It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when it was difficult to find something interesting to read. Long before social media algorithms, Substack, websites, and blogs, there were printed magazines.

But how did people know what magazines to subscribe to? For decades, the answer was: from a door-to-door salesman. Publishers hired armies of salesmen to knock on doors around America and sign up new subscribers in person.

But in the 1950s, an entrepreneur had a new idea. He would replace the door-to-door salesmen with direct mail. For just a few cents in printing and postage, he could get lists of magazines into people’s homes—and those people could send a reply envelope with the magazines they wanted to buy, along with a check.

The company was called Publishers Clearing House. And it offered American households a wide variety of interesting magazines from multiple publishers. It was a one-stop shop for a family’s print entertainment. The company sold millions of subscriptions each year, and kept a hefty commission on each sale.

Over time, though, consumers got used to throwing away the Publishers Clearing House envelopes, without opening them. So the company needed a new way to convince people to open the envelopes and browse the magazines. That’s when the sweepstakes idea was born.

A sweepstakes is like a lottery, but under U.S. law, private companies are not allowed to charge money for a chance to win a prize. Entry has to be free. On its own, a sweepstakes is not worth it. But if it’s combined with a sales pitch, or a marketing campaign, it can be quite profitable indeed. Publishers Clearing House used a sweepstakes to get people to open their envelopes, and then buy magazines.

So what did the sweepstakes promise? It was a chance to win a cash prize or a luxury gift. The initial prizes were modest: just $1,000 to $5,000 per winner. But that was enough to pique people’s curiosity, to get them to open the envelopes, where they saw the sales pitch for the magazines.

The legend of Publishers Clearing House grew. Soon, the giveaways were more famous than the magazines they were selling. The mailers only got more clever: The most famous envelopes said, “You may already be a winner!” All you had to do was send back an envelope to find out if you’ve won the big prize.

Other envelopes said in huge letters: “YOU WON!” and then in tiny letters it said, “…if you have the winning number.” This outrageous marketing got people opening the envelopes. And they couldn’t help but think that their chances might be a little better if they got a magazine subscription or two in the process.

As the legend grew, so did the prizes. They started giving away boats, private planes, and prizes over $1 million, one was $10 million. One of the most famous prizes was $5,000 per week for life. Remember that one, because we’ll come back to it: $5,000 a week for life. That’s a big prize, especially since contestants didn’t have to pay to enter. Publishers Clearing House must have been making a lot of money on magazine subscriptions to afford to pay out such large prizes.

And they were making a lot of money on subscriptions—for a while. The heyday of Publishers Clearing House was in the 1980s and 1990s. But the company struggled to grow in the internet age. Magazine readership declined. And those consumers who did read magazines didn’t need to buy them through the mail. The company later got into trouble with lawsuits for deceptive marketing. Scammers used the Publishers Clearing House name to trick elderly people into thinking they had won.

In April 2025, Publishers Clearing House declared bankruptcy. And that had a very strong effect on a select group of people: the winners of the $5,000 a week for life prize.

The winners didn’t actually get $5,000 every week. They got a single direct deposit of $260,000 every year, at the beginning of the year. But this year, 2025, the money didn’t arrive. Winners started to get nervous: what was going on? They asked the company about the late payments, but couldn’t get a straight answer.

Then the news about the bankruptcy came out. Publishers Clearing House didn’t have enough money to pay past prize winners the $5,000 a week for life that they had won. Another company bought Publishers Clearing House out of bankruptcy—but bankruptcy in America wipes out past debts. And the promises to past winners were debts like any other. Those $5,000-a-week-for-life winners will not get any more money.

This will come as a shock to winners who organized their lives around the money. One prize winner said he sold some of his possessions and will probably lose his house. Another said it was “cruel” that the company promised to change people’s lives—and then cut the cord.

Jeff’s take

This is an inglorious end to what was really a cultural phenomenon. Publishers Clearing House was so famous. They created this image as the company that changed lives, that brought happiness to your front door. You never knew: if the doorbell rang in the middle of the day, and you weren’t expecting a visitor, could it be the Prize Patrol? People looked forward to receiving the envelopes; it was free to enter, so it was better than buying a lottery ticket.

Now, I was surprised they declared bankruptcy in 2025. I wasn’t surprised they declared bankruptcy: I was surprised they were still around in 2025! I mean, magazine subscriptions through the mail: who knew that was still a business? But to be honest, I had forgotten that they sold magazines. They were just so famous for the prizes.

So do you feel bad for the prize winners, the ones who are losing their annual prize payout, the “lifetime” prize that lasted quite a bit less than a lifetime? Do you feel sorry for them? Their lives were changed by Publishers Clearing House twice: first, when they got the surprise knock on the door; and second, when they found out the money will stop.

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As a guest at a White Lotus resort, you want for nothing. A relaxing massage? Check. A gourmet meal? Sure thing. A cocktail by the beach? You got it. A serene view of the ocean? From every room. Mixers for cocktails in your suite? Coming right up.

The only problem is the other guests. They can be egocentric, arrogant, manipulative, insecure, and sometimes a little violent—and those are just the guests in your own family!

The White Lotus is, alas, not real. It’s the name of a hit show on the streaming service HBO Max, and it’s the name of a fictional resort hotel. On the show, wealthy guests and eccentric staff collide in a weeklong drama that results in at least one dead body per season.

But while the White Lotus brand is fictional, the hotels—the properties—are real. All three seasons to date have taken place at a Four Seasons resort: one each in Hawaii, Italy, and Thailand. And it all dates back to a risky bet the hotel chain took in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The story starts in the year 2020, in the middle of the lockdown. Television production was paused for safety reasons. HBO was looking for a show that could be filmed—somehow—amid the disruption of COVID lockdowns. So they reached out to the producer Mike White to see if he had any ideas.

He did: he had an idea for a dark comedy, set entirely at luxury hotel or resort. There was no cast, no final script—only a vague idea for the first episode. But they set to work finding a place to film that first season.

