Live in Chicago: How Public Relations Works
26 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
After a year of taking it on the road, Josh and Chuck are releasing their show on public relations. ...
The Lowdown on Anonymous
24 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Anonymous is an amorphous group of hacktivists with no single leader or power structure. Some call t...
How Dementia Works
19 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to explode in the coming decades and, in a ...
How Rodney Dangerfield Worked, Live From LA
18 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Other comedians cry on the inside, but Rodney Dangerfield built his entire act around his sad life. ...
What's the Deal With Staring?
17 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Gazing too long upon another person is almost universally viewed as anywhere from impolite to hostil...
How The Voynich Manuscript Works
12 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Since its re-discovery in the early 20th century, the Medieval codex the Voynich Manuscript has thor...
Maggots: Good For Healing Wounds, Turns Out
10 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Cultures around the world over the years have been inspired by, then repulsed, then inspired by magg...
How Grimm's Fairy Tales Work
05 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Unless you were raised alone in a basement (in which case you may be the subject of one), you probab...
The Dark Origins of Fairy Tales
03 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Fairy tales are for kids right? Well not at first they weren't. They were dark tales of murder, rape...
Josh N Chuck's Hallowe'en Spooky Scarefest
29 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Each year, Chuck and Josh read a couple of scary stories and this year they have a pair of truly fri...
How Passports Work
27 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The concept of passports - that people should enjoy protected freedom of movement - is an ancient on...
Vocal Fry and Other Speech Trends
22 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
You've heard lots of complaints about vocal fry, mostly from older white men. But it's not exclusive...
Please Listen to How Plasma Waste Converters Work
20 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
There is a way to not only sustainably get rid our household waste, but also produce enough energy f...
How Wine Fraud Works
15 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Wine fraud may be a case of rich con artists tricking wealthy people into parting with money, but it...
How Vestigial Organs Work
13 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Darwin asserted that seemingly useless organs and behaviors are left over from our evolutionary hist...
What was the Philadelphia Experiment?
08 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Philadelphia Experiment is a bad movie from the 1980s, and also the conspiracy theory that refus...
How Lobbying Works
06 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Lobbying is an entrenched part of American politics and one that many people think is breaking gover...
How PEZ Works
01 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
PEZ began in Vienna as a mint meant to help people quit smoking. But once American kids got ahold of...
Chuck and Josh Make It Through Female Puberty
29 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of the SYSK puberty saga, Josh and Chuck venture into new territory as they explore all ...
Geothermal Energy: Earth's Gift to Mankind
24 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Green energy is good for all, and it doesn't get much greener than using the Earth's own heat to war...
How Cult Deprogramming Worked
22 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The fear of cults in the 1970s drove Americans to look the other way on kidnappings, abuse and tortu...
The Great Nuclear Winter Debate of 1983
17 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
At the height of the Cold War, a group of concerned scientists promoted their findings on the horrif...
How Publicists Work
15 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Some people call them flacks. Other people call them liars. But if you're in the public eye and sudd...
How Chili Peppers Work
10 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Born and raised in South America, chilis were the earliest crop domesticated in the continent and am...
How Police Dogs Work
08 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Police dogs have been used since the 19th century - one WWI German defector became a major movie sta...
How Alcoholism Works
03 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the US, 17 million people are alcoholics. Not merely abusing alcohol, these sufferers become phys...
How to Donate Your Body to Science
01 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Donating your whole body to further science and medicine is probably the best thing you could do wit...
Nirvana: Not The Band
27 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Hinduism and Buddhism are closely related in a number of ways, including their vision of what comes ...
How Hot Air Balloons Work
25 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Arguably the most beautiful objects in the entire world, hot air balloons take advantage of some int...
How Umami Works!
20 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
For millennia humans have recognized four tastes, but in the 1980s a fifth taste first isolated in J...
Pigeons: Homing, Passenger, Carrier and Otherwise
18 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Pigeons can get a little confusing. Passengers, messengers, carriers, homing - the list goes on. But...
Hula-Hoops: The Toy That's A Shape
13 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We've covered our fair share of pop-culture icons and here is another - Hula-Hoops. They've been aro...
