Reflections from Ben Giles, history's greatest stain remover

The squeegee kids of Baltimore

For decades in Baltimore, youth looking to earn some money have waited at high-traffic intersections to offer quick windshield washes for a fee. While some drivers find it encouraging, a positive way to spend time, others get annoyed, resentful, or...

Cleaning a glass bridge 4,000 feet in the air

Dangling 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon, these cleaners risk it all to scrub a glass bridge. With a custom-built trolley and nerves of steel, they tackle one of the scariest jobs in America.

Banksy turned graffiti into high art

The anonymous artist is renowned for his puckish, often stenciled street art. He's also known for the eye-popping sales those works command once they're up for auction. This podcast dives into the history of the singular artist, exploring how a British graffiti artist became a cultural icon.

Read the New York Times profile of TAKI 183

The 1971 article about the young graffiti artist and his many acolytes exposed the burgeoning subculture to a large audience and also detailed the effort to clean the work from the city's walls. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Who cleans the London Underground at night?

The London Underground, also known as the Tube, services millions of people every day. After the transit system closes each evening, a crew of workers known as “fluffers” gather to clean the underground tunnels. This article sheds light on these unnoticed cleaners, covering the difficulties of their jobs and the bizarre things they’ve encountered, from ghosts to nesting pigeons.

Gay Talese ran up expenses close to $5,000 to pursue ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’

In this retrospective, Talese reflects on the making of the legendary article that pioneered a new literary style. He offers his critiques of the modern state of profiles, arguing the industry no longer produces compelling work.

Watch an interview with Philip Glass about his career and theory of creativity, which he believes needs to be consistently deconstructed and reinvented.

The story behind the greatest outburst in sports history

It's a line that's still perplexing all these years later: "Who do you think you are? I am!" Those words were uttered by Pete Weber, an iconic bowler who was somewhere between John McEnroe and Happy Gilmore. This oral history from the Ringer provides some context for the bizarre insult and a backstory that turns what appears to be a non sequitur into a triumphant celebration.

Largely considered to be the inspiration for Gordon Gekko in the movie 'Wall Street,' Ivan Boesky was one of the most high-profile white-collar criminals and faced a $100M fine for insider trading in 1986.

A clean house is essential for celebrating the Lunar New Year

The earliest recorded instance of this cleaning ritual is from 241 B.C.E. By sweeping out dust and dirt and getting rid of clutter and unwanted items, it’s believed that you won’t carry extra burdens into the new year and will have space for the prosperity and fortune coming your way.

Often dubbed the 'king of bank robbers,' George Leonidas Leslie stole an estimated $7M (equivalent to $200M today) and charged other criminals a $20K fee to evaluate their heist plans

Leslie studied architecture and used blueprints of safes and banks to execute meticulously planned bank heists across the Northeast between 1869 and 1878. Although Leslie was an infamous bank robber by night, he posed as a member of high society by day, providing critical intel on the institutions he'd rob and helping conceal his crimes. Months before his largest planned heist, where he planned to turn on his gang, Leslie's body mysteriously washed up along the Hudson River. His killer remains a mystery.

Benjamin Franklin advocated for the use of paper money and even engineered some key anticounterfeiting techniques used today.

NBA referee Tim Donaghy was paid roughly $300K to fix games

Donaghy said he struggled with a gambling addiction, causing him to risk so much. In this interview, he explains the story of his scandal, and how the mob led to his eventual arrest.

A day in the life of a bedbug exterminator

Hugh Barrie is a bedbug specialist known as the Bed Bug Doctor, in Sussex, United Kingdom. Barrie employs a unique approach to bedbug extermination using heat treatment. Follow along as one journalist goes through the daily motions of a bedbug...

Founder of The Ocean Cleanup explains the case for cleaning oceans

Removing trash from the oceans not only saves wildlife, it may save human lives, too. The CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup explains how existing plastic pollution harms us and get harder to clean up over time.

An anthropologist spent years riding garbage trucks to understand what our trash says about us

Robin Nagle rode with New York City sanitation workers to trace the hidden life of what we throw out. Her research explores what the things we discard reveal about who we are. 1440 explores the hidden life of trash.

One man lost roughly $100K to a con artist—then turned it into a business

The victim of the con now helps other victims of similar crimes. He's also written a book and hosts a podcast on the subject.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote a satirical essay about passing gas

The Founding Father was asked to judge a contest for the Royal Academy of Brussels, but was incensed by one of the contest's questions, which he believed was highly impractical. In response, he wrote a piece suggesting that the most essential problem for scientists to solve was the "fetid Smell" that came with passing gas.