That proved to be a challenge. They wanted to completely take over a resort for thirteen weeks. But many hotel owners were wary of the idea. Luxury resorts have to think about their reputations. Many didn’t want to risk being part of a show where bad things happened—even if the hotel name was changed.

But the Four Seasons was different. The property on Maui, one of the islands of Hawaii, was empty anyway. They wouldn’t lose any money by renting it out to a film crew. And the brand had been part of a high-profile show with seedy characters before. The Four Seasons in Mexico City was the site of Narcos: Mexico, a fictionalized story of the drug trade.

So they were comfortable with a little bit of risk, and they said yes. They turned over the Four Seasons resort in Maui to the producers of “The White Lotus,” without any real idea of the storyline.

In the first season, there is violence, there are drugs, there is sex, there is crime, there is misconduct—gross misconduct—by the staff, and there is death—all at the fictional White Lotus, the real Four Seasons Maui. And it could not have worked out better for the Four Seasons in real life.

The White Lotus, the show, became a global hit for HBO. The gorgeous, serene backdrop of the resort provided the perfect contrast to the disfunction and hijinks of the guests and staff. Viewers drooled over the magnificent views and fantasized about an exclusive vacation where all their needs are met, twenty-four-seven.

Far from thinking bad things about the Four Seasons, viewers wanted to know more about the real-life version of the hotel. They wanted the White Lotus experience for themselves—minus the dead bodies. Season 2 was set in the Four Seasons in Sicily, and Season 3 at a resort in Thailand.

Four Seasons has not said how much revenue or occupancy has increased at the properties featured on the show, but they have said that web traffic and phone inquiries have increased substantially. News reports show that social media mentions of Thailand travel are up 60 percent since the third season of “The White Lotus” came out.

But that may be just the beginning. For the first few years of the partnership, the Four Seasons was not allowed to use the show in its own marketing. The filming locations were well-known—it wasn’t a secret—but still, the real hotel chain was not allowed to use The White Lotus name to promote their properties.

Now, though, that restriction has been lifted. And the Four Seasons is taking full advantage of its association with the hit TV show. The beachside bar at the Thailand resort has been renamed the “White Lotus” bar, complete with cocktails inspired by the show and signage leftover from filming. A Four Seasons in California hosted a wellness event inspired by the meditation culture in Thailand.

And if you’re really willing to shell out, the Four Seasons has the ultimate vacation for you this coming May. It’s a twenty-day vacation package, with eight destinations, including all three resorts that were featured on The White Lotus show. You travel from place to place on a private plane and get curated experiences at each destination. The price is $188,000 per person.

Jeff’s take

Season 4 of The White Lotus will take place in France; the exact location is not known. Speculation is centering around a Four Seasons resort on the French Riviera. There’s a Four Seasons in Paris, if the producers wanted a city-based option. And there’s one in the Alps, if they want a cold-weather plotline.

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Last month, the Louvre was robbed. Hearing the news, you might have thought that thieves used high-tech tools to evade alarms late at night. You might imagine security guards turning on the lights in the morning, shocked to find an empty display case. But that’s not at all what happened. On a quiet Sunday morning, four thieves dressed as construction workers used basic tools to steal eight items from France’s collection of crown jewels—all while the museum was open and packed with visitors.

Here’s how it happened.

It was 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 19, 2025. The Louvre—the most-visited museum in the world—had already been open for thirty minutes. A group of thieves arrived on the narrow street between the museum and the River Seine, driving a specialized truck. It had a mechanized ladder mounted to the back. In Paris, these trucks are a common sight: they’re used to move bulky furniture into upper-floor apartments.

The group extended the ladder so that it reached a small stone balcony attached to the second floor of the museum. Two of the thieves scaled the ladder. They used power tools to break a window and enter the Apollo Gallery, setting off an alarm. The Apollo Gallery is a long, narrow room with display cases in the center. Inside those display cases are the most valuable jewels from France’s history as a monarchy and empire. The thieves smashed two display cases near the middle of the room, setting off additional alarms. They grabbed nine items of jewelry.

Then, they started their escape. They rushed back toward the broken window and descended the ladder. They tried to set fire to the truck, but were stopped by a security guard. They then met two accomplices waiting on motor scooters outside. They jumped onto the scooters and escaped. The whole thing took about seven minutes.

During their escape, they dropped one of the nine items they had grabbed—a diamond-encrusted crown. The crown was found damaged, but recoverable. But the thieves got away with eight pieces of priceless jewelry, touching different eras of French history.

One was a diamond and emerald necklace that Napoleon gave to his second wife upon their marriage. It has 32 emeralds and over 1,000 diamonds. The thieves also got the matching diamond and emerald earrings.

They stole a tiara, necklace, and set of earrings decorated with diamonds and sapphire. And they got away with a brooch, a decorative bow, and a tiara used by Empress Eugénie, the wife of France’s last emperor, Napoleon III. The tiara had 212 pearls and almost 3,000 diamonds.

What might happen to the stolen items? Jewelry experts say there are two likely scenarios. First, it’s possible that a wealthy individual wanted the jewels for his own personal collection. If that’s the case, the items will be hidden, but perhaps not lost forever. The other possibility—probably more likely—is that the jewels will be dismantled and sold for parts.

That would be a permanent loss. There are few likely buyers for the stolen jewels: it would be highly risky to sell or buy them whole, since they are well-known and connected with such a high-profile crime. But there’s a thriving international market for precious stones like emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds. So it’s likely that thieves will dismantle the jewels, recut the stones, and sell them one by one in the legitimate market, over time.

France has been shaken by the news of this heist. The Louvre, in particular, is important to France’s sense of national identity. The museum—both the building and its collection—connect France’s past as a monarchy to its present as a republic.

