One dad is delighting readers on X with an epic tale of nearly missing his daughter’s birth after fainting. His story of rushing to make it in time feels like something straight out of a movie—complete with a happy ending.
Luke Epplin’s wife had gone into labor on a Friday. Most of that night, and all of Saturday, Epplin stayed awake, waiting. Finally, on Sunday, he began to doze off. That’s when he got word that his wife had gone into active labor.
And this is where our hilarious saga begins.
“I got on my feet, threw on my clothes, and then was thrust in the middle of the action. Whether because of exhaustion, lack of food, or having just gotten up, I don’t remember anything else. I fainted,” he wrote.
I was awoken at four in the morning today (Sunday) to active labor. I got on my feet, threw on my clothes, and then was thrust in the middle of the action. Whether because of exhaustion, lack of food, or having just gotten up, I don’t remember anything else. I fainted.
When he finally woke up, blood was “oozing” from his head and he was whisked away to the emergency room. EMT’s told him he might need a CT scan, “which would make me miss the birth of my daughter.”
Thankfully, all that Epplin ended up needing was staples. Which meant it was all smooth sailing from here on out, right? Guess again.
There was still a “massive” hospital to navigate, the nurse guiding him through the multiple hallways was called away on an emergency. Leaving him to make it through the labyrinth to the opposite side, with nothing but some verbal directions the nurse had given him. Which somehow got him to the bone marrow center.
“Granted, I’m in the clothes I slept in, with a massive white bandage wrapped around my head, like something you’d see in a World War I movie,” he wrote. As he frantically tried to tell another nurse that his was was in labor, she said, “I think you need to see security.”
I told him the same thing: “My wife is in labor!” Again, he looked at me, bandage and all, patient tag on my wrist, and said, “Sir, I’m gonna need to see some discharge papers.” I had no ID, no visitor’s badge, no cellphone, nothing. Suddenly, it dawned on me: I’m in trouble.
Cut to Epplin saying the same thing to a security guard, who asks to see some discharge papers. That’s when Epplin realizes he has nothing on him. No papers, no ID, no visitors badge. Not even a cellphone.
Pulling a Hail Mary, Epplin told the guard the truth: that he had fainted while his wife was in labor, cut a gash into his head, got that treated, and then got himself lost. That must have done the trick, because the guard let him out.
Epplin had to sprint down two blocks (in slippers, mind you) and get past a parking valet and yet another security guard before making it up to the 10th floor of the correct building and into the maternity ward. By this time, he had somehow become famous.
“The attendant looked at me, and said, ‘Oh, you’re the guy everyone’s talking about,” he recalled.
Epplin’s determination ultimately paid off. He had made it before his daughter Ava had been born. Below is their first photo together, head bandages and all.
I dashed into the maternity ward, the attendant looked at me, and said, “Oh, you’re the guy everyone’s talking about.” I came back to my daughter not yet born. My wife asked how it went. I said, “I’ll tell you later.” An hour later, this photo was taken. pic.twitter.com/cke7bbmlmS
“Every picture of me during Ava’s first day on Earth looks like this. I hope that she has a good sense of humor about it some day.”
It’s not completely uncommon for soon-to-be dads to faint in the delivery room. Often, as it seemed to be in Epplin’s case, the cause is low blood sugar. So it might be wise to pack snacks, drinks and meals in a cooler, according to Father Resource. Of course, packing snacks might be the last thing that’s on a father’s mind when the time comes.
But the point is: the situation is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it can make for a great birth story. Just ask Epplin!
In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.
It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.
The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?
Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.
MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.
Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.
Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.
A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission
Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.
But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.
The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.
You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.
Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil
Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.
“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.
But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.
Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.
“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”
Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria
Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.
“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”
When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.
Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.
Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”
“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”
From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
Ida’s answer? A hard no, and trust me, she didn’t lose a wink of sleep over it.
A legacy that can’t be bought
Ida is a part of the Huddleston family, who have farmed this land for 200 years. That’s two centuries of early mornings, muddy boots, and honest work. Over generations, they’ve raised cattle, grown soybeans, and planted corn on their 1,200-acre property outside Maysville.
But it’s not just land stewardship. During the Great Depression—when jobs disappeared and families lined up just to get a meal—the Huddlestons grew wheat. They helped keep bread lines operating across America when people had almost nothing left. This land didn’t just feed the family; it fed the nation.
