Short Stuff: Vomitoria
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A vomitorium was a place where ancient Romans went to make themselves throw up after gorging themsel...
What were war masks?
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
War masks were made for soldiers in WWI who had horrible accidents that left their faces sometimes u...
SYSK Selects: How Grief Works
03 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You can probably name the five stages of grief - from denial to acceptance - they've become pretty w...
How Easy Bake Ovens Work
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Easy Bake Ovens are as iconic as a toy can get, as American as apple pie or baseball. Learn all abou...
Short Stuff: Labor Day
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Labor Day, the day when most people in America paradoxically take off work, is actually rooted in so...
SYSK’s 2018 Super Spooktacular
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s Halloween again and Chuck and Josh want to creep you out. Listen to two great classic horror ...
SYSK Selects: What's with the Winchester Mystery House?
27 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After her daughter and husband died, heiress Sarah Winchester became obsessed with the idea that spi...
How the Amityville Horror Worked
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In early 1975, the world was introduced to George and Kathy Lutz, a couple who had fled their home i...
Short Stuff: Exploding Manholes
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you live in a big city in a cold climate, you should keep an eye out for 100-pound cast-iron manh...
How Epilepsy Works
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A seizure is like an electrical overload in the brain – when it gets overwhelmed, it just shuts do...
SYSK Selects: How Aphrodisiacs Work
20 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For thousands of years humankind has pursued the enhancement of sexual pleasure and performance thro...
Waterbeds: The Sexiest Bed?
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Waterbeds came and went pretty quickly in the United States, but despite their marketing as sex beds...
Short Stuff: Korean Fan Death
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a commonly-held belief in Korea that if you fall asleep with a fan blowing on your face yo...
Was There A Real Robin Hood?
16 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is it true that Robin Hood hung out in Sherwood Forest and stole from the rich to give to the poor? ...
SYSK Selects: How Homelessness Works
13 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today, millions of people around the world are homeless. In this classic episode, Josh and Chuck tak...
When inventions kill!
11 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Few things are more ironic than an invention killing its creator. The stories behind real life cases...
Short Stuff: William King
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that the United States has had one Vice-President who was sworn in on foreign soil? Wel...
How Marathons Work
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You’d have to be crazy to try to run 26.2 miles in a single stretch, right? Right. But people stil...
SYSK Selects: Is lethal injection humane?
06 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Since the Supreme Court's ban on capital punishment was reversed, states have sought a humane method...
Algae: Food, Fuel, What?
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Just a couple years ago, algae was touted as the green, plentiful biofuel of the future. But that di...
Short Stuff: Grandfather Clocks
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever wondered why a grandfather clock is called a grandfather clock and you have 12 minute...
How the Concorde Worked
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The concorde was a wonderful thing, a super fast commerical airliner that got you across the pond in...
SYSK Selects: Does the five-second rule work?
29 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You know when you drop a piece of food and if you pick it up within five seconds it's still good to ...
Seriously, What Is Dark Matter?
27 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Chuck and Josh take on astrophysics again and this time it pans out well. It turns out that there si...
What is colorblindness?
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Being colorblind doesn't mean you see in black and white, although in severe cases it can look a bit...
SYSK Selects: Was Malthus right about carrying capacity?
22 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Malthus concluded that humanity is bound to outgrow Earth's carrying capacity. The prediction...
How Ranked Choice Voting Works
20 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the US, winner-take-all voting has created A LOT of political polarization. But what if rather th...
Roundabouts: The Problem Is You
18 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
They’re as American as Washington, DC yet most people in the US are terrified of them, hate them o...
SYSK Selects: How Commercial Jingles Work
15 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You probably can recite five right now. Commercial jingles are designed to hijack your working memor...
What are think tanks all about?
13 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Think tanks? More like stink tanks! We're kidding. Think tanks do valuable work, when they operate i...
SYSK Live: How Game Shows Work
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Join Josh and Chuck and a whole bunch of great people at the Gothic Theatre in Denver for this live ...
SYSK Selects: How Circumcision Works
08 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Circumcision is a common practice in which the foreskin of a male's penis is removed, typically as a...
The Lava Lamp: Goes Great With Acid
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What started out as an egg timer at a London pub became a furnishing for bachelor pads before it too...
How Police Lineups Work
04 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Police lineups are something most people have never had any firsthand experience with. What you see ...
SYSK Selects: How Patents Work
01 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What was originally designed to encourage innovation by rewarding the people who create technologica...
