The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As part of our shameful history series, today we dive into the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments of the ...
Short Stuff: Killing a Dead Body
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you try to kill someone who was already dead is that a bad thing? Yeah? How bad?See omnystudio.co...
What was the Four Pests Campaign?
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Say one thing about Mao's communist China, they could kill some sparrows. Learn why and how in today...
Selects: What's the deal with subpoenas?
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Subpoenas are all the rage. But what do they even mean if someone can just ignore it? Learn this and...
You’re So Good At Conversation!
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s an understated miracle that humans can get across ideas to one another by saying things o...
Short Stuff: North Sentinel Island
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the last uncontacted people in the world live in the Bay of Bengal and they have made it clea...
The Man with the Golden Arm
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aussie James Harrison gave blood close to 1,200 times over a 60 year period and saved 2.5 million ba...
Selects: Noise Pollution: Arrrgh!
06 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever found your blood pressure rising because some guy down the street doesn’t...
America’s Militarized Police
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, America took stock of itself when scores of low-income cities broke out in riots. It f...
Short Stuff: The Mpemba Effect
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why does water seem to freeze faster when it starts out warmer?See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...
How Dolphins Work!
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
E-e-e-eek! E-e-e-eek, we say! Adding to the tradition of our wonderful animal episodes we contribute...
Selects: What Were the BONE WARS?
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A pair of old timey fossil hunters had a rootin’ tootin’ rivalry that spilled from acade...
What are Blue Zones?
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Blue zones are areas where people supposedly have more 100+ year-olds than average. But is it all ba...
Short Stuff: 1561 Celestial Event
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An amazing case of an early modern mass sighting of UFOs came in Nuremberg, Germany in 1561. Except ...
The History of Orthodontics
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Crooked teeth have always been a thing, but it took us a long time to do something about it. Learn a...
Selects: The Flannen Isles Mystery
23 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In December 1900 three lighthouse keepers vanished without a trace from a deserted island in Scotlan...
Private Equity: Your Ears Will Bleed
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Private equity is a business operation where companies are bought and run at their leanest to maximi...
Short Stuff: The Lost (?) Continent of Lemuria
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why aren't there lemurs in Africa? That question created a whole theory about a lost continent. Turn...
The Unsolved Murder of Hall and Mills
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1922, a pastor and his mistress were murdered in New Jersey. Nobody was ever convicted of the cri...
Selects: How Rape Kits Work
16 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rape kits are simple forensic evidence collection kits used when someone is sexually assaulted. But ...
Heavy Metal Pt II
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of Heavy Metal Week Josh and Chuck break down how specialized heavy metal music has beco...
Short Stuff: Devil Horns
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Metal fans have many ways to express themselves, but none are as metal as throwing the devil horns. ...
Heavy Metal Pt I
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the most talented musicians in the world play heavy metal, some of the hardest-hitting music...
Selects: The Disappearance of Flight MH370, Part II
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the absence of an official explanation of why flight MH 370 disappeared in 2014, conjecture and c...
Selects: The Disappearance of Flight MH370, Part I
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, a Boeing 777 airliner disappeared. Despite two full years of searching an area of ocean cov...
Who's Up For A Circular Economy
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if we could take all the trash and waste we generate every year – gigatons worth – ...
Short Stuff: Marianne Bachmeier: Vigilante Mother
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Marianne Bachmeier committed a shocking act of violence in court in Germany in 1981 to avenge the mu...
The Iconic, Complicated VW Beetle
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The VW Beetle is the best selling car of all time. The story behind its creation is a bit complicate...
Selects: Is birth order important?
02 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Child Prodigies: Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Child prodigies are unique in that they achieve adult levels of achievement, but do not typically ex...
Short Stuff: Bliss Point
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The food we eat – especially the junk food – is a highly engineered technical marvel tha...
The Humble and Deadly Cigarette
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is not about smoking or lawsuits or lung cancer. This is about the cigarette itself, a truly un...
Selects: The Tale of the Church of the SubGenius
26 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Church of the SubGenius is a religion, but really a parody of religion. Learn all about this gro...
AQ Khan: How to Live Dangerously
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
He’s been called the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and a real-life Bond villain and ...
Short Stuff: Paperclips
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How Boycotts Work (Or Do They?)