The Huddleston family has been farming in Kentucky for 200 years. – Photo credit: Canva
Notice the wording. She didn’t say “nothing.” She said $26 million doesn’t mean anything.
The tech giant at the door
The company that offered $26 million for the Huddlestons’ property has never revealed its identity; local officials were required to sign non-disclosure agreements just to learn who was making the offer.
“They call us old, stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not,” she told WKRC-TV. “We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don’t have any water, and that poison. Well, we know we’ve had it.”
She called it a scam. And to be honest, the repeated pressure campaigns—multiple offers, persistent calls, and what she described as “mind harassment”—don’t exactly reflect good faith.
A community that agrees
Ida isn’t a lone voice in the wilderness here. Since 2017, Mason County has lost one-fifth of its farms. Neighbors throughout the region share her concerns about what an industrial mega-campus would do to their rural way of life: their water, their soil, their sense of home.
For Ida, the decision was never really about money.
Her late husband built their house with his own hands. She feels his presence every time she walks the fields. The land holds her family’s past and, she hopes, their future.
‘I’M STAYING PUT’: Ida Huddleston and her daughter, Delsia Bare, have rejected multimillion-dollar offers from developers planning a massive data center project on Big Pond Pike. Huddleston turned down $60,000 per acre for her 71 acres, while Bare declined $48,000 per acre for her 463-acre farm. 💰🚫 Despite promises of hundreds of jobs, the family remains skeptical—and determined to stay. “I’m staying put,” Huddleston said. County leaders are still reviewing the proposal as debate over the project continues. #KentuckyNews#CommunityVoices#datacenter
“I said, ‘No, mine is priceless.’ What I’ve got here, I want to pass it down. What God told me to do was to keep it until I was through with it and then pass it on to the next generation,” she told WXIX-TV.
In an era when everything seems to have a price—and the biggest tech companies in the world have the resources to buy nearly anything—there’s something quietly remarkable about a woman who simply says: no, not this.
Ida says she intends to die on that land, on her own terms, surrounded by 200 years of family history.
A young man named He Tongxue from HTX Studio, a team of DIY innovators from Hangzhou, China, wanted to be able to “see music.” He had just started learning piano and felt like the visible dimension was missing. There are plenty of computer programs that create digital visual effects with music, of course. But the goal was to make music visible in real life.
It took the studio three years, four prototypes, and endless tests to come up with just the right combination of elements. They wanted something that would rise from the piano and light up when the keys were pressed.
“Our first thought was smoke,” he said. They figured they could line up smoke machines that would be triggered by the piano keys and use lasers to light up the smoke as it rises.
The studio built a prototype, and at first, it looked pretty cool. But after playing the piano for a few minutes, the cool factor wore off. He later described it as “a disaster.”
“The smoke drifts everywhere,” he said. “You can’t tell which light matches which note. It feels like a genie is coming out. And after a while, it feels like someone is barbecuing inside the piano.”
They wanted the smoke to rise in chunks, like solid musical notes, instead of spreading out. That led them to the idea of vortex rings. Essentially, they could make smoke rings that would give the visible “notes” more structure.
A second prototype was made to test out this idea. And it did look really cool…at first. The vortex rings worked, but there was too much extraneous smoke that eventually built up and made it hard to see the rings. The contraptions that made the rings were also too large to make separate ones for all 88 keys of the piano, and making them smaller rendered them unusable.
Back to the drawing board again.
Since a vortex ring is essentially rotating fluid, they shifted to different fluids: water and paint. They created yet another piano prototype that would shoot paint vortex rings into water. Yet again, cool at first, but soon the water simply clouded up as the paint rings dissipated. They tried using oil paints, which wouldn’t dissolve in water, but that also disappointed. Oil paint didn’t form rings, but rather broke apart into small spheres in the water.
However, the spheres gave them the idea of simply using droplets. They created a piano that would push up a droplet of colored glycerin into the water tank with each note played. Lights would illuminate them.
The idea was solid, but the execution left something to be desired. The beauty of the lit-up droplets didn’t extend throughout the tank. The droplets drifted, and attempts to rein them in with glass tubes ruined the magical effect.