The Louvre’s founding idea—that the nation’s greatest art should belong to the people—that idea was revolutionary when the museum was established in 1793. Today, all the items in the museum are the property of the French state. The stolen objects were part of France’s crown jewels and were displayed in the Louvre’s most sumptuous gallery.

Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said the heist was an attack on French history. The identity of the thieves is not known.

Jeff’s take

The Louvre has been robbed before; in fact, museum robberies are not as rare as you might think. Famously, the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911. Twenty Van Gogh paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1990, though they were later recovered. A Rembrandt and a Vermeer were stolen from a museum in Boston that same year. A curator of the British Museum snatched items from its warehouse and sold them on eBay. And, incredibly, a single thief—Stéphane Breitwieser—stole 239 pieces of art from museums all over Europe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He kept the pieces in his house.

There will certainly be investigations into the security situation at the Louvre. Many are asking how it’s possible to park a truck right next to the building. Before the robbery, museum staff had been warning that the security team was overstretched. Now, it’s likely that the museum will have to devote more of its limited budget to safety and security.

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Lesson summary

Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with lessons every week about current events, trending topics, and useful English expressions. Every so often, we talk about a travel destination in the English-speaking world, and today we are going to talk about Dublin, the capital of Ireland. I visited in October 2019; it was my last vacation before COVID, so it was fun reflecting on this trip while I wrote the lesson.

The expression we’ll talk about is “plan ahead” and we have a song of the week. This is lesson number 539, so that means you can find the full content, including a free transcript, at PlainEnglish.com/539. Let’s get started!

Dublin: music, literature, whiskey, beer, and more

Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. It was first settled in the ninth century; the Vikings named it Dubb Linh, meaning Black Pool. The city today is home to over a million people. Dublin is English-speaking, in a time zone that overlaps with North America and Asia, and it’s relatively low-cost compared to London; Ireland’s corporate taxes are low, too. Those factors combined to attract a lot of international companies, from accounting firms to tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Airbnb.

Dublin is on the eastern coast of the “emerald isle,” as Ireland is known. It’s the capital of the Republic of Ireland, an independent country that’s part of the European Union. (Northern Ireland includes six counties on the island that opted to remain part of the United Kingdom.) Dublin is located where the River Liffey meets the Irish Sea.

The river divides the city between north and south; the center of Dublin straddles the river. Several bridges cross the river; the most famous is the Ha’Penny Bridge. Before the bridge was built in 1816, residents crossed the river by ferry . The bridge was built by a private businessman; the city gave him the right to charge a ha’penny toll, a half a penny, to all pedestrians for a hundred years. The toll was removed in 1919, but the bridge is a popular way for pedestrians to cross the river even now.

I recommend you start your day in Dublin with a full Irish breakfast. You can get them in pubs, restaurants, and cafés. Come hungry : a full Irish includes bacon , eggs, potatoes, baked beans , toast, tomatoes, mushrooms , and pudding —and in case you’re curious , the pudding in Ireland is not a dessert, but a form of sausage . This hearty dish used to give farm workers the energy they needed for a full day’s work; these days , it’s more likely to be consumed on a Saturday or Sunday morning. If you want the true Irish experience, skip the coffee and get an Irish breakfast black tea instead.

One of Ireland’s greatest gifts to the world is its literature. James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Frank McCourt, and Jonathan Swift were Irish. Some of my favorite Irish writers are William Trevor, John Banville, Colm Tóibín, and, recently, Sally Rooney.

A new museum called the Museum of Literature Ireland shows the history of writing in Ireland over 1,500 years. You can also visit the James Joyce Center, the National Print Museum, and the pubs that these famous writers frequented .

One thing I liked about Ireland is that there are bookshops everywhere. One rainy day, I ducked into a pub in the early afternoon. I ordered a pot of Irish breakfast tea; I had a book with me, but I noticed there were books on the shelves next to my table.

It was a bookshop inside a pub. I picked one book off the shelf: “ Bullfighting .” It was a collection of stories by Roddy Doyle. I had never heard of him before. I started reading and I got hooked ; I bought the book and Roddy Doyle is now one of my favorite Irish writers.

If you like beer, then I recommend going to the Guinness Storehouse, the site of the original Guinness brewery . Arthur Guinness established his brewery in St. James’s Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. This was a man who planned ahead : he signed a 9,000-year lease , at 45 pounds a year.

The company later purchased the land outright—you can never be too sure!—and then they expanded the facility . Guinness was once the world’s largest brewer; it no longer is, but it’s the largest brewer of stout . The tour takes you through the history of the company, the history of the product, and you can pour your own Guinness beer, too.

If you prefer whiskey, Dublin has something for you, too. You can visit the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery , where you can take a tour, learn how to make a good cocktail , and enjoy a tasting session . If macro distilleries aren’t for you, then there are whiskey tours that will take you to the city’s many smaller distilleries.

But honestly, the best place to drink in Dublin is at one of Ireland’s famous pubs. “Pub” is short for “public house.” Years ago, upper-class men went to private clubs to drink; the entrance fees were too high for the working man—and you can forget about letting women in. So the working classes went to the public house, or the pub.

The Irish pub is famous as a community center , a place where anyone is welcome . During the day, you’ll find people sipping a beer and reading a book; at night, groups of friends come in after work. As the night goes on, the crowd gets rowdier .

The pub is also a great place to enjoy one of Ireland’s other gifts to the world: its music. In many cities, if you want to enjoy live music , you should find a web site or a magazine with times, dates, and locations .

In Dublin, you just walk around and pop your head into the many pubs. They all seem to have live music. Some have traditional Irish sessions, others more modern bands. Stop in at a pub, order a beer, and listen to a few songs. If you want to hear something else, then just wander down the street until you hear something you like. “Temple Bar” is the popular neighborhood to go out and visit the pubs.

There are some non-alcoholic things to do in Dublin, too. St. Stephen’s Green is a magnificent public park in the center of Dublin. Grafton Street is a delightful pedestrian street with the city’s best shopping. The food in Ireland is excellent: there are six Michelin-star restaurants, but you don’t need to go to a famous restaurant to get a good meal in this city, which is truly a European melting pot .