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We have boycotts coming out of our ears these days, but did you know they go back a couple centuries...
Selects: What exactly is stoicism?
19 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The word stoic has taken on its own meaning apart from the philosophical movement which gave it life...
How Alchemy Worked
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alchemy evokes sorcerers working by candlelight combining potions to create magical items, real Dung...
Short Stuff: Bengal Cats
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bengal cats are gorgeous animals, but they are bought and sold on the designer pet market, so booo. ...
The Great Big Yarn of Mel's Hole
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most bizarre stories to emerge from the cult radio show Coast to Coast AM – and tha...
Selects: Child Labor: Not Funny
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Child labor is no laughing matter. Even though we've taken care of it in the USA (mostly), it's stil...
Sixdegrees.com: A Social Media Origin Story
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before Facebook and MySpace, before even Friendster, there was SixDegrees. Dive in today to learn ab...
Short Stuff: 8 Track Cartridges
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
8 tracks were during vinyl, but preceded cassettes. Why? So people could listen to their music on th...
Sherlock Holmes: The Man, The Myth
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most famous fictional character in the world, and for good reason. Mo...
Selects: How Coelacanths Work
05 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Coelacanths are incredibly interesting as far as fish go. For one, they were thought to have gone th...
What was the purpose of USAID?
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
USAID has saved tens of millions of lives across the globe since its inception. But those days are o...
Short Stuff: BM Radio
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There was a time – a glorious time – when you could turn the dial in any city in the US ...
The Phil Hartman Story
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sadly, Phil Hartman may be best remembered for being murdered in his sleep by his wife. This episode...
Selects: What was Tin Pan Alley?
28 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tin Pan Alley was an area of New York around the beginning of the 20th Century that served as ground...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: What's the deal with Bond, James Bond?
28 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
James Bond, the most infamous secret agent ever to grace the silver screen, originated in the pages ...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Steadicams Work
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There have been many inventions that have advanced filmmaking, but maybe none as important as the st...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How the MPAA Works
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You may be surprised to learn those ubiquitous ratings, from G to NC-17, put on movies in America ar...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Josh and Chuck's List of Horror Movies that Changed the Genre
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Once in a while a movie comes along that's so forward-thinking it changes the way that horror is don...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Special Effects: A Short History
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Special effects have been around since the first movies. In fact, the techniques the earliest filmma...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Some Movies That Changed Filmmaking
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An estimated 50,000 films were made worldwide in 2009 alone. Many are surely clunkers, but in this e...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Stuntmen (and -women) Work
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
They get blown up, shot, drowned and thrown out of windows on the silver screen - and we don't even ...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Exploitation Films Work
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In today's SYSK Select episode, we learn about exploitation films. During the 1930s-80s, the work of...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: The True Story of BlacKkKlansman
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, director Spike Lee brought the story of Ron Stallworth to the big screen to great effect. T...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Why was Titicut Follies banned?
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Titicut Follies is a documentary made famous by its banning. But why was it banned? And what was it ...
Sunset Blvd: One Famous Road
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sunset Blvd is a long road, but is most known for the 1.7 mile stretch called The Sunset Strip. But ...
Short Stuff: Oedipus Complex
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Oedipus complex is probably Sigmund Freud’s most famous theory – that every little b...
Shameful History: Project 100,000
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During Vietnam, the U.S. lowered the IQ standards for the draft in order to bulk up their front line...
Selects: The Great Nuclear Winter Debate of 1983
21 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the height of the Cold War, a group of concerned scientists promoted their findings on the horrif...
Who are the Zizians?
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the Zizians is an unusual one. Are they a cult? Or are they simply a group who wants a ...
Short Stuff: The Shortest War
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How long was the shortest war in human history? Under an hour. Hard to believe? Not when you hear th...
The Fencing Of The Commons
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When England privatized its commons – lands that by custom belonged to all English to work and...
Selects: The Kitty Genovese Story
14 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most people have heard of the story of Kitty Genovese. She was murdered near her apartment in 1964 a...
Anacondas: Not Like in the Movie
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are anacondas big? For sure. Are they able to crush and consume a human? Maybe, but thankfully they ...