“By this point, the project had dragged on for two years,” he said. “We had tried everything we could think of. I honestly didn’t know what I was to do. We’ve abandoned projects before. But never one that consumed this much time, energy, and effort from almost everyone in the studio.”
Then disaster struck. One night, the glass tank shattered under the water pressure, destroying the entire system.
Watch the full story here:
“If the universe was telling me to stop, this felt like the sign,” he said. But in the midst of significant setbacks and creeping self-doubt, the idea of turning to nature arose. What if they used bioluminescent algae, which light up all on their own?
“Around the world, you can see this blue glow in coastal waters,” he said. “It’s caused by a reaction between luciferin and luciferase when the algae are stimulated. We didn’t spray algae into water. We filled the entire tank with them, then disturbed them with bubbles so they would glow all the way to the surface.”
He and his studio mates did it. No AI. No digital effects. Real-life, 3D visible music with an assist from nature. They named it the Blue Tears Piano.
Here’s German pianist Oskar Roman Jezior playing “Golden Hour” on it:
Leslie Harter-Berg from Vancouver, Washington, lost her husband, Ryan, in 2019 when he died suddenly after an aneurysm and stroke. The couple was in Palm Springs, California after visiting Disneyland with their two sons, Wit (then 3) and Rory (1), when he passed away. “So I flew back from Cali as a single mom, solo business owner and widow, a term I thought only applied to old ladies,” she told Newsweek.
In 2022, she found love again with a new man, Sol, and in 2023, they had a son, Rhys. “I feel very blessed and lucky that I was able to find love twice,” she told People. “I can only imagine Ryan telling me not to waste this one life I get.”
The perfect way to celebrate her husband’s life with her children
But she still wanted her two oldest sons to understand the amazing man their father was and to experience him in some way. So, every year on his birthday, they would do something Ryan loved, such as watching a classic film or playing with LEGO.
In 2021, while going through Ryan’s belongings, she found a bucket list he had written in a high school journal. It paints a vivid picture of a young man’s hopes and core beliefs about family, friendship, and adventure. Since the bucket list was discovered, they have done something on it every year on Ryan’s birthday. Here’s the list:
One year, the family accomplished #26 in his life by dressing up as pirates and going out in public, and #16 by playing chess in a park. April 2, 2026 will mark the fifth year that the family has been checking things off his list.
“My kids look forward to it every year!” she told Newsweek. “Especially as they get older and closer to the age Ryan was when he made it, I think it’s meaningful to get a glimpse into who their dad was.”
So far, the kids’ favorite activity on the list has been one of the most challenging.
“My kids’ favorite was probably building the three-foot-high card tower, which proved almost impossible,” she told Upworthy. “One of my friends was determined, and it took about three hours to finally get the cards to stay in place. We threw a big party and ate Ryan’s favorite snacks.”
After more than six million people saw her TikTok post about the bucket list, many contacted her to help her family complete it. One said they’d let them borrow their mansion to cross off #15.
“Someone on Lake Michigan said he’d be in Japan and my kids and I could experience mansion life to cross off Ryan’s ‘live in a mansion’ bucket list item,” she said. “Tempting, but we opted not to take him up on it. It has been so sweet to see how the Internet has rallied to want me to help complete it. A web design firm reached out, offering to build a website, another item on his list. Many people in the comments said they’d want to check off Ryan’s items too, which means so much. He lives on in his quirky little list.”
A vacation to Disney World is still considered the gold standard by many when it comes to family getaways. It has everything from good food to thrill rides, childhood nostalgia, and more.
But all that joy and magic sometimes come at a cost. Not just the financial price tag, but also the hard work it takes to afford those tickets and arrange the trip—work that doesn’t necessarily end when you step foot inside the parks. One family learned this lesson the hard way, firsthand.
The Mouselets are three siblings who’ve teamed up, using their shared love of all things Disney, to run social media accounts and podcasts where they share their favorite tips and secrets about the parks.
Recently, they arranged to take their parents to Disney World, and the excitement was palpable:
Unfortunately, the work didn’t end there for their poor dad. In other clips shared by The Mouselets, he’s forced to whip out his laptop at lunch, tap away at his phone while waiting for a show to begin, and even take another urgent call while dressed in full Mike Wazowski garb, of Monsters, Inc. fame.