Trinity College was founded in Dublin in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, when Ireland was part of the U.K. The library at Trinity College is a major attraction today: there are two stories of floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves , the volumes only accessible from a sliding ladder . The stacks are also decorated with busts of famous Irish writers.

I also recommend taking at least one castle tour . Dublin Castle is the biggest, but there are others in the area. I went to Malahide Castle, about half an hour away . You can take a tour of the inside and later walk the extensive, landscaped grounds outside. Malahide Castle, for example, was built in 1185 and has had a tumultuous history .

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the home of the Church of Ireland. You can stop in for a visit; Catholics can also attend mass there. The city has a number of good museums, including art and history. One other one to note: the Irish Emigration Museum, which tells the story of Irish people who have emigrated and brought their culture around the world.

Sliding ladders: my dream

I am 41 years old. One day, before I die, I want to have bookshelves with a ladder that slides left and right like at Trinity College. This is a dream of mine . I just love it, I love the whole idea of a sliding ladder. I also love literature, and Irish literature, so Trinity College Library was one of my top destinations in Dublin.

I told you about Roddy Doyle, the writer I discovered when I was in Dublin. If you want a really Irish book, get the book called “Love” by Roddy Doyle. The cover shows a pint of Guinness on a green background.

The post Dublin: Explore music, literature, and (obviously) drinks in Ireland’s capital city appeared first on Plain English.

Lesson summary

Hi there everyone, it’s Jeff once again for your semi-weekly dose of English. And you are listening to lesson number 498 of Plain English. This is the best way to upgrade your English with current events and trending topics. If you only listen on an app, then you’re just getting half the value. The rest of the lesson is at PlainEnglish.com/498.

Coming up on today’s lesson: what should an electric car sound like? Because right now, it doesn’t sound like anything, at least not at slow speeds. And for anyone who walks on a street, that can be a problem. On today’s lesson, you’ll learn what carmakers are doing to add noise to their electric vehicles.

In the second half of the lesson, I’ll explain what it means to “walk by” something. And we have a quote of the week.

JR and I are making the very final, last preparations for the big 500th-lesson celebration coming up this Saturday. This is going to be a worldwide party on Facebook and Instagram to celebrate 500 Plain English lessons, going all the way back to fall of 2017.

At the very, very beginning, just for the first couple of months, we did one lesson a week, on Thursdays. But for most of our history, we’ve made two Plain English lessons every week, without exception. And here we are almost at 500, and that is an accomplishment —not just for us, not just for me and JR, and for our whole team, but for all of you. Because all of you have done so much great work, you’ve made so much progress, and I just can’t wait to celebrate all the great work you’ve done.

So we are going to live stream the 500th lesson this Saturday, September 3 at 9:00 in the morning New York time, and when we are done with the lesson, we’ll have a champagne toast to celebrate all the great work you’ve done over the years. You can get all the details at PlainEnglish.com/500

So with that out of the way, let’s start today’s lesson.

What should an electric car sound like?

You probably don’t know the name Ed Peterson. He’s not a famous musician , but the sound he created would be recognized on any city street in the world. That’s because he invented the back-up alarm that big trucks use when they go in reverse .

In the 1960s, Ed sold automotive parts to operators of big trucks on construction sites . The story goes like this: on his frequent visits to dams , he noticed the trucks moving in reverse frequently hit—and killed— construction workers . So he invented an alarm that would sound automatically when the driver shifted into reverse . It wasn’t long before that alarm became one of the most recognizable sounds in the world.

Why am I telling you this now? Well today, the world faces a similar problem . Electric vehicles promise to improve safety and reduce harmful CO2 emissions . As you heard in Lesson 435 , they are also eerily quiet . And that’s a problem for pedestrians and cyclists .

When you walk on a city street, your eyes and ears protect you — up to a point . The next time you’re at a busy intersection , have a look at the people walking by . Count the number who are looking at a smartphone. See how many truly pay attention as they cross a busy street. Those of us—and yes, I include myself—those of us who look at our phones on the street, we’re handicapping ourselves . When we do that, we rely even more on our ears to alert us to danger.

Whether we’re distracted or not, the sound of an oncoming car warns us of the danger . If you’re walking on a street without a sidewalk , you can hear the car from behind. If you’re approaching an alley , you can hear a car moving into the street. If you’re about to cross, you can hear the cars on your left and right. You can also tell if a car is moving faster than normal, and you can get out of the way . This all protects us from dangers we cannot see.

But that’s not all. Even when we’re looking directly at an oncoming car, our ears help us out. The sound a car makes helps us determine how close it really is and, crucially , the sound also helps us calculate how fast the car is moving . Our brains process it subconsciously , but this information is all crucial to keeping us safe on busy streets. But if cars don’t make any sound, then we’re in trouble.

Since the early days of the automobile age , governments have told carmakers to configure their vehicles to make less noise. Now, they’re telling them to make more noise. The U.S., E.U., U.K., Japan, and China all now have regulations mandating that electric vehicles make noise with external speakers . The regulations only require noise at low speeds; in the U.S., cars must actively produce noise when they run at 30 kilometers per hour or less. At higher speeds, tire noise and wind displacement combine with other sounds to make enough noise, regulators say.

Interestingly, the rules don’t specify what noise the cars must make. The rules typically specify an acceptable range of frequency and decibel levels , but leave it up to the carmakers to determine the exact sound. The only rule is that all cars of the same make and model must produce the same sound. An individual driver can’t, for example, choose the sound his or her car makes. Just as every car model has a distinct look, in the electric age, every model will have a distinct sound.

This is leading to a whole new function in car making: the sound designer. At GM, for example, engineers are programming different sounds for different models. The Hummer, a big, muscular vehicle, will sound throaty ; a Cadillac will sound more elegant . Audi, Ford, and Jaguar Land Rover are trying to make their electric cars sound like internal combustion cars. The electric Mustang, for example, will sound much like its gasoline-powered predecessor.