How Auto-Tune Works
11 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What began as a challenge to an oil engineer to make a terrible singer into a pitch-perfect one, Aut...
How Droughts Work
06 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Droughts can be an inevitable feature of a local climate or a catastrophic result of human meddling....
How Earth-Like Planets Work
04 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Since the Kepler telescope went online, astronomers have found there may be an estimate 40 billion p...
How Bats Work
30 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
They are creepy, sure, but they are also useful, cute and in great danger of extinction. Get a new l...
How Profiling Works
28 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
At its base, criminal profiling is a legitimate investigatory tool. The Supreme Court has drawn a cl...
Road Rage: GRRRR!!!
23 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
About half of all people experience rage on a daily basis when they get behind the wheel. What is it...
How Citizen's Arrests Work
21 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In some states, it is not only your right but your duty to arrest someone you see committing a crime...
The Time Nazis Invaded Florida
16 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
During World War II, Nazis invaded the United States with saboteurs bent on fomenting chaos. Three t...
How the Terracotta Army Works
14 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974, Chinese farmers discovered the first of what would number 7,000 terracotta soldiers meant t...
How Brickfilm Works
09 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What began as a pair of teens who made a film for their grandparents has exploded into its own art f...
How Egypt's Pyramids Work
07 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Pyramids can be found in ruins around the world, but no civilization perfected the feat of engineeri...
How Circus Families Work
02 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Don't be confused - this one is about actual circus acts made of family members, not the controversi...
How Audience Testing Works
30 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know some of our most beloved movies originally had different, sometimes better, endings? Th...
Mosquitoes: The Worst
25 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Sun Tzu said know your enemy, and so it is in this spirit that we present this episode on one of the...
How Landfills Work
23 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Well-planned landfills have only recently come into widespread use. Recently, waste managers have fo...
Are You My Mother?: How Animal Imprinting Works
18 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What do little baby ducklings have to do with Nazis? A lot actually. Find out about animal imprintin...
How BASE Jumping Works
16 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
You should never BASE Jump. It is one of the most genuinely dangerous sports on the planet. But with...
Bridges: Nature Abhors Them
11 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
From prehistoric logs across streams to the 102-mile Kunshan Grand Bridge, nature works ceaselessly ...
How the Wow! Signal Works
09 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 1977, Ohio State astronomers discovered a radio transmission from space that was 30 times louder ...
How Ocean Currents Work
04 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It's easy to overlook the importance of ocean currents - they move along out at sea, while we stay m...
How Street Gangs Work
02 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The street gang problem in America peaked in the 1990s, but recent FBI reports find that gang member...
How Tupperware Works
28 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Tupperware won immediate design acclaim when it was released in 1947, but it took a pioneering femal...
How Junk Food Works
26 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Junk food is literally that, empty calories of energy that provide little nutritional value and usua...
How Color Works
21 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Science doesn't have a good explanation for why we sense color, yet it is everywhere and affecting u...
How Internet Censorship Works
19 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Some of it seems innocuous enough: protecting kids from unseemly sites or intellectual property from...
How Pinewood Derbies Work
14 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Tens of millions of Scouts, and their parents, have taken standard blocks of wood and turned them in...
Does the FDA Protect Americans?
12 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The FDA was the first consumer protection agency in the US. Since 1906, it's been issuing regulation...
Josh and Chuck Make It Through Male Puberty
07 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Around ages 9 or 10 a boy will begin to undergo a magical, surprising, weird, amazing, totally bonke...
How Therapeutic Hypothermia Works
05 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Physicians noticed centuries ago that people exposed to cold temperatures often have amazing recover...
How Spiders Work
30 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Spiders are second only to snakes in the dread departemnt, but they're actually very helpful arachni...
How Water Slides Work
28 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Water slides have been around in one form or another since the Romans. But back then they didn't kno...
Oh No, Snakes!
23 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If you think snakes are legless reptile carnivores, then you are exactly right. If you think snakes ...
How Clowns Work
21 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jesters of some sort have been around since ancient Egypt and China. Our modern clown was invented a...
How Zero Population Growth Works
16 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 1968, Paul Erlich published The Population Bomb, predicting coming famine and mass death. Erlich'...