Their dad even brought an entire multi-monitor setup to their room at the Grand Floridian Resort to bang out a few spreadsheets (or something like that).
The siblings edited it all into a brilliant, horror movie–inspired supercut:
Even though they have well over a million followers on social media, The Mouselets could never have predicted how popular the video of their dad would become. To date, it’s received nearly five million views on TikTok and Instagram.
Overwhelmingly, people are showing respect for their dad’s hustle:
“Someone’s gotta pay for y’all’s vacation”
“Taking the call is what pays for those trips.”
“Disney doesn’t pay for its self”
“I respect this man. The family appreciates his hard work.”
In another post, The Mouselets clarified that they were the ones who arranged and paid for the trip, not their dad. Still, the video serves as a bittersweet reminder of what it must have taken to bring three kids to Disney World and instill in them a lifelong love—one that would later inspire them to start a business like The Mouselets.
Put another way, their dad knew he had work to do but simply couldn’t pass up the chance to spend time with his kids. So, like many parents, he decided to “do it all.”
“Work-life balance” and vacation, or time off, have become messy concepts
Gen Zers are pushing back hard against hustle culture, but a lot of modern companies still expect employees to go the extra mile, work well beyond 40 hours per week, and stay digitally connected even during personal and vacation time.
There’s something sad about watching Papa Mouselet miss out on what should be quality time, but apparently he’s not the only one. Commenters chimed in with their own “life goes on, even at Disney” moments:
“me taking my college exam while in line for guardians”
“i was in a meeting on the skyliner”
“I have a park photo from the ride of my husband taking a work call on Haunted Mansion. Dad had to pay for the next Disney trip somehow”
“Have done a full on Zoom on people mover”
“I had a job interview on the dumbo flying elephants”
“He’s not [alone], my husband does this too”
Disney magic is powerful stuff, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. The hard work and planning it takes often go unseen and unnoticed. Other times, unfortunately, the work refuses to wait until you get home. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a great trip.
It all worked out for the whole family
As for Mr. Mouselet, viewers were relieved to know he did, in fact, have a wonderful vacation—once he’d handled his business, that is.
A beautiful art project has strangers answering an old-fashioned telephone and saying whatever’s on their minds. – Photo credit: aview.fromabridge/Instagram
Viral “street interviews” are a relatively new form of content. They’ve popped up in the last couple of years and often involve random social media creators sticking a microphone in someone’s face on the street and asking personal, funny, or sometimes invasive questions about sex, relationships, and money.
In many big cities, these interviewers are everywhere. Though the clips are sometimes entertaining, many have pointed out problems with the format. Namely, that (often drunk) people can go viral for embarrassing moments and wind up humiliated on an international stage. Or famous. Either way, there’s little recourse for regretful participants, and even less substance in the interviews.
Artist Joe Bloom wanted to reimagine the street interview
“Interviewing strangers is such a beautiful art form but it’s been made so tacky,” Bloom told The Guardian in 2024. “You get some knobhead on the street running up to someone with a microphone asking them about their trauma. It feels awful. The AI-generated subtitles don’t even match up. It’s contrived and rushed. They just don’t care.”
He came up with what he thought was a better idea. Inspired by the early optimism of Internet projects like “Humans of New York,” he wanted to find a way to share people’s real stories, not just farm viral clips about embarrassing topics.
Immediately, he harkened back to his nostalgia for the telephone. No, not the iPhone, not texting, but the classic landline handset.
“You see it in movies: it’s always this nostalgic and almost glamorous thing, holding a phone up to your ear and talking into this object,” he said.
The project, called “A View from a Bridge,” launched in 2023 and saw Bloom place old-fashioned handset telephones on random bridges in London. When strangers would pass by and if they picked up, he’d be on the other end ready to chat.
What he found was that, surprisingly, people were willing to talk. Not just that, but they were more than willing to bare their souls.
There was the kid who had deep thoughts about the body after learning he was more than just a skeleton with a heart inside.
“What’s the point in not knowing who are you?” the wise boy said of his mission to devour all the books he could about anatomy.