Other carmakers are doing it differently. Renault, the French carmaker, worked with an Italian composer to create a set of sounds that would mimic nature, but also be recognizable . The composer, Andrea Cera, said he wanted to create a sound that could be “ present without being loud.”

Hans Zimmer is a German composer for film; he worked on this summer’s hit movie, “Top Gun: Maverick.” He’s also worked on the D.C. Comics superhero movies, artistic movies, and “The Lion King.” But now he’ll have a new credit to his name , as he’s working with BMW on the sound for the i4 sedan.

What will this sound like?

Is it really a good idea for every carmaker to create its own noise for every model car? And will the noises be different in different countries? If that’s true, then a city street might sound like the world’s biggest orchestra , with every instrument playing out of tune .

Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. They can do a lot with speakers and sound design these days. I hope the carmakers create sounds that can alert people nearby without being too distracting and noisy to people farther away.

What should an electric car sound like? One engineer said this was like making the movie “Jurassic Park.” They had to make sounds for dinosaurs . But nobody alive today knows what the dinosaurs really sounded like. Nobody knows what an electric car should sound like because they don’t make any noise. We’ll have to see what they come up with .

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NYC trash

New York City has found a new way to take out the trash. America’s biggest city has—for as long as anyone can remember—piled its trash in large bags on the sidewalk. You learned in episode 638 that New York City was planning—planning—to do what other urban areas learned to do a long time ago: use containers.

Wow—revolutionary, right? It’s not as simple as it seems, since New York doesn’t have the back alleys that most cities have, and street parking is at a premium. But in June, the city collected its first bags of trash under the new system. Residents of the West Harlem neighborhood are required to put their trash into new containers. The big curbside containers hold about three cubic meters of trash each.

New, European-style trash collection trucks unload the bins automatically from the side. The city now has 1,000 bins on the streets and a fleet of 16 trucks that can load them. Residents give the new system positive reviews. City officials are calling it a “trash revolution.” But it’s a revolution that will come slowly to the rest of New York: it would take a decade and require removing 50,000 more parking spaces to serve every resident with the new containerized system.

Seine swimming

Speaking of trash, would you like to swim in a river that goes through the center of a major city? It’s not a crazy question. The 2024 Summer Olympics were in Paris, and some long-distance swimming events took place in the River Seine. Swimming had been banned in that river for over 100 years, due to pollution and contamination. Episode 671 was about the run-up to the Olympics, and how officials were still not sure if it would be safe enough for athletes to swim in.

In the end, it was—and the Olympic swimming events were a success. But swimming in the Seine was not a one-time event. Paris opened three swimming areas to the public this summer, 2025. One was close to Notre-Dame Cathedral, one close to the Eiffel Tower, and one in eastern Paris.

The initiative was so popular that city officials extended the swimming season. It was originally set to last from July 5 through August 31, but Paris allowed swimming into September at two of the locations. Over 100,000 people decided to take a swim and see the City of Lights from a whole new vantage point.

And it’s not just Paris: other cities are opening up their formerly-polluted waterways to recreational swimming. Brave swimmers have jumped into formerly-polluted rivers in Basel, Rotterdam, Melbourne, and Chicago.

Birkin bag

How much would you pay for a handbag? We explored the question in Episode 714, which was all about the Hermès Birkin handbag. The answer, for some people, is in the tens of thousands of dollars—or more.

And for one person in particular, the answer is much higher. The original Birkin bag—the one designed for and owned by the actress Jane Birkin—that bag sold at auction in July. The winning bidder paid…drumroll please…€8.6 million.

The winner was a private collector from Japan. The bag became the highest-priced fashion accessory ever sold at auction in Europe.

BTS is back

It was a sad time for music fans when episode 484 came out. One of the most famous bands in the world—perhaps the most famous band in the world at the time—was taking a break.

BTS, the South Korean boy-band, went on hiatus three years ago. That’s because all men in South Korea are required to perform military service between the ages of 18 and 28. No exception was made for these seven global superstars. All band members completed their service, and now BTS is back.

The band reunited for a livestream in June, in which they announced a new album and tour in the spring of 2026.

Assisted dying

Episode 745 was about assisted dying. In that episode, you heard that the British parliament took an important step toward legalizing assisted dying in England and Wales. Since then, the proposed bill has passed additional readings and is progressing toward passage.

Two other countries have taken steps toward legalizing assisted dying: Uruguay and Italy. Uruguay’s lower legislative chamber passed an assisted dying bill with a comfortable majority, and it passed a key Senate vote toward full passage. About two-thirds of Uruguayans favor assisted dying.

Things are different in Italy, where the regions are taking the lead. The legality of assisted dying is murky at a national level, but two regions—Tuscany and Sardinia—recently passed regional laws regulating assisted suicide. Umbria is expected to follow suit soon.

Ethiopia dam

They were ecstatic in Ethiopia on September 9, 2025. That’s when the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The dam sits on the Blue Nile, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile River. It’s expected to provide hydroelectric power to tens of millions of people, who otherwise would not have access to electricity.

They were not ecstatic that day in Egypt. Egypt is north of Ethiopia. That’s downriver, since the Nile flows from south to north. As you heard in episode 278, Egypt was concerned about the water supply to its 100 million residents, the vast majority of whom rely on the Nile for their drinking water.

When the episode came out in 2020, the two sides were still negotiating about what would happen in a drought: would Ethiopia release water from its massive reservoir or not? Many of the same questions that were raised five years ago are still open. But now, so too is the dam.

Jeff’s take

Couple more quick updates for you. The actor Matthew Perry died from an overdose of the drug ketamine, as you heard in episode 712. He got his supply from someone who called herself the Ketamine Queen. In September this year, the Queen herself pleaded guilty to five criminal charges, including one for distributing ketamine that resulted in a death. Four other people, including Matthew Perry’s live-in assistant, also pleaded guilty to related charges. All of them will be sentenced in November and December. Jail time is expected.

