Curated playlist

1971 births

Elon MuskIn 2001, Elon Musk traveled to Moscow twice to buy missiles, hoping to launch a plant greenhouse to Mars.
Masashi HamauzuMasashi Hamauzu left Square Enix on the 19th of January, 2010. He started MONOMUSIK, a studio with no other composers.
Yusuke NaoraA trip to Bali gave Final Fantasy X its Besaid Village. Artist Yusuke Naora brought back images of temples and flowers.
Sacha Baron CohenSacha Baron Cohen spilled flour on Ryan Seacrest at the Oscars. He claimed it was Kim Jong-il's ashes.
Missy ElliottMissy Elliott and Timbaland wrote and produced nine tracks on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million.
Junya NakanoJunya Nakano said Nobuo Uematsu hadn't influenced his work. He co-composed Final Fantasy X alongside him anyway.
Jon KleinbergJon Kleinberg found that a web page can matter because of where it sends you.
Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg bought Death Row Records, the label that launched his career, in February 2022. It took nearly three decades.
SelenaSelena Quintanilla-Pérez was 23 years old when she died on the 31st of March 1995, and major television networks interrupted their regular programming to announce it. She was a singer from Texas who performed Tejano music, a…
Kid RockKid Rock, born Robert James Ritchie in Romeo, Michigan, was 17 when he signed with Jive Records. Years later, his album Devil Without a Cause sold 14 million copies. Both facts belong to one career, and little else about that career is…
Tupac ShakurTupac Shakur wrote and recorded the album The Don Killuminati in three days. Mixing took four more.
Ewan McGregorEwan McGregor rode motorcycles 22,345 miles from London to New York City in 2004.
Igor KokoškovA 1990 car crash shattered Igor Kokoškov's knees and ended his playing career. He became a coach instead, at age 24.
Noah WyleNoah Wyle won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for playing an emergency room doctor in The Pitt, three decades after his first Emmy nomination in 1995. The American actor was born in Hollywood in 1971. In the…
Savannah GuthrieSavannah Guthrie's first television job nearly ended before it began. She started in October 1993 at KTVM, the NBC affiliate in Butte, Montana. On her 10th day at the station, management closed the local news operation. Today she is a main…
Jon HammJon Hamm was once judged too handsome for the role that made him famous. Alan Taylor and Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, first thought exactly that when they considered the American actor from St. Louis, Missouri. The part was Don…
Winona RyderWinona Ryder once believed that a hit film would rescue her from the school playground. In 2017 she recalled her thinking when Beetlejuice topped the box office: "Ooh, it's like the number one movie. This is going to make things great at…
Jared LetoOn the 9th of November 2023, Jared Leto became the first person to legally scale the Empire State Building. He climbed it to promote a worldwide concert run called the Seasons Tour. Few actors would hang from a skyscraper to sell tickets,…
Tobias AdrianTobias Adrian helped create CoVaR, a way to measure how one failing bank can drag down others.
Patty JenkinsPatty Jenkins was seven when her father, a fighter pilot, died. Soon after, a Superman movie caught her.
Mark WahlbergMark Wahlberg was 13 years old when he became an original member of a boy band, and he quit after only a few months. The group carried on without him and became famous. Wahlberg took a very different road. He first became known as a rapper…
Dolores O'RiordanDolores O'Riordan was twelve years old on her first day at Laurel Hill Coláiste in Limerick. She stood in front of her new classmates and announced, "My name is Dolores O'Riordan and I'm going to be a rock star". Then she stood on her…
Lil JonLil Jon, the yelling voice of crunk, later made two albums of guided meditation.
MF DoomMF Doom died on October 31, 2020, but no one outside his family knew for two months. His wife then announced it.
Ashley WoodAshley Wood held a solo art show in Perth before he turned twenty. He later drew Judge Dredd and designed robot toys.
Yoji ShinkawaJapanese artist and illustrator
D. B. WeissA petition with over 1.5 million signatures demanded a remake of Game of Thrones season eight.
Jonathan DavisKorn singer Jonathan Davis was a coroner's assistant at sixteen. He also worked as a professional embalmer.
Kristi NoemKristi Noem left college at 22 to run her late father's ranch. She later became South Dakota's governor.
Idina MenzelIn 1992, a young singer named Idina Menzel recorded a demo of a song called "In Your Eyes" and was paid $75 for the job. The song went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, sung by the Irish performer Niamh Kavanagh. That story…
Abu Bakr al-BaghdadiAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi left so faint an impression on Ahmed al-Dabash that al-Dabash dismissed him as insignificant. Al-Dabash led the Islamic Army of Iraq and fought the allied invasion in 2003. He said he had known the insurgency's leaders…
Sean DuffyFred Scheer once described Sean Duffy's style on the tree-climbing course by calling him a "race-car driver who bumps the wall now and then." Duffy is an American politician, born in 1971, and he now serves as the 20th United States…
Michael BurryIn November 2025, Michael Burry, an American investor, hedge fund manager and licensed physician, announced that he was shutting down his fund. He followed that decision with a Substack newsletter called Cassandra Unchained. Burry is best…
Ricky MartinRicky Martin once played a new song for a record executive and was told he had ruined his career. The Puerto Rican singer, born Enrique Martín Morales in San Juan, had walked away from the ballads that filled his first two albums. In their…
Fabien BarthezGoalkeeper Fabien Barthez once refused to defend a penalty until an official forced him back into goal.
Tech N9neTech N9ne rapped the letters of his own name to remember how to spell it.