Another young man opened up about all the time he spent chatting and connecting with people all over the world during COVID via virtual reality chat:
“A lot of people tend to think that history as it was has ended. … Things can never be how they once were. I don’t think things have changed that much in terms of people wanting each other and needing each other.”
“I don’t think things have changed much, in terms of people wanting each other and needing each other” – Cameron’s View From A Bridge @Cameron Winter . Filmed, interviewed + edited @Joe Bloom Original music @Ross Woodhead #geese#vr#virtualreality#Love#connection
Bloom’s project brings down people’s guard in a natural, organic way. As the interviewer, he stands far away. Typically, the subject can’t even see him at all. It gives the subject a sense of safety in the anonymity and lack of face-to-face eye contact.
And then there’s the phone itself.
“It creates an openness for the person being interviewed,” Bloom said of the format. “The action of holding the phone to your ear is powerful. It’s quite a calming thing.”
Who doesn’t remember long nights spent talking on the phone as a teenager, pouring out your deepest fears and dreams to friends and crushes? Research has found that in intimate, trusting relationships, we prefer to open up face to face. However, with people we don’t yet trust or are just getting to know, we’re often more forthcoming online or over the phone.
Bloom uses this phenomenon to get stranger interviewees to open up in ways the “street interview” creators could never dream of.
And the results are far more powerful and human. In each story, thousands of viewers see themselves and find ways to connect with the subjects—with their fears, pain, or even just funny observations. The videos are ultimately helping millions of people feel less alone.
That’s exactly the kind of optimism and connection Bloom was going for, and it’s something sorely lacking in most corners of the Internet.
Between clothing, outerwear,handbags, and cushion covers, most of us have no shortage of zippers in our households. They’re so ubiquitous that we probably don’t give them much thought (until one of them stops working properly, of course).
But zippers are surprisingly fascinating, from their storied history to their truly genius design. Veritasium created a video explaining how zippers work, how they were invented, and why so many have the letters “YKK” on them, which you can watch here:
Host Gregor Čavlović starts us off with a remarkable fact: “We’ve made more zippers than there are stars in the Milky Way.” Wow. But how did we get here?
It all began with a not-so-great inventor who knew how to sell an idea
In the late 1800s, American engineer Whitcomb Judson decided that fastening buttons and hooks one by one was entirely too tedious. He came up with a zipper-like device for shoes that would automatically connect hook-and-eye fasteners. He received a patent, but the device didn’t work very well. Still, he didn’t let that minor detail deter him.
“In 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair, he presented this fastening device as the next big thing, claiming that in no time at all, this would replace buttons and laces,” says Čavlović. “And not just on shoes, but on all sorts of garments. A few wealthy investors actually believed it. So with their backing, the Universal Fastener Company was born.”
Whitcomb Judson’s clasp locker device was a precursor to the modern zipper. Photo credit: Images in the public domain
But it would take another decade for a usable zipper-like product to come from Judson’s company. They had made an automatic fastener for women’s skirts, but even that was a bust. The device jammed constantly and couldn’t be washed with the garment, meaning it had to be removed before each wash and sewn back in afterward. The company struggled to retain customers and fell into debt.
How a manager’s “gorgeous” daughter played a major role in the invention of the modern zipper
In 1906, 25-year-old Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback joined Judson’s floundering company. Sundback may or may not have had a particular affinity for fasteners, but he did have an affinity for Elvira, the “absolutely drop-dead gorgeous” daughter of one of the company’s managers.
Sundback took the job to get closer to Elvira, and it worked. They fell in love and married, and in the meantime, Sundback made minor improvements to Judson’s fastener design. Tragically, Elvira fell ill and died soon after giving birth to their daughter. Sundback was devastated.
To deal with his grief, he threw himself into his work. He eventually tossed Judson’s fastener idea completely and came up with a “separable fastener” design of his own. Patented in 1914, Sundback’s design is nearly identical to zippers today.
Gideon Sundback and his zipper patent. Photo credit: Images in the public domain
How a zipper (aka “the hookless hooker”) actually works
Sundback’s design was fairly simple, but ingenious—so ingenious, in fact, that manufacturing capabilities at the time were no match for it. He also had to design the machinery to produce the zipper.
(You really have to watch the video to see how the machine was designed and how a zipper works. The folks at Veritasium even created a large-scale model to make the mechanism easier to see.)