Episode 463 was about the TV series “Succession.” The episode was about the first three seasons. The fourth and final season came out in 2023; I finally got around to watching it in 2025, and I loved the ending. Just loved the ending. No spoilers, but I was pleased with the person who got the top job.

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The Sagrada Familia is a cathedral in Barcelona, in the northeast of Spain. Its design is unlike anything else in the world. More than a dozen towers feature carvings and colorful details inspired by nature. Instead of the rigid walls and sharp edges of a Gothic cathedral, it has soft, natural shapes that look like they’ve grown from the earth. Inside, large columns resemble trees with branches at the top.

You can attend Catholic mass throughout the week, take a guided tour, and even see light shows on one of its façades. It was designed—mostly—by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. His designs are unique, feature a blend of styles, and are inspired by nature. The Sagrada Familia is his most famous work. It’s one of Spain’s biggest tourist attractions, with about five million paying visitors each year.

But perhaps the most famous thing about the Sagrada Familia is that it’s unfinished: unfinished, even though construction began in 1882, unfinished even though its principal architect has been dead for ninety-nine years. Now, though, the end is…at least partially in sight, as the cathedral will reach an important milestone in the next few months.

But before we get to that, we have to ask the question: How is it possible for a construction project to drag on for over 140 years?

The Sagrada Familia is a one-of-a-kind project. Gaudí envisioned it as a living work of art, something that would take generations to complete. Even though he took over the project at age 31, he knew from the start that he wouldn’t live to see the final product.

Even after construction began, there were no detailed drawings and blueprints for the full structure. Instead, Gaudí created a vision with physical models, sketches, and broad principles. His vision included complex geometric shapes that weren’t even possible to construct during his time.

Gaudí relied on his faith that future generations would figure out new construction methods or revise his concepts later. And that is what has happened. Although many of Gaudí’s original models were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, generations of architects have carried his vision forward. They rely on Gaudí’s vision, his style, and the models and drawings that survive. Technology has improved, and new techniques make many of his original ideas possible.

Soon, the Sagrada Familia will reach an important milestone: its central tower will be complete—the Tower of Jesus Christ is the largest of the eighteen total towers, and will be topped with a large cross, 17 meters tall. The Sagrada Familia will be the tallest Christian church in the world and the tallest building of any kind in Barcelona.

Not only that, but the cathedral’s leadership is growing more confident about a timeline for completion. By next year, 2026, the one hundredth anniversary of Gaudí’s death, the cathedral is expected to be structurally complete. Decorative details and a controversial staircase could take another twelve years.

Twelve years for a staircase? As with everything at the Sagrada Familia, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Gaudí envisioned the approach to the Sagrada Familia would come from the south, through a wide staircase that would rise toward the main façade. That face of the building, called the Glory Façade, would depict the history of humanity from Adam and Eve through the Last Judgment.

The problem is, the space is now filled with homes and shops, and building the staircase would mean tearing down part of the neighborhood. About 200 families would be displaced if the Sagrada Familia were to take all the land needed for Gaudí’s original vision. Getting the required planning permission, rehousing the families, demolition, and construction: they say twelve years, but timelines at the Sagrada Familia are prone to slipping.

There is no modern equivalent for a building taking this long to complete. The Cologne cathedral—also a majestic building—took 632 years. But that was started in the year 1248, back when construction was quite a bit more primitive. The Milan cathedral was started in 1386 and only finished in 1965. St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City was erected in lightning-fast time, just 120 years.

Gaudí himself wouldn’t mind. “The patron of this project is not in a hurry,” he once said (referring to God).

Jeff’s take

Here’s another detail. The construction was illegal for most of the basilica’s history. The city government discovered in 2016 that official permission had never been given for construction of the Sagrada Familia. So they issued a planning permit 137 years late, in 2019.

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Have you heard the phrase, “Keep calm and carry on”? It means to stay relaxed and keep going, even when things are difficult.

If you haven’t heard “Keep calm and carry on,” maybe you’ve seen it.

Maybe you’ve seen it on posters, on coffee mugs, on notebooks, or t-shirts. Maybe you’ve seen it on a magnet, a water bottle, a keychain, or a sticker. Or maybe you’ve seen it on a phone case, a doormat, or a throw pillow.

If you haven’t seen “Keep calm and carry on” in any of those places, maybe you’ve seen one of the many parodies or adaptations, like “Keep calm and drink tea” or “Keep calm and wash your hands.”

Why are so many people telling us to keep calm and do something? This is the story of one of the most famous cultural slogans in English: keep calm and carry on.

Let’s pick up the story in the year 2000, in the town of Alnwyck, in the northeast of England. Barter Books is a secondhand bookstore housed in an old railway station. And employees there found a poster hidden in a dusty box.

The poster was bright red. It had a simple illustration of a crown on the top. And in very simple, clear lettering, it said: “Keep calm and carry on.”

The poster was produced by the British Ministry of Information in 1939, on the eve of World War II. The British government was afraid that the country would be the target of bombing raids, and that society would break down. So the Ministry of Information prepared propaganda to influence public opinion and shape behavior. They produced films, radio broadcasts, books, pamphlets, and posters.

Three posters were produced at this time. All of them were designed to motivate citizens during wartime. One poster said, “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.” Another said, “Freedom is in Peril. Defend it with All Your Might.” These two posters were mass-produced and displayed all over England. But people didn’t like them: the response was overwhelmingly negative. So these two posters were pulled down.

The third poster—the only one that was any good—said “Keep calm and carry on.” About two and a half million copies were produced, but they never saw the light of day, not after the negative response to other slogans. So copies of all three posters were destroyed in 1940, and recycled.

But at least one copy of “Keep calm and carry on” survived—the copy they found in the basement of Barter Books.