Short Stuff: Andrew Jackson's Inauguration
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wild stories about a crazy party after Andrew Jackson's inauguration have been around since the week...
How Styrofoam Works
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All those to-go cups and food containers aren’t actually Styrofoam but those cups and Styrofoa...
Selects: How Dementia Works
Sat, 07 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to explode in the coming decades and, in a ...
Selects: How Dementia Works
07 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to explode in the coming decades and, in a ...
Impression Management
Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We all in some way care about what other people think of us. At our core we all have a fear of sayin...
Impression Management
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all in some way care about what other people think of us. At our core we all have a fear of sayin...
Short Stuff: Can You Not Have A Name?
Wed, 04 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Is it legal to live without a name? Is it even possible? Find out today in this episode.See omnystud...
Short Stuff: Can You Not Have A Name?
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is it legal to live without a name? Is it even possible? Find out today in this episode.See omnystud...
Pagans, Neo-Pagans, Wiccans – Let’s Sort It Out!
Tue, 03 Jun 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Paganism was the set of original ancient religions around the world. They all had plenty of gods, lo...
Pagans, Neo-Pagans, Wiccans – Let’s Sort It Out!
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Paganism was the set of original ancient religions around the world. They all had plenty of gods, lo...
Selects: Yeti: The Asian Bigfoot
Sat, 31 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We've covered Nessie and Bigfoot, so why not tackle the Yeti? Listen to this classic episode and hea...
Selects: Yeti: The Asian Bigfoot
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We've covered Nessie and Bigfoot, so why not tackle the Yeti? Listen to this classic episode and hea...
The Rosenbergs
Thu, 29 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage in 1953. Whether or not they were both guilty...
The Rosenbergs
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage in 1953. Whether or not they were both guilty...
Short Stuff: Genetic Mutations
Wed, 28 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
All sorts of exotic and often terrible stuff runs through our heads when we think of genetic mutatio...
Short Stuff: Genetic Mutations
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All sorts of exotic and often terrible stuff runs through our heads when we think of genetic mutatio...
The Group of Seven
Tue, 27 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Today Chuck and Josh celebrate Canada and their art through the lens of the Group of Seven. See...
The Group of Seven
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today Chuck and Josh celebrate Canada and their art through the lens of the Group of Seven. See...
Selects: How Publicists Work
Sat, 24 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Some people call them flacks. Other people call them liars. But if you're in the public eye and sudd...
Selects: How Publicists Work
24 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some people call them flacks. Other people call them liars. But if you're in the public eye and sudd...
Popcorn: Who doesn't love it?
Thu, 22 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We love popcorn and suspect that most people do too. But do you know why it even pops? Or if it's he...
Popcorn: Who doesn't love it?
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We love popcorn and suspect that most people do too. But do you know why it even pops? Or if it's he...
Short Stuff: William A. Mitchell: Food Inventor
Wed, 21 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
William A. Mitchell invented some iconic snack foods and candies. Learn all about him today!See omny...
Short Stuff: William A. Mitchell: Food Inventor
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
William A. Mitchell invented some iconic snack foods and candies. Learn all about him today!See omny...
Faking Your Own Death: We All Do It, But Why?
Tue, 20 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Face it, when things get desperate we all consider faking our death as an easy way out. But what the...
Faking Your Own Death: We All Do It, But Why?
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Face it, when things get desperate we all consider faking our death as an easy way out. But what the...
Selects: Night Trap: The Video Game Failure that Changed the Industry
Sat, 17 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the early 90s a video game was released that changed the industry, despite poor sales and bad gam...
Selects: Night Trap: The Video Game Failure that Changed the Industry
17 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 90s a video game was released that changed the industry, despite poor sales and bad gam...
The Cliffs Notes on Cliffs Notes
Thu, 15 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When a man named Cliff packaged book summaries in yellow and black booklets he changed the way kids ...
The Cliffs Notes on Cliffs Notes
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When a man named Cliff packaged book summaries in yellow and black booklets he changed the way kids ...
Short Stuff: Figs & Wasps
Wed, 14 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Today Chuck and Josh look at the interesting relationship between figs and wasps.See omnystudio.com/...
Short Stuff: Figs & Wasps
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today Chuck and Josh look at the interesting relationship between figs and wasps.See omnystudio.com/...