Finally, the Universal Fastener Company had created a commercially viable product. They initially called it a “hookless hooker,” which, thankfully, lasted only a blip. They ultimately went with a less eyebrow-raising name: the “hookless fastener.”
The word “zipper” actually came from B.F. Goodrich Company (yes, the tire company), after it used the fastener in rubber boots it manufactured. It called them Zipper boots, after the “zip” sound they made when used. The boots were a hit, and the name stuck—eventually becoming the common term for the hookless fastener.
What’s the deal with “YKK” being on so many zipper pulls?
If you check the zippers in your home, there’s a good chance you’ll find the letters “YKK” on many of the pull tabs. Why?
YKK stands for Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikikaisha, the Japanese company that manufactures more zippers than any other in the world—close to 10 billion each year. YKK is the undisputed G.O.A.T. of zippers.
That story began in 1933 with Tadao Yoshida, a salesman in Japan whose company had gone under. He found a pile of unsold zippers among the company’s leftover inventory, bought them, and started his own zipper business.
His goal was to make zippers that never failed. That foresight into how frustrating an unreliable zipper is for a consumer proved invaluable. After some setbacks that could have ended his business ambitions, Yoshida became the leading manufacturer of zippers in the world. And he kept on honing the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing process, eventually bringing every part of the process in-house.
Yoshida had created a zipper juggernaut. Today, YKK makes over 7,000 types of zippers and dominates the global zipper market. It also operates under an endearing philosophy referred to as “The Cycle of Goodness,” which basically boils down to: “No one prospers without rendering benefit to others.”
Who knew the basic zipper had such a fascinating history?
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Ever since digital music entered the picture, it’s just sort of been a given that we’ve traded quality for quantity. Nothing might sound as crisp as a record, but hey, we now have bajillions of songs at our fingertips. ‘Tis the price of modern convenience.
But for those who do want to enhance their listening experience, content creator Mike Sheffer (@mike.sheffer) can help. He claims Spotify users can make a simple setting tweak that’s apparently like switching from “240p” to “4K,” only for sound.
So, what is the secret to this magical sound setting? Lossless audio.
Streaming services automatically compress files to make them take up less storage space and play more reliably. However, with lossless audio, all the original data is preserved, offering something much more faithful to a studio recording. While other apps have offered a lossless audio option, it’s a relatively new feature that Spotify rolled out in September 2025.
“It’s a night-and-day difference,” says Sheffer. “Drums will sound better, singers will sound better, you’ll hear background stuff, you’ll hear little ear candy that maybe you weren’t picking up on before. The instruments are always going to be better. No downside.”
He even added that this shift can be heard whether you’re listening via headphones, speakers, or car audio systems.
Enabling lossless audio on Spotify
As Sheffer explains, after going to the home screen and tapping on the circle with your picture on it, you’ll click on “Settings and Privacy.”
Next, tap “Media Quality,” and choose lossless audio for Wi-Fi, cellular, or downloads.
One caveat: Spotify warns that higher-quality audio files are larger and may require stronger connections or compatible devices.
In addition to lossless audio, Sheffer suggested incorporating other settings like “gapless playback,” which removes pauses between songs, as well as turning off “volume normalization,” which adjusts volume levels across tracks and can compromise sound quality. Both can be found in the “Settings” section.
Of course, even small upgrades like this come with a familiar tradeoff. As mentioned, higher-quality audio uses more data, demands stronger connections, and may not be noticeable to every listener, especially in everyday environments. For some, the convenience of seamless streaming will always outweigh the pursuit of perfect sound.
As streaming services have expanded—whether for music, movies, or television—we’ve gained unprecedented access to vast libraries of content, often at the expense of the meticulous quality that once defined physical formats. The result has been an ongoing push and pull between having more and having better. While convenience still reigns, it is nice that options like lossless audio are increasingly available for those who want to fine-tune their experience.
He didn’t listen to them. Instead, he did something quite remarkable: he read. And read. And read. Nearly a thousand books on personal finance, investing, mindset, and business strategy—not because it was easy, but because he believed that if he could just understand how money and success really worked, he could build a different kind of life.
He’s also dropping nuggets of wisdom on his channels, particularly about those books: out of 997 that he read, only five truly moved the needle for him.