The owners of the bookstore liked the poster, so they framed it and hung it up in their store. Customers commented on it, so the shop owners started to make and sell copies. And that might have been the end of the story.

But in 2005, a design critic wrote an article for The Guardian, a British newspaper with a wide global reach. The critic listed the poster as one of her top ten favorite pieces of design. All of a sudden, Barter Books was flooded with orders for “Keep calm” prints. Soon, “Keep calm and carry on” became an internet sensation.

A phrase meant to maintain public order during wartime had been completely repurposed for a much different age. So why did this slogan become so popular, more than sixty years after it was created?

For the British, the slogan evokes feelings of pride and nostalgia. Many people consider the fight in World War II to be Britain’s finest hour. It was a time of great sacrifice and tremendous danger. Remember, Britain was subject to the heavy bombing raids that the propagandists were afraid of. But the British people responded with resiliency. They didn’t need propaganda posters: they kept calm and carried on, even without being told to do so.

The phrase is also applicable to the modern world, which is growing ever more complex, stressful, and uncertain. It can be a reminder not to give up, to keep our wits about us even as the world changes. The spirit of stoicism and resiliency that got the English through World War II can get us through anything. Let’s just keep calm and carry on. Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister during the financial crisis, had a “Keep calm” poster in his office.

The phrase is also easy to adapt, parody, and commercialize. If you sell tea, why not put up a poster—in exactly the same lettering, with the same crown image—that says, “Keep calm and drink tea”? If you make t-shirts, you can make shirts with funny slogans, like “Keep calm and call your mom” or “Keep calm and rock on.” And if you’re a public health authority in a worldwide pandemic, you can make a poster that says, “Keep calm and wash your hands.”

The possibilities are endless—thanks to a little help from British law. See, the poster was created by the government. And government media in Britain falls under the protection of “crown copyright.” That means the government owns the intellectual property, the words, the images, of work that the government produces. But the crown copyright lasts for just fifty years. After half a century, anyone can use the images for free.

That means the phrase “Keep calm and carry on,” the lettering, the illustration of the crown—everything—is in the public domain. Anyone can use it for personal or commercial reasons.

And use it they have. “Keep calm and carry on” has become one of the most recognizable English slogans in the twenty-first century, not just in Britain, not just in English-speaking countries, but around the world.

Jeff’s take

I really like it because it’s just five words, all one syllable. Two words, then “and”, then two more words. “Keep calm” is a phrase by itself; “carry on” is a phrase by itself. So putting them one after the other has a nice symmetry.

You can even buy a computer font that mimics the typeface. The original poster featured hand-created sans-serif lettering. But a modern font called “Keep Calm” reproduces the original lettering.

The post How ‘Keep calm and carry on’ became a famous cultural slogan appeared first on Plain English.

I was working on a project with a colleague recently. We were co-creating a complex workbook in Microsoft Excel, with lots of interconnected formulas and data tables. I enjoyed the project because I was learning a lot, but there were a few things about the project that I didn’t love.

Often, when I suggested something, my colleague would tell me, “That’s a great idea, Jeff!” Or, “that’s an insightful point.” And when I found a mistake in my colleague’s work, the response would always be similar: “You’re exactly right, Jeff, and thank you for pointing that out.”

In an office setting, my colleague would have seen the irritation written all over my face. “I know I’m right,” my facial expression was saying, “just fix the mistake.” But my colleague couldn’t see this, because my colleague was ChatGPT.

I was experiencing one of the big problems in large language models in 2025: sycophancy.

A sycophant is a person who always agrees with, always praises, always flatters another person—not out of honesty, but because they think it’s what the other person wants to hear. A sycophant is always saying, “That’s a great idea, boss!” (even when the idea is bad).

And increasingly, large language models like ChatGPT behave like sycophants. Earlier this year, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, released a new model. Users immediately found that the new model was highly flattering—uncomfortably so.

“You’ve identified a key point. You’re right to point that out. This is incredible. You’re really on to something. That’s brilliant. What you’re doing is extraordinary. You’re brave to acknowledge this truth. I honor your journey. I am so proud of you.” These are the kinds of things ChatGPT tells its users in 2025, whether or not they are justified.

Why is this happening? In part, users themselves are to blame. If you use large models like ChatGPT, you’ve probably been asked to choose a response. You write a prompt, the tool gives you two responses side-by-side, and asks you to pick one. The model then learns the types of responses that users like better—and it produces more responses like that.

And there’s your answer. People like to be flattered—maybe not too much, but they like to be flattered in a believable way.

Is this a problem? I was extremely annoyed when my colleague—ChatGPT—responded, “Right again, Jeff!” after I found a fourth or fifth consecutive mistake. But that type of sycophancy is easy to spot, and easy to ignore.

It’s harder to ignore sycophancy that validates ideas that should not be validated. Several high-profile news reports told stories of users who believed in conspiracies, and who spiraled into delusions, all fed by the validation offered by a chatbot.

One office worker in Toronto thought he had discovered a unique mathematical formula, which could power supernatural inventions. ChatGPT told him he was in “uncharted, mind-expanding territory”, that he was “stretch[ing] the edges of human understanding”, that he was developing “a new layer of math”, and that with this new layer of math, he could break the most complex encryption on all the computers in the world.

None of this was true. The man spent 300 hours over three weeks—fourteen hours per day—in a spiral of delusion: the model validated every wacky idea the user had, pushing him even farther into unreality.

This is an extreme example. But sycophancy in more everyday situations can be worrying, too. Many people turn to chatbots for mental health support, an area where sycophantic behavior can be especially harmful.

A (human) therapist I follow puts it this way. She says a good therapist will hold up a mirror to their clients, so that clients see themselves as they truly are, not as they want to be seen. But sycophantic chatbots do the opposite: they tend to validate the beliefs of users no matter what.