A Guardian writer turned midlife chess slump into an obsession

Journalist Stephen Moss embarked on a chess self-improvement journey described in "The Guardian." Not a how-to, but a reflection on loss, drive, and whether mastering chess can mean mastering oneself.

Banksy once sold his highly valued artwork on the street for $60

The notorious (and anonymous) street artist has a history of sending up the art world's pretensions. In 2013, he sold his artwork, valued at approximately $20K per piece, for $60 on a New York street. Some unassuming, but apparently aesthetically discerning, patrons took home world-renowned work that day at a steep discount.

In 1969, one British taxi driver stole a Goya from the National Gallery in London

Francisco de Goya's portrait "The Duke of Wellington" was believed to be seized by a criminal mastermind. In reality, a 60-something cabby named Kempton Bunton confessed to the crime about four years later. In 2021, it was revealed that he was actually covering for the actions of his son. The heist has since been immortalized in the film "The Duke."

A day in the life of a Guinness World Record judge

Philip Robertson travels the world each week to see another ambitious person set a record. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at being one of Guinness World Record's adjudicators.

One graffiti artist turned a train tunnel into his gallery

Chris Pape, also known as Freedom, began exploring a tunnel under Manhattan's Riverside Park when he was a kid. As he grew more involved with graffiti, he turned its walls into a massive art project, one that reflected both the history of graffiti and the people who made the tunnel their home.

Philip Glass drove a taxi in his 30s and 40s, something he continued even after his critical breakthrough, 'Einstein on the Beach.'

Britain’s bottle innovation saved Champagne

Champagne wouldn’t be where it is today without a surprising partner: 17th-century British glassmakers. An energy crisis caused by deforestation—not enough trees to burn—led to the search for an alternative fuel source. Enter coal. The plentiful resource burned much hotter than wood, creating stronger glass that could stand up to the pressure of the carbon monoxide produced by the wine’s second fermentation and solving one of the fledgling industry’s most vexing problems.

A reading of ancient Rome's best graffiti

Graffiti has been surprisingly common throughout history, and even the grandeur of ancient Rome's walls wasn't spared. This clever and funny video reads through some of the more notable messages relayed via graffiti in ancient Rome, from tidbits of wisdom like "A small problem gets larger if you ignore it" to more unsavory observations of lovers, friends, and enemies.

There's a myth that Al Capone coined the term 'money laundering,' or the process of disguising the criminal origins of illegally obtained money so it can be used without detection.

Listen to Gay Talese read from ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’

The writer revisits his 1966 profile on Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular magazine stories ever written. The story uncovered aspects of Sinatra’s life previously unknown to most people, such as having a personal staff of 75 people, including one person to take care of his hairpieces.

Gorgeous George was American pro wrestling's first superstar

George owed his popularity to the in-ring persona he created: a haughty, pretentious Anglophile who couldn't believe he had to stoop to fight his opponents. This 1950s film, taken from the "Wrestling From Hollywood" show that popularized professional wrestling in the US, perfectly illustrates what made this "heel" so compelling.

Fallingwater revived Frank Lloyd Wright’s career at age 67

A series of scandals and financial setbacks made Wright lose his previous relevance, leaving the public to view him as a “has-been.” Following the creation of Fallingwater, a masterpiece set atop a waterfall, Wright saw an uptick in commissions and continued to produce inspired buildings at an age that many others would retire by.

New York mayor Ed Koch railed against graffiti in the '70s and '80s

Koch was outspoken in his hatred of the form and, during his three terms, launched an anti-graffiti campaign with the help of several New York celebrities. This 1984 BBC report documents some of the scorn graffiti artists had attracted, including from Grace Glueck, the New York Times' art critic, who said, "I don't consider it an art form on canvas at all."

The United States had a washing machine that cleaned dirty dollar bills

In the early 1900s, the US Treasury Department had a machine that washed and ironed old, soiled paper bills. The machine helped the Treasury save money by decreasing printing costs for new dollar bills, but had nothing to do with the modern understanding of money laundering.

Craig Claiborne invented the modern food critic

The New York Times critic began his column "Directory to Dining" in 1962. While there had been restaurant reviews before then, Claiborne's ethical standards and appreciation for a variety of cuisines established a new kind of food critic and, in the process, a new kind of eater. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

As a girl, Billie Holiday fell in love with music while scrubbing the floors of a brothel

Record players were rarities in the 1920s, but Holiday had access to one at Alice Dean's, the brothel in Baltimore where she scrubbed floors. It was there that she listened to her heroes, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.

