Disney theme parks have become significantly more expensive, with prices for food, merchandise, and tickets rising much faster than inflation. A Mickey ice cream bar that cost $2.75 in 2009 now costs $6.50, and top-tier annual passes have nearly doubled in price over the past decade.
Seeing your favorite artist onstage has never been more expensive. In the 1960s, a ticket to see The Beatles could cost around $5. In 2024, the average concert ticket in the US was nearly $136. And on the resale market, prices can jump to almost double that, with some Taylor Swift fans paying thousands of dollars for a single seat.
Student-grade colored pencils and professional-grade ones vary drastically not only in their price but how they're made. A set of 120 Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils costs $350, 14 times as much as a similar box of Crayola colored pencils. And some brands price their sets at over $550.
Buying a little over a kilo of fresh mangosteens in the United States can set you back nearly $80. This delicate fruit needs specific environmental conditions to grow, and picking the mangosteens at the perfect moment is crucial to ensure optimal flavor and texture, adding to the complexity of harvesting.
From American-made Martin acoustic guitars in Pennsylvania to handcrafted ceremonial gongs in Thailand, we traveled the world to uncover the stories behind how different musical instruments are made.
Japan is one of the leading producers of shiitake mushrooms. These mushrooms are notoriously difficult to cultivate on a commercial scale — especially when using the 1,000-year-old Japanese technique of growing them on logs.
Gamtae is one of South Korea's rarest seaweeds. For centuries, this earthy, sweet seaweed was mainly harvested and eaten raw by locals in the Seosan region.