Canada is the largest foreign buyer of California wine

Visualizing California's wine production

While Europe has France, Italy, and Spain, the US has California. The bulk of US wine production takes place in the Golden State, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the United States’ nearly 800 million gallons produced each year. This chart compares California and United States wine production from 1995 through 2022. Production in both has been trending down for several years, partially due to extreme weather events.

Wildfires have seriously affected Napa's winemaking

If there’s a single thing that has defined the last decade of California winemaking, it’s the effects of climate change, particularly wildfires. To avoid the threats of wildfires, some vineyards have pivoted to more heat-tolerant grapes.

Every US state's top import partner

Mexico, Canada, and China are the top trade partners for 42 of the states.

As of 2022, Canada has the most planned critical mineral mines

Wealthy nations are tapping into their domestic critical mineral reserves and buying up mines in poorer countries. The US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and China are taking the lead, with Chinese operations spanning all continents except Antarctica.

Tariffs are typically paid by the importing company or organization to the US treasury

Tariffs levied on foreign countries are typically paid by the importer upon arrival of goods—for example, if Walmart imported a $100 pair of shoes, they would pay the US treasury an additional $15 under a 15% tariff rate. The degree to which these costs are passed onto consumers depends on real-world business agreements.

In 2024, Americans bought over $7B of cut flowers

That's more than any other country in the world. Most of the flowers Americans purchase are imported, creating an economy that's both booming and reliant on dwindling natural resources.

The film industry is responsible for more than 200K jobs in California

Hollywood films generate roughly $49B for the US economy each year. In California, the film industry provides more than 200,000 jobs. Industry employees were paid more than $42B in wages in 2022.

US states have reported over $25B in tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales and medical marijuana

Colorado and Washington became the first states to allow the sale of cannabis products in 2014. Since then, many more states have legalized marijuana in some capacity—and it's been a boon for state budgets. California now regularly collects more than $1B in marijuana tax revenue each year, for instance.

In 1910, riots swept Champagne over unfairness in the winemaking industry

The French are well known for protesting, and their winegrowers are no exception. After years of disastrous harvests caused by bad weather, disease, and deceptive practices by large Champagne houses, smaller vintners fought back.

British Columbia's 'Infinite Coast' is a hidden travel gem

The long expanse of Pacific coast north of the US border includes Victoria, Vancouver Island, the Great Bear Rainforest, fjords, whale watching, and 50 First Nations that manage the coastline. This site presents the region in an engaging interactive format to attract travelers looking for lesser-known areas of natural beauty.

A government mandate changed the sound of Canadian radio

In 1971, Canadian radio stations were required to ensure their programming included at least 30% Canadian artists. The impact was both cultural and commercial, with Canadian artists gaining more visibility at home and Canadian studios and songwriters earning more pay.

Animal wines: Wine bottles with pigs on the label had the lowest median prices at $23.22

If you’ve ever spent too much time staring at a shelf in a wine store, you might have noticed something similar: animals, specifically, cats, pigs, or birds on the labels. So, what do these wines have in common? This interactive tool attempts to figure out what wines that include the same animal have in common.

How the beaver became Canada's national symbol

The beaver has been the national symbol of Canada since 1975, where over 1,000 locations are named after the animal. Intimately tied up with the country's economic development via the fur trade, the beaver is a well-established motif in Canadian society. Though the species was endangered in the late 1900s, conservation efforts have returned them to a "secure" status.

The 'playing card' and 'blueberry' taxes are among the strangest around the world

In Canada, companies making children’s breakfast cereals are granted a tax exemption if their cereal boxes contain free toys. While the exemption is limited to toys that are not “beer, liquor, or wine,” the cereal tax is far from the world's most eccentric tax.

The first Trader Joe's opened in California in 1967

Joe Coulombe was inspired by his travels outside the United States and wanted to open a store that offered some of the flavors he'd tasted abroad. Now, the store's unique products attract international visitors, who view it as a tourist destination.

China's WTO membership produced significant disputes

Two decades after China joined, its trade practices—such as state subsidies, intellectual property disputes, and market access restrictions—have sparked accusations that it has not fully met WTO commitments of free and open trade.

Container ships are just a fraction of total traffic via the canal

While more container ships traverse the canal than any other type of ship, vessels carrying dry bulk goods, vehicle carriers, chemical tankers, passenger ships, and more also pass through the Central American passageway.

Globalization is increasing the demand for cheese

The increased popularity of Western cuisine has affected the cheese market in historically cheese-averse regions like East Asia. Japan has gotten particularly excited about exploring what cheese has to offer, with festivals and creative fusion dishes featuring the versatile ingredient.

How cigarettes took over China

In 2022, China had a fifth of the world's population and bought nearly half of the world's cigarettes. This investigation explores how China became plagued by tobacco consumption, something epidemiologists say will strain the country's health system...

The world's largest Torrey pine is in Santa Barbara County

Torrey pines are extremely rare—believed to be endemic to just two pockets of California coast. In Carpinteria, to the southeast of Santa Barbara, stands the Woodholme Torrey pine, the world's tallest at 126 feet, first planted in 1883.

See how Britain promoted imperial trade through 1920s propaganda posters

This photo gallery showcases posters from the Empire Marketing Board, created after Canada gained dominion status in 1926. The campaign encouraged Canadians to buy goods from across the British Empire, producing more than 800 posters displayed nationwide.

How the federal income tax affected Prohibition

In the early 1900s, 30% to 40% of government tax revenue came from liquor, wine, and beer, a reliance that made Prohibition seem like a fiscal impossibility. But the passage of the federal income tax in 1913 changed the calculus, which helped allow the government to ban alcohol production and sales.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo forced Mexico to surrender over half its territory

Signed in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war but came at a steep cost for Mexico—ceding 55% of its territory, including California and the Southwest, in exchange for $15 million and vague promises to protect Mexican residents.

The McIntosh apple, long dominant, is now 10th-most popular in the US

First grown in Ontario, Canada, in 1795, the McIntosh became synonymous with the apple by the early 1900s. Newcomers on the market—especially the Honeycrisp in the 1990s—has nearly rendered the McIntosh irrelevant.

Craft beer is partially responsible for disrupting Budweiser’s US market share

Over the past few decades, as craft beer from smaller breweries has become more popular (as well as seltzers, light beers, and other alternatives), Budweiser’s market share has declined.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

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.

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 United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

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

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.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

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

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

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.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.