Who is Mark Tilbury, exactly?
Tilbury had a different upbringing than many of today’s millionaires—not a rich kid with trust funds and endless connections. He started from scratch with humble beginnings. What he lacked in monetary assets, he made up for in curiosity, grit, and an almost obsessive belief that knowledge is the great equalizer.
Mark credits his knowledge and wisdom for his success. – Photo credit: Canva
That’s what makes his reading list so compelling. These aren’t recommendations from someone who got lucky or was born into the right family with the right name. They’re the books that genuinely shaped how he thinks: about people, power, money, and himself.
The 5 books that changed everything
1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
Here’s a slightly uncomfortable truth: every financial interaction you’ve ever had—every negotiation, every sale, every ask for a raise—is also a persuasive event, whether you knew it or not.
Robert Cialdini spent years undercover on sales floors, in fundraising groups, and in advertising agencies to discover why people say “yes.” He identified seven universal psychological principles that quietly influence most decisions, including:
Reciprocity (we feel a strong urge to return favors)
Scarcity (we desire what we might lose)
Social proof (we follow others when we’re unsure)
What does this book have to do with wealth? Two aspects to consider: First, understanding these triggers makes you a dramatically better negotiator and communicator. That’s key in the world of personal finance. Second, when you’re able to recognize these tactics in the wild, you won’t be the one who gets played. Knowing the psychology of persuasion is both an offensive and defensive playbook for the financial world.
2. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
Robert Greene spent years studying three thousand years of history—from Niccolò Machiavelli to P. T. Barnum—to map out how power actually operates in human systems. Not how we wish it did, but how it does. Some of his laws are blunt (“Never outshine the master”). Some feel counterintuitive. All are grounded in real historical examples of people who won, and those who lost, based on whether they understood the dynamics at play.
For anyone building wealth in the real world, the book’s core gift is this: look around and finally recognize the game that’s always been playing out around you. Once you see it, you can play it—or at least stop being blindsided by it.
3. Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
His detailed insights in this book reveal that events shocking to most investors—such as market crashes, currency devaluations, and geopolitical upheavals—are not surprises, but patterns. The same cycles that brought down the Dutch and British empires are still active today. Recognizing these patterns doesn’t lead to pessimism; it equips you to be prepared.
For Tilbury and millions of readers, the key lesson is a radically different way to protect wealth: diversify not only among stocks and bonds, but also across asset classes, currencies, and regions. History favors those who see the bigger picture.
4. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon who noticed something troubling: many of his patients remained stuck and unhappy even after successful procedures. Their faces had changed, but their self-image hadn’t. That observation launched one of the most important books ever written about the relationship between the mind and success.
Maltz’s central idea is that your self-image functions like a thermostat: it sets the ceiling on your performance, your income, and your ambition. The “Success Mechanism” in your brain is always working—the question is, what target have you programmed it to hit? Through visualization, mental rehearsal, and the deliberate reprogramming of that inner narrative, you can raise the ceiling on your abilities.
Thirty million copies later, his core message still lands: the biggest limits on your wealth aren’t external—they’re the stories you carry about what you deserve.
5. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
His central argument is deceptively simple: real wealth comes from creating something truly new—”going from zero to one”—rather than copying what already works. And the counterintuitive kicker? Competition is actually the enemy of wealth. “All happy companies are different,” he writes. “Each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem.” The businesses that generate lasting fortunes aren’t the ones that compete best; they’re the ones that make competition irrelevant.
For anyone building a business or identifying investments, this reframe alone is worth the price of the hardback.
The bigger picture
The striking thing about Tilbury’s reading list? These books have a lot in common: none of them is actually about money in the traditional sense. There are no budgeting tips or compound interest charts. Instead, they’re about something deeper: how the world actually works—how people are persuaded, how power moves, how history cycles, how minds are wired, and how genuine value gets created.
Tilbury’s thesis, after 997 books, seems to be this: financial success is less a matter of hard skills and more a matter of understanding. Understand people, and you can influence them. Understand power, and you can navigate it. Understand history, and you can anticipate it. Understand your own mind, and you can finally get out of your own way. Understand innovation, and you can build something that lasts.
That’s the real reading list. And lucky for you, it’s only five books long.
