Hip-hop legend Lauryn Hill had a recurring role on 'As the World Turns'

Soaps launched the careers of countless Hollywood A-listers

Soap operas may not be considered high culture, but many actors who would go on to win television and film’s highest honors got their start with soaps. That includes Julianne Moore (“As the World Turns”), Morgan Freeman (“Another World”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Santa Barbara”), and Michael B. Jordan (“All My Children”).

Sylvia Robinson is considered ‘the Godmother of Hip-Hop’

While hip-hop was soundtracking countless parties in the early ‘70s, Robinson saw the music’s potential. She began writing, producing, and releasing some of the music’s earliest singles through her Sugar Hill Records label and helped build a place in the music industry for the young music. Robinson’s groundbreaking work led to a 2022 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dolly Parton jumped to Hollywood in the 1980s

Costar Jane Fonda said she heard Parton’s song “Two Doors Down” on the radio while the movie was still being developed and knew she’d be a perfect fit for one of the starring roles. The success of that movie kickstarted an acting career, following up with roles in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Steel Magnolias,” and more.

2025 marked the first time in 35 years a hip-hop song wasn't in the top 40

The Billboard Hot 100 chart dated October 25, 2025, didn't have any rap or hip-hop songs in its top 40 singles, something that hadn't happened since Feb. 2, 1990. One explanation is a Billboard methodology change, and another is Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl."

Tracey Ullman sued 'The Simpsons' after the cartoon left her show

The legendary and long-running animated show debuted as a series of shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show" in 1987. Years later, after a standalone "The Simpsons" series became a breakout success, Ullman sued 20th Century Fox, the show's parent company, claiming she was owed royalties for merchandise based on the show.

As a kid, Jay-Z was inspired by the Broadway musical “Annie”

That led to the rapper’s 1998 track “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” which sampled one of the show’s most recognizable songs, “Hard Knock Life.” "When the TV version [of Annie] came on, I was drawn to it," he told NPR in 2010.

'Islands in the Stream' was another massive crossover hit for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

The country stars each earned their second pop No. 1 hits with the duet, eventually selling over 3 million units. In 1998, the Fugees’ Pras scored a hit with an interpolation of the song on his track “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are),” which was eventually certified platinum.

The federal agents who followed Billie Holiday

After the success of "Strange Fruit," the Federal Bureau of Narcotics began surveilling Holiday on suspicion that she was using heroin. Jimmy Fletcher, an agent tasked with following her to clubs and parties, later said that they became quite close. "She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type," he was reported as saying.

When Beyoncé had a last name

Before she was the mononymous superstar, Beyoncé Knowles was one-fourth of Destiny’s Child, the biggest girl group of the 2000s. This oral history of the group’s early days delves into their first hit and why two members were suddenly dismissed after the release of the group’s second album. Read it here.

Hughes’ ‘Harlem’ inspired Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’

Hughes' 11-line poem from “Montage of a Dream Deferred” is one of the most recognizable verses in American literature. Part of that is due to its legacy as the inspiration for the title of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first show written by a Black woman to appear on Broadway.

'Hair' helped redefine Broadway theater

"Hair" rewrote the rule book, bringing politics, race, and, yes, nudity to Broadway. Plenty was going on backstage, too, with the young, revolutionary cast embracing the countercultural life they portrayed onstage.

K-pop is one of South Korea's biggest exports

Writer Vivian Yoon could never have imagined that the music she secretly loved as a kid growing up in Los Angeles’ Koreatown would become the phenomenon it is today. In this 14-part podcast, Yoon takes the deepest dive into the history of K-pop, a surprising journey that passes through the 1992 LA riots and a hip-hop club in Seoul once frequented by Black American GIs.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

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.

He signed to Columbia Records in 1972

Springsteen had been performing solo at various venues, including some famous folk spots in Greenwich Village. Columbia executives saw this performance of “Growing Up”—which would later appear on his first album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ”—and invited him to formally audition for the label before signing him.

Minnelli's acting career began as a toddler

Her first film appearance was at age three in 1949's "In the Good Old Summertime," which starred her mother, Judy Garland. Minnelli's stage debut came not long after, at the age of 10. At age 19, she'd made her Broadway debut in "Flora, the Red Menace," and landed a Tony Award for the performance.

The girl who lived in a tree for years

Julia Butterfly Hill lived in a redwood tree outside Stafford, California, for two years to prevent a lumber company from cutting it down, subsisting on rainwater and other provisions hoisted up by other volunteers.

Watch a 1934 short film starring Cab Calloway

Singer and bandleader Cab Calloway was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene. He was also one of the biggest names in jazz's swing era and would go on to be the first Black American to have a nationally syndicated radio show and the first to sell a million copies of a record. In this 1934 short film, "Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho," he reenacts his upbeat performances at Harlem's Cotton Club.

Funk musician William Onyeabor left music for Christianity

The Nigerian artist released eight albums between 1977 and 1985, often producing, recording, and releasing the records himself. After that brief career, he became a born-again Christian and left music behind. The records eventually reached collectors in the United States and England, including Talking Heads' David Byrne and Blur/Gorillaz's Damon Albarn, who praised the music's forward-thinking sounds.

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.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an avid fan of Star Trek

Dr. King praised the show’s vision of an integrated future and convinced African-American actress Nichelle Nichols to remain on the show, arguing her role offered a rare, powerful image of racial equality on American television.

See a timeline of commercial radio history

Radio, as we know it, began in the 1910s. This FCC timeline traces the evolution of the medium over the century that followed, highlighting groundbreaking broadcasts, speeches, and technological breakthroughs.

How the Wu-Tang Clan built a hip-hop empire

“Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” is considered one of the greatest rap albums of all time, but it was just the start of a career that would eventually include dozens of solo albums, a clothing brand, and a video game. This retrospective breaks down how the Staten Island group made it happen.

Hear the story of Truth's life

This podcast traces Truth's life from slavery in New York to her status as an abolitionist icon—covering her daring escape, legal victories, landmark speeches, and lasting impact on racial equality and women's rights.

Roosevelt transformed the role of the first lady of the United States

Eleanor Roosevelt diverged from the traditional expectations of the role—holding her own press conferences, writing a daily column, traveling the country on her own schedule, and taking public stances on controversial political issues. Many subsequent first ladies have modeled their use of the position after her example.

'After you make a fool of yourself a few hundred times, you learn what works.'

- Musician Gwen Stefani (1969-present)

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 preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

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.

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.'

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Poison ivy's rash-causing compound is found in the plant's roots, stem, and leaves—so coming into contact with any part of the plant can lead to rashes for the 85% of people who are allergic to it.

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.

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.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

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.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

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.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

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

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

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

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

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

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

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

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

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.