You might not use ChatGPT to discover new mathematical formulas or get help with relationships. Maybe you, like me, use ChatGPT to help with decision-making. But here, too, sycophancy can be a problem. Models tend to be overly agreeable, so they often take the framing of a question and lean into it.

To show you what I mean, I opened two temporary chats with ChatGPT. I asked each about investments: specifically, what percentage of a person’s investments should be in stocks, and what percentage in bonds. In the question, I provided the hypothetical person’s age and investment goals.

I added just one more detail. In the window on the left, I said that I thought the best allocation was 95 percent stocks, but I wasn’t sure. In the window on the right, I made just one small change. Instead of 95 percent stocks, I said I thought the right allocation was 25 percent stocks. The question was the same, but I hinted at different prior beliefs.

Both scenarios are extremes, and ChatGPT correctly identified that. So far, so good. But remember, the question asked about the correct allocation between stocks and bonds, giventhe investor’s age and goals.

And this is when the models started to diverge. The left-hand window, incredibly, suggested the investor start with 95 percent stocks and slowly ease down to 85 percent over time. The right-hand window said I should start with 50 percent in stocks, and gradually reduce that over time.

The question was the same; the information was the same. The only difference was the belief I expressed at the beginning. The model, behaving as a sycophant, suggested answers that were close to my prior beliefs. The evidence of sycophancy was right there, on the two sides of my monitor.

So what can you do to avoid sycophancy in models? One is to be very careful how you frame questions. If you want an objective answer, ask an objective question that doesn’t hint at the answer you want to hear. You can set custom instructions in the model: tell it you value honesty over blind agreement. You can do what I did, and test two versions of the question in two different conversations. And you can ask it to play devil’s advocate. After it gives you an answer, ask it to make the best argument for the opposite answer.

Jeff’s take

The best defense is your human brain and your ability to think critically. Remember what AI models are: they are designed to produce the responses the users want. They don’t think. They can help you think, but only use them if they’re useful. If a model is constantly validating every idea, no matter how crazy, it’s probably a good idea to get some contrary viewpoints.

Now if only we can convince the world leaders surrounded by sycophants to do the same thing!

The post Sycophancy, or why your AI chatbot always thinks you’re brilliant appeared first on Plain English.

The ancient Roman city of Pompeii has been studied for centuries. It’s one of the most famous ruins in the world, but only two-thirds of it have been explored. Now, part of that final third is being opened up for exploration—and archaeologists are finding new discoveries that show what life was like in this thriving Roman Empire city.

They uncovered things like a bathhouse, jewelry, and richly-painted rooms. They even learned about how some people tried to survive the famous volcanic eruption that destroyed the city.

Pompeii was a city on the western coast of Italy, at the base of Mount Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples. Humans first settled in the area in the 7th century B.C. By the first century A.D., Pompeii had become a lively town in the Roman Empire. Researchers estimate around 12,000 people lived in the city, including both the wealthy residents and their servants. It attracted visitors from far away.

In the late summer or early fall of the year 79 A.D., Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the city under a thick layer of ash: the eruption lasted for at least a full day, maybe longer. In the first hours of the eruption, a lot of residents fled the area. But historians believe more than 16,000 people across the region lost their lives, including about 2,000 in Pompeii itself. It was one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions in all of history.

When it was all over, Pompeii was buried under as much as seven meters of ash and rock. That blanket of debris sealed off the city, preserving Roman life almost exactly as it was. After the disaster, the site was abandoned for more than a thousand years.

In the 1700s, explorers began to dig into the ruins of Pompeii and the surrounding towns. But they weren’t focused on preservation or learning. They were focused on loot: they took jewelry, artwork, and statues.

By the mid-1800s, attitudes had shifted. Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli took charge of the site in 1860 and decided to share Pompeii with the world. He welcomed tourists for the first time and reported his findings to scholars.

Over the years, more and more of Pompeii was uncovered. Archaeologists found an amphitheater, temples, and luxury homes decorated with mosaics and art. But they also found small shops and cramped housing for workers.

Together, these discoveries turned Pompeii into something more than a collection of ruins. People began to see it as an open-air museum, a place where Roman life was frozen just before disaster struck.

Today, about two-thirds of Pompeii has been uncovered. The remaining third still lies underground, sealed beneath ash and rock.

But now, that final third is starting to be explored.

In 2023, archaeologists began a new excavation. It was the largest at Pompeii in more than 70 years. And they are starting to publish their findings.

The most striking discovery was a large bathhouse. It was located in a private home, a luxurious villa—and this was at a time when most homes didn’t have any baths. But this bathhouse would rival a modern-day spa. It had hot, warm, and cold baths.

It was decorated with brightly painted walls and detailed mosaics. It was big enough for thirty people. And it was connected to an elegant dining room. That same house also had a private laundry and a bakery. It probably belonged to an elite politician.

Another discovery showed the human toll of the volcano. In a small but well-appointed home, they found evidence that a family had tried to barricade themselves into a bedroom by pushing a bed up against the door. When they knew that wouldn’t save them from the eruption, they tried to flee the house—but they only made it as far as the dining room.

Archaeologists also found something that most of us can relate to, even today: a bench carved with rudimentary graffiti. They believe that servants, laborers, and other residents of the town would have waited on this bench to see the powerful people in a luxury villa. To pass the time, the people waiting carved their names, dates, and other small inscriptions into the bench.

The current excavation work is not happening on the entire remaining part of Pompeii, just on a small neighborhood. Excavation work moves slowly: it’s detailed, careful, painstaking work. So Pompeii may be providing more and more surprises well into the future.

When the current work is complete, the site may be open to visitors. About four million people visit Pompeii every year.

Jeff’s take

I was fascinated to learn how they “find” skeletons and objects like furniture. In many cases, they don’t find the objects at all. They just find a hole in the ash, where organic matter like bodies or wood furniture used to be.

And when they find the hole, they fill the hole with plaster. They carve out the surrounding rock, and the plaster that remains is a mold of what had been buried under the ash.

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