How Slinky Works
14 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It has been called a "glorified spring", but Slinky is one of the best selling toys of all time. Fro...
What's the deal with blood types?
09 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Blood types have one of the more interesting backstories in medical history. But as much as we've fi...
Polyamory: When two just won't do
07 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck dive into the world of polyamory. Turns out...
Thanks, Easter Bunny! Bock Bock!
02 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Easter from Stuff You Should Know! Learn all about Easter, from its humble beginnings as a pag...
Does the body replace itself?
31 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Does the human body really replace itself every few years? The answer is yes, but different parts of...
How Desalination Works
26 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Why would people want to remove salt from water? To solve the world's water problem, that's why. Lea...
10 Bizarre Medical Treatments
24 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Medical science has a long and storied history of trying out cures and procedures that later strike ...
Earwax: Live With It
19 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Despite tons of people using cotton swabs each day to clean the earwax from their ears, cerumen (as ...
How Anesthesia Works
17 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The use of general anesthesia is less than 200 years old. Before doctors were able to cause unconsci...
How Tea Works
12 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Legend has it that tea was discovered by a curious Chinese emperor after leaves blew into his boiled...
How Fleas Work
10 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Fleas are the bane of the existence of pet owners. From their eggs to their lifespan to their feedin...
How Stonehenge Works
05 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Even as far back as the Roman invaders, people have had absolutely no idea just what the massive mon...
How ESP Works(?)
03 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Even though almost half of Americans believe in it, ESP usually is treated as a load of bull by skep...
Some Movies That Changed Filmmaking
26 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
An estimated 50,000 films were made worldwide in 2009 alone. Many are surely clunkers, but in this e...
Why Do Lefties Exist?
24 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
For at least the last 200,000 years, between 10-15% of the human population are left-handed and this...
How Perfume Works
19 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Women consistently rate scent as the most important factor in a man's attractiveness and men have be...
Is there treasure on Oak Island?
17 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Off Nova Scotia, the tiny spit of land called Oak Island has been host to waves of treasure hunters ...
What is folklore?
12 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What is folklore? Turns out it's just about anything you can think of that's shared by more than two...
How Feng Shui Works
10 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Feng Shui is an Asian concept that strives to unlock your chi by how your home or office is arranged...
How Ice Cream Works
05 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We all scream for ice cream, sure, but did you know we're all technically screaming about a colloida...
Rainbows: Delighting humanity since forever
03 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Rainbows seem to defy nature, but they're really pretty simple when it comes down to it. Turns out i...
How Hot Wheels Work
29 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If you're an American who had a childhood, you probably have some nostalgia for Hot Wheels. Get your...
How Poison Ivy Works
27 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Poison ivy, oak and sumac are all variations of the same plant and they all can make you itch... if ...
Nostradamus: Predictor of the future? Not so much.
22 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Nostradamus delighted us all in grade school, but it turns out the real guy wasn't quite as prescien...
How the March on Washington Worked
20 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
1963 was a huge year of conflict and progress for the American Civil Rights Movement and the March O...
Juggling: What the Heck
15 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
There is a lot - A LOT - to juggling and Chuck and Josh go over the lion's share of it. Delve into t...
How the Scientific Method Works
13 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It evolved over centuries to become the gold standard for conducting scientific inquiry. Yet many pe...
How Online Gambling Works
08 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Pretty much immediately after the Internet was opened to the world online gambling sites sprang up. ...
How Jim Henson Worked
06 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We've already recorded an episode on The Muppets, but Jim Henson was such a neat guy we delved into ...
SYSK Live: How Bars Work
01 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Join Josh and Chuck live from Vancouver as they dive in to the ins and outs of one of the oldest bus...
How Sea Monsters Work
30 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Legends of sea monsters are as old as humanity, and some ancient cultures even credited with creatin...
Josh and Chuck's 2014 Christmas Extravaganza!
25 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It's that time of year again! Time to get cozy and tuck in with Josh and Chuck as they spread glad t...
How the GED Test Works
23 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The GED test was once part of a non-profit organization. That all changed in 2014, when it was priva...
How Cinnamon Works
18 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In another commodities edition of SYSK, Josh and Chuck dive into the world of cinnamon, once the wor...