How Elimination Diets Work
30 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Elimination diets are all about whittling down what you eat, then building it back up again in order...
Why There Aren't So Many Hotel Fires Anymore
28 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
1946 was a particularly deadly year for hotel fires in the US. Fires killed hundreds of people in Ch...
SYSK Selects: What's the deal with Voodoo?
25 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Voodoo is a religion found in parts of Africa and Haiti that's often misunderstood. In this episode,...
Pterosaurs: Not Flying Dinosaurs
23 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Almost everything you know about pterosaurs is wrong. They weren't birds, they weren't flying dinosa...
Ballpoint pens? Heck yes, ballpoint pens!
21 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Get ready, folks. The ballpoint pen is far more interesting than you could ever imagine. For real. B...
SYSK Selects: How Electroconvulsive Therapy Works
18 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With the exception of lobotomies, no other psychological treatment has a worse reputation. But thank...
Who is The Man of the Hole?
16 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, there's a man from a lost tribe still living deep in the jungles of Brazil who has been all...
How Board Breaking Works
14 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever seen someone break a stack of boards or concrete blocks with a single karate chop y...
SYSK Selects: How Traffic Works
11 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you've been stuck in a traffic jam or forced to merge and avoid road construction, everyone'...
How Attila the Hun Worked
09 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you go to the Internet you'll see a few people championed as all-time greatest conquerors - Alexa...
How Search and Rescue Works
07 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There are thankfully about as many ways to look for someone as there are ways to get lost. And the p...
SYSK Selects: How Miranda Rights Work
04 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 1966, the Supreme Court decided that suspects in criminal cases had the right to be reminded...
How the U.S. Military Draft Works
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. military draft is far more interesting than you'd think. The process of conscription can ge...
How the Pony Express Worked
31 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For as long a shadow as it casts across the history of the Old West, the Pony Express was a failed b...
SYSK Selects: How the Cannonball Run Worked
28 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Cannon Ball Run is a cross-country car race famously portrayed in the campy 1981 movie "Cannon B...
The Dyatlov Pass Mystery
26 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The incident at Dyatlov Pass is one of the more enduring wilderness mysteries of all time. Russian h...
Recycling Update: How’s It Going?
24 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been about a decade since Josh and Chuck last checked in on recycling and since then a lot ha...
SYSK Selects: How Foot Binding Worked
21 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Once in a while, all the necessary factors converge to produce a peculiar nationalized sexual fetish...
How Attorney-Client Privilege Works
19 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the oldest protected forms of speech comes from when a lawyer speaks with their client. Over ...
Jobs of Bygone Eras
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Join Josh and Chuck today as they take a fun look at some of the strange jobs that our ancestors did...
SYSK Selects: How Twinkies Work
14 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Twinkies have a reputation for being so processed that they can last for years and years, but they'r...
Gerrymandering: How to Stifle Democracy
12 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
No matter which side of the political spectrum you fall on, you should be outraged about the practic...
The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five
10 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1978, five friends set out for home from a basketball game. The next day, their car was discovere...
SYSK Selects: Did Reagan's Star Wars program win the Cold War?
07 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Putting lasers in space to blast Soviet missiles out of the air was a very real part of Ronald Reaga...
How the Stanford Prison Experiment Worked
05 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The infamous Stanford Prison Experiment wasn't really much of an experiment as it turns out. It was ...
How Diabetes Works
03 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Diabetes is one of the biggest killers of people on the planet. And yet, it also seems to be tied to...
SYSK Selects: How Ponzi Schemes Work
30 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ponzi schemes. How do they work? And who's Ponzi? Join Josh and Chuck in this classic episode to dis...
Narwhals: Unicorns of the Sea
28 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Narwhals are the unicorns of the sea. They're also whales with tusks. The tusks are really long toot...
Can Anarchism Work?
26 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Teenage punks going through a phase probably come to mind when you think of anarchists, but anarchis...
SYSK Selects: How Condoms Work
23 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The earliest depiction of a condom is found in a 15,000-year-old cave painting. Ever since humans re...
Genghis Khan: Madman or Genius?
21 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Depending on who you talk to, Genghis Khan was either a sadistic madman or one of the great leaders ...
How The Pill Changed the World
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When the birth control pill hit the market in 1960 it landed like a social bomb. Almost overnight, w...
