The band Real Estate was almost called Law School

Real estate is grouped into broad categories: residential, commercial and industrial

Other categories of real estate include raw land and “special use” real estate, which includes cemeteries. Technically speaking, real estate is considered an alternative investment.

Band names often fit into 'semantic spaces'

Linguist Chi Luu explains that we often understand and identify with band names, even if they're odd (or nonsensical) word combinations, based on their associations with other words. For example, bands that begin with "The" often nod to 1960s garage rock; heavy metal bands often rely on morbid or funereal words.

Adam Neumann started another real estate company after WeWork

Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has attempted to purchase WeWork before, although, thus far, he hasn’t been successful. Since leaving the company, he has founded a residential real estate firm, among other projects.

The Bristol Sessions built a structure for a nascent music industry

Peer presented each artist at the Bristol Sessions with three separate contracts: one for royalties on the record, one for publishing of the composition, and one for management. It was a business model that would become the norm for the nascent recording industry.

Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)' is based on a fake graduation speech

The 1997 song, which was a chart-topping hit in Australia and appeared on the Billboard "Hot 100" in the US, is based on a fake commencement speech written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. For a time, many people erroneously believed Kurt Vonnegut gave the speech at MIT's graduation ceremony.

Punk band Devo formed after witnessing the Kent State shootings

Band members Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh were students at the Ohio university when the National Guard shot and killed student protestors. Casale said that the experience led them to pursue the project, which was a satirical critique of mindless consumerism and conformity.

Before 'Saturday Night Live,' Chevy Chase played in a band with the members of Steely Dan

Chase attended Bard College in the 1960s with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who'd later form the group Steely Dan, known for hits like "Reelin' in the Years" and "Peg." Chase played drums for the college band, which, at one point, was called the Very Bad Jazz Band.

Harvard Business School adapted its law school's ‘case method’ in MBA classes

Many MBA programs include classes structured around the “case method” rather than traditional lectures. In classes using the case method, students solve real-world business problems without being given the answers ahead of time, rather than listening to a lecture and taking notes.

How a failed investment bank almost became the name of a whiskey line

In the fallout of the Great Recession of 2008, Barclays bought several assets from the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers in a fire sale and maintained the company's trademark, despite the bank's collapse. Tiger Lily Ventures attempted to launch a whiskey line parodying the name, but the product was rejected in court due to questions over Barclays' maintenance of the trademark.

Dishonest brokers called ‘curbstoners’ once competed by placing signs on properties

In the 1910s, yards would be littered with dozens of signs representing competing and potentially dishonest salesmen. The concept of the “open house” developed during this period, as real estate agents would occupy a single home all day for what they called “open inspections.”

Jon Landau reviewed a Springsteen show, then became his manager

Jon Landau reviewed a Springsteen show, then became his managerJon Landau, a writer for a Boston newspaper, saw Springsteen and his recently-named E Street Band perform in 1974 and wrote, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen." He would go on to coproduce "Born to Run" and work as Springsteen's manager for decades.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Lisa Loeb was the first unsigned artist to top the Billboard chart

The singer-songwriter's single "Stay (I Missed You)" was included in the film "Reality Bites" and included on its soundtrack. Due in part to the success of the film, the song quickly raced up the Billboard Hot 100.

Rockwell left high school to become an artist

He began taking art classes at 14, while still in high school, but by 1910, he left traditional schooling to focus on his training at the National Academy of Design. He transferred to the Art Students League soon after to study under Thomas Fogarty, who taught him the particulars of commercial illustration, and George Bridgman, who was known for anatomically precise portraits.

A high schooler accused Dylan of stealing the song

Newsweek once claimed he bought it from a high school student for $1,000. The story was false—Dylan wrote it in 10 minutes. Years later, the student admitted he had taken credit to impress his classmates.

Hip-hop legends the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, and DMX all attended the same New York high school

All four emcees attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, a vocational public school in downtown Brooklyn. Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes were well-known as rappers when they were in school, once even battle-rapping one another in the lunchroom. (Jay-Z won.)

Rick James and Neil Young both played in a band that was signed to Motown

The Mynah Birds were a short-lived Canadian rock group active before either artist's career took off. In 1966, the band signed to Motown Records and released a single. That same year, they were dropped by the label after it was revealed that James had settled down in Canada to avoid US military service.

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.

Why Kansas is giving away cheap land

In Lincoln, Kansas, a housing renaissance is underway, driven by affordable real estate prices and a lower cost of living, in stark contrast to high-priced urban centers. Bradley Roberts, who previously lived in San Francisco, moved to Lincoln and...

Rhode Island plans to impose a ‘Taylor Swift tax’ on second homes

Starting in the summer of 2026, the state will impose a new property tax surcharge on second homes valued at, or over, $1M that aren’t used as primary residences. Some are calling it the “Taylor Swift tax,” given that Rhode Island is home to the pop star’s gargantuan historic beach house.

The Clash's 'London Calling' cover parodied Elvis

The English band used Presley’s 1959 debut album as the template for the cover of its third record, an ambitious double album that explored rockabilly, reggae, ska, R&B, jazz and pop.

Inside the Sarah Lawrence College sex cult scandal

In late 2010, a middle-aged man, freshly released from prison, moved into his daughter's college dorm and created a group that had all the hallmarks of a cult. Over the decade that followed, he extorted millions of dollars from vulnerable young adults through violence, psychological torture, and forced sex work. Authorities credited his arrest to a magazine article published in 2019 detailing victims' allegations.

'NIL' in college sports refers to 'name, image, and likeness'

In 2021, the NCAA began allowing its student-athletes to profit from using their name, image, and likeness, now often called NIL. While this is now permitted by the NCAA, state law (and school policies) largely dictate what is permitted.

Turning trash into music

In a town built on a landfill, a music teacher and young musicians created an orchestra using instruments made entirely from trash. From oil cans to bottle caps, they turned waste into music.

Rob Reiner fell in love while working on the romantic comedy 'When Harry Met Sally'

The director was divorced when he began shooting the movie, which was loosely based on his own experiences dating. He was introduced to his eventual wife, Michele Singer, by a cameraman on the production, who told Reiner that he and Singer would wind up married.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

There are ETFs that track lawmakers' stock purchases

If you can’t get enough politics in your life, why not invest like a politician? Because members of Congress are required to disclose their stock purchases, you can do just that, and the NANC and KRUZ ETFs make it even easier. NANC, referencing Nancy Pelosi, holds a basket of stocks that Democratic politicians have purchased. KRUZ, referencing Ted Cruz, holds a basket of Republican-held stocks.

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.

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.'

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.

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

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

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.

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.

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.

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.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

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

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

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

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

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 American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

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

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

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

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.