Mel Brooks got his start in comedy by accidentally flubbing a scene in a play and turning it into a fourth-wall-breaking joke, something that would later become a hallmark of his humor.

Airbnb's Brian Chesky explains 'Founder Mode' and how he took back control

The short-term rental CEO learned hard lessons through the pandemic, specifically around a culture focused on management and not building products. In the fall of 2024, Chesky gave a well-received speech at a startup conference that prompted debate in the startup world. He summarizes the talk here.

David Ogilvy once worked for the man who created the Gallup Poll

In 1938, when Ogilvy came to the United States, he started working for George Gallup’s Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. He took his learnings with him through the rest of his career, including during World War II, when Ogilvy worked with the Intelligence Service at the British Embassy in Washington.

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown coined the term “gig economy” in 2009

Although this article was written pre-pandemic, the workers interviewed in it still feel representative of the sector’s modern ethos. In the piece, the writer interviews a handful of gig workers about why, exactly, they’ve chosen to make a living off of Airbnbs or TaskRabbit gigs rather than doing something else.

London bankers created the first clearinghouse to process checks in 1770

Until that time, each banker was required to bring that day's checks to every other bank for settlement. Perhaps understandably, the first place bankers opted to gather to clear and settle checks was a tavern known as the Five Bells. The innovation gave rise to what would become clearinghouses, key institutions that facilitate payments.

The Keep America Beautiful campaign shifted the blame for litter from manufacturers to individuals

This podcast examines how one organization reshaped the American public's relationship with recycling, asking why responsibility for a cleaner environment falls to individuals rather than to the companies that produce waste.

Allen Ginsberg on how Walt Whitman changed poetry

In this 1992 appearance on "Charlie Rose," Beat Generation icon Ginsberg articulates why Whitman mattered not only to the Beats but to all of poetry, arguing that he forever changed the possibilities of the form.

Writer Gay Talese has unorthodox practices for researching his stories

Since Talese began working at the New York Times in the 1950s, he has woven eccentric details into his stories about the people he covers. His immersive journalistic methods, such as living in a nudist colony, sparked controversy, but also helped him uncover aspects of people's lives.

In 1974, Norman Mailer touted graffiti as an intellectual art form

The Pulitzer Prize winner explored the style in his 1974 Esquire essay, "The Faith of Graffiti," before expanding on it in a book with 81 photos by Jon Naar. In it, he traces the form back to its ancient roots and compares graffiti writers to Renaissance painters.

Picasso’s legacy is often intertwined with his personal relationships

Family revelations and quotes show the legendary artist as both tender and cruel, and his fame and romantic advances sometimes had disastrous effects on those around him.

Philadelphia's Cornbread claims to be the first modern graffiti artist

Darryl McCray began writing his nickname, "Cornbread," across his hometown of Philadelphia in the 1960s. That style was a way of posting a personalized signature across neighborhoods and would become known as "tagging." In time, that style spread to New York, where it took off among other young people.

David Ogilvy’s brother helped get him into the advertising business

Ogilvy sent a copy of his stove sales manual, "The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker" (which Fortune magazine later called "probably the best sales manual ever written”) to his brother, who was working at London ad agency Mather & Crowther at the time.

'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold' is one of the seminal works of New Journalism

The profile broke with convention by focusing on the story of pursuing the story rather than one that celebrated the subject. Vanity Fair called it "the greatest literary-nonfiction story of the 20th century." (Some users may experience a paywall.)

One '$64,000 Question' winner went from police officer to Shakespearean scholar overnight

Redmond O’Hanlon was a police officer living on Staten Island, New York, when he competed on “The $64,000 Question.” His knowledge of Shakespeare earned him $16,000, which was four times his annual salary. After appearing on the show, he became a minor celebrity, and created a Shakespeare-themed set of playing cards and established the O'Hanlon Shakespeare Service, a consultancy on the Bard, all while continuing to work for the NYPD.

George Pullman popularized tipping in the US with his Pullman sleeping car business

By 1868, Pullman, who operated luxury sleeping cars on the country’s growing network of railways, had started hiring formerly enslaved Black men as porters for extremely meager wages, working long hours in poor conditions. He encouraged wealthy passengers to tip them, helping institutionalize tipping in the US.

How to make a billion dollars, with Brad Jacobs

Brad Jacobs is a serial entrepreneur who has launched eight billion-dollar enterprises during his storied financial career. With companies focused in energy, waste, and more, Jacobs has stuck to a roll-up playbook of consolidating small players into one conglomerate within an industry, a common tactic of similar private equity firms. This podcast from Founders summarizes Jacobs' book detailing his approach.