city of a little over 5,000 people that spans just nine square miles. It's also the wealthiest place in the state, which is part of the reason it's been able to stay undocumented by Google. In this short documentary, one man attempts to film it himself.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

An independent research team believes musician Kurt Cobain's death was not a suicide

Conspiracy theorists have long argued that the Nirvana frontman's 1994 death was a homicide. In 2026, an independent research team reached a similar conclusion. The Seattle Police Department, however, revisited the case in 2014 and maintained that it was a suicide.

Kendrick Lamar's breakthrough concept album was inspired by real events

The rapper's 2012 album "good kid, m.A.A.d city" follows a young, impressionable protagonist who unwittingly becomes associated with a series of crimes. As this episode of the "Disgraceland" podcast explains, Lamar's album may be nonlinear and impressionistic, but it's based on autobiographical elements.

Famous Bigfoot footage stabilized using AI

Famous 1967 footage of a Sasquatch-like creature in a California forest has been stabilized using AI, clearly revealing the Bigfoot-esque creature to be a man in a suit.

Radiohead's chatbot was born over 20 years before ChatGPT

Looking for a novel way to promote their 2001 record "Amnesiac," Radiohead began working with ActiveBuddy, the people responsible for the popular SmarterChild chatbot, to create GooglyMinotaur, their own AOL chatbot based on a character based on the album. This oral history offers a deep dive on this fascinating piece of music and tech trivia, demonstrating the band's reliably forward-thinking perspective and providing a window into an early iteration of commercial artificial intelligence.

Read a 1971 magazine feature on Lucas' debut film, the sci-fi 'THX 1138'

Almost a decade before the arrival of "Star Wars," George Lucas directed "THX 1138," a grim science fiction film about a dystopian future in the vein of George Orwell's "1984." This article from the October 1971 issue of American Cinematographer features a young George Lucas, who developed the film from a short he worked on while a student at the University of Southern California just a few years earlier.

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

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

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.

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

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

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.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

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 NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.