SYSK Selects: How Bullfighting Works
16 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When the Visigoths ruled Spain, they introduced the idea of battling bulls at festivals. Today matad...
Skyscrapers: 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky
14 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Skyscrapers are much more than tall buildings. They're world wonders as far as we're concerned. From...
How Tsunamis Work
12 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tsunamis are amazingly devastating natural disasters. They're miles tall and wide, travel as fast as...
SYSK Selects: How The Hum Works
09 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There is a mysterious droning sound often described as like a diesel engine idling that is severely ...
Frida Kahlo: Painter, Icon, Genius
07 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Frida Kahlo was a painter who transcended her own work to became an icon. Learn all about her fascin...
The Max Headroom Incident
05 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1987, a very strange broadcast intrusion occurred in the city of Chicago. For just a couple of mi...
SYSK Selects: Was there a real King Arthur?
02 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The legend of King Arthur is very old and very established. By the time the king who saved Britain a...
Is the Pied Piper About a Real Historic Tragedy?
31 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the German town of Hameln a tragedy that took place on a specific date in 1284 and befell specifi...
How Drug Courts Work
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you aren't in the know, you may think drug courts are set up to quickly prosecute drug users and ...
SYSK Selects: How Pinball Works
26 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Pinball was actually illegal until the 1970s in NY and other cities, hidden in the backs of pornogra...
How Occam's Razor Works
24 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You know the rule that says the simplest explanation is probably the correct one? That’s called a ...
A List Of Games You Would Surely Lose to a Computer
22 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We live in a time where computers can beat the best humans in the world at chess, checkers, poker an...
SYSK Selects: Is brain size related to intelligence?
19 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The idea that the larger the brain, the higher the intelligence is an old one, but it's pretty much ...
The Collar Bomb Heist
18 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The collar bomb heist is the crime caper that keeps on giving. Every time the story seemed like it w...
What's a quinceañera anyway?
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A quinceañera is the celebration of a girl of Hispanic heritage becoming a young woman on her 15th ...
SYSK Selects: How Cremation Works
12 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Cremation is a burial process practiced around the world, but how exactly does it work? Josh and Chu...
How Drowning Works
10 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hundreds of thousands of people drown around the world every year, and yet it can be easily prevente...
PT Barnum: More Complicated Than You've Heard
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When your life is as outsized as the World’s Greatest Showman PT Barnum it’s pretty easy to - yo...
SYSK Selects: Are there undiscovered people?
05 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this classic episode, Josh and Chuck discuss whether there are any truly "undiscovered" groups of...
North Korea: What's the Deal?
03 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For almost 70 years, North Korea has been the bane of South Korea, Japan and the US or has stood as ...
Nepotism: When Hiring the Best Just Won't Do
01 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nepotism is something that is very hard to avoid, and very hard to resist, even if you know it may b...
SYSK Selects: Who killed JFK?
28 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Josh and Chuck...
Does Pyromania Actually Exist?
26 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A fascination with fire is part of every kid’s childhood, but it’s meant to be passing. For some...
Emojis: A New Language? Nah.
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Believe it or not, there's a lot more to Emojis than meets the eye. Turns out their history is prett...
SYSK Selects: How Mirrors Work
21 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Whether using polished metal surfaces or clear glass, human beings have enjoyed admiring their refle...
Two Times In the 70s When People Buried Ferraris
19 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Not once, but twice in the 1970s people buried amazingly valuable Ferraris, arguably the greatest sp...
The Unabomber: Misguided to say the least
17 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Unabomber was one of the most notorious and longest lasting cases in the history of the FBI. Jus...
SYSK Selects: What happens in the brain during an orgasm?
14 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this classic episode, Chuck and Josh test the limits of their decorum as they explore the physiol...
How Paramedics Work
12 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Paramedics are not EMTs. Or fire fighters. Or cops. But they do ride around in ambulances (and drive...
Why Landmines Are The Deadliest Legacy Of War
10 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the worst legacies of war are the millions of landmines left behind. They hide for decades af...
SYSK Selects: Sherpas: Warm, Friendly Living
07 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Pop quiz: What word denotes a nation of people, a last name and an occupation? If you guessed 'Sherp...
Project Azorian: The CIA's Super 70s Mission To Steal A Sunken Soviet Sub
05 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974 the CIA undertook one of its most brazen operations – secretly raising a sunken Soviet sub...
When Words Take on New Meanings
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Historical words often morph and change to take on new meanings. Today on the podcast, Josh and Chuc...