Curated playlist
Tech hubs
- Austin, TexasAustin, Texas, residents physically blocked men sent to carry the capital's documents to Houston.
- San Jose, CaliforniaFrom 1950 to 1969, San Jose's city manager annexed property 1,389 times. The city grew from 17 to 149 square miles.
- SeattleSeattle is very cloudy, yet it gets less rain than New York City, Miami or Houston.
- Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon got its name from a best-of-three coin toss. Two founders argued over Boston or Portland.
- ShanghaiShanghai counted 29,558,908 people in its urban area in 2025. That figure makes it the most populous city in China and the fifth-largest city in the world. A place this large began as a fishing village and market town. Why does a…
- BostonOvernight, Americans hauled cannons onto Dorchester Heights, and the British army left Boston.
- MelbourneMelbourne spent 262 days in COVID-19 lockdown, the most of any city in the world.
- Cape TownTable Mountain alone has an estimated 2,200 plant species. The whole United Kingdom has roughly 1,200.
- San FranciscoGold rush sailors abandoned about 500 ships in San Francisco's harbor. Many became storehouses, saloons and hotels.
- Los AngelesIn 1908, a librarian reported at least 12 ways to say Los Angeles. The federal government picked one in 1934.
- LondonQueen Boudica's Iceni tribe burnt Roman London to the ground around AD 61. The city was rebuilt and prospered.
- New York CityAn estimated 800 languages are spoken in New York City, more than in any other city on earth.
- DublinDublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland, and the 2022 census counted 1,263,219 people living in the city and its suburbs. Inside the boundary of the city council alone, the figure falls to 592,713. That gap tells you something…