Stuff You Should Know

The Duality of Caffeine

14 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Caffeine is a heck of a drug - at the same time it's both good and bad for you. Learn the good, bad and ugly about this everyday stimulant in today's ...

How Futurology Works

12 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Science fiction writers have made some amazingly accurate predictions over the years, but in 1945 the pace of technological change created a field tha...

Body Language!

07 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Body language is how you communicate without words. Some say it bears more impact in communication than speaking words. Learn about how you say what y...

The "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s

05 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1980s, the United States experienced a "Satanic Panic," leading parents to fear for the safety of their children. But were there any real ...

How Lizzie Borden Worked

31 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Everybody knows how many whacks Lizzie Borden gave her mother and father with that axe, but there is plenty about the infamous double homicide that re...

The Great Wall of China Episode

29 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The Great Wall of China is one of the most visited tourist desinations in the world. How'd it get built? How old is it? What's the current condition? ...

The Stuff You Should Know 2015 Jolly Christmas Extravaganza

24 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

It's the most wonderful time of year again! Join Chuck and Josh as they explore Christmas traditions around the world, tidbits about Elf, holiday food...

How Gossip Works

22 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

You know what I heard? That Josh and Chuck hate each other and they're just faking being friends for the show. That's called gossip, folks and it can ...

The Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978

17 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, George Lucas allowed the Star Wars Holiday Special to be made. What happened on the night of November 17, 1978 ...

How the Antikythera Mechanism Works

15 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In 1900 sponge divers found the wreck of a 2000 year-old treasure ship that contained within it a machine that should not exist. Learn of the device t...

How Reverse Psychology Works

10 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

You have very likely used reverse psychology before, trying to persuade someone to do something you want by suggesting they do the opposite. What's be...

Carl Sagan: American Hero

08 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Carl Sagan was the world's first mainstream media super scientist, capapble of breaking down complex ideas for the common folk. But what made him tick...

How HIV/AIDS Works, Part II

03 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In part two of the series on HIV/AIDS, Chuck and Josh explore how the battle against the disease is being fought and won thanks to new treatments and ...

How HIV/AIDS Works, Part I

01 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

AIDS is one of the most well-known and most misunderstood diseases humans are susceptible to. In part one of this two-part series, Josh and Chuck expl...

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. Learn all about the ways you're manipulated on a d...

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 them heroes, others call them criminals. Can they b...

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 pleasant surprise, countries around the world are ...

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. Get to know this legendary comic who was nearing 5...

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 hostile, which is odd considering science isn't fully ce...

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 thoroughly puzzled anyone who has tried to unlock its ...

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 maggots' ability to heal persistent wounds. We are in ...

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 probably grew up on fairy tales. That's appropriate beca...

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, incest, cannibalism and mayhem geared toward adu...

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 frightful tales about a haunted bog and a terrifying ...

How Passports Work

27 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The concept of passports - that people should enjoy protected freedom of movement - is an ancient one. It wasn't until WWI that they became universal....

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 to the Kardashians. Learn all about vocal fry, up...

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 from it to power the process and even create electr...

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's still a crime. Learn all about this weird, wide...

How Vestigial Organs Work

13 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Darwin asserted that seemingly useless organs and behaviors are left over from our evolutionary history. But as more are found to have a function, the...

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 refuses to die, despite virtually zero evidence of its ...

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 government. But petitioning the government is protected...

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 it, the candy took off and a symbol of childhood ...

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 of the amazing changes girls face when they come o...

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 warm your home or office. Learn all about geothermal ...

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 torture of cult members by deprogrammers - but did it e...

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 horrific aftereffects of nuclear war and were accused of...

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 suddenly have an image problem, you'll call them your ...

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 among the first items brought back to Europe by Colu...

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 star. But in the US the post-9/11 era has seen a K9 u...

How Alcoholism Works

03 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In the US, 17 million people are alcoholics. Not merely abusing alcohol, these sufferers become physically dependent on it, forming a chronic disease....

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 with your corpse. Which is why the industry that hand...

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 after we exit this mortal coil. Learn about the re...

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 interesting physics and have a long history of killin...

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 Japan gained worldwide acceptance - and took off li...

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 when it comes down to it, they're all variations ...

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 around since ancient time in some form or another, bu...

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, Auto-Tune has become a ubiquitous (and, to many, obno...

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. Learn the ins and outs of droughts including the ...

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 planets like Earth in the Milky Way galaxy alone. W...

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 lease on life from a new view of bats in this episo...

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 clear line that bans profiling when it includes race...

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 about driving that ticks us off so badly? Learn ...

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. Learn all about why you should basically never d...

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 times. Learn more about your ad-choices at https:/...

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 to protect China's first emperor in the afterlife. ...

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 form. Learn all about how stop-motion Lego films ar...

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 engineering like Pharaonic Egypt. Learn about the mysteries...

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 controversial comic strip. Learn more about your ad-choices ...

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? That is until they were tested in front of focus gro...

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 worst airborne pests in the world. Learn more ab...

How Landfills Work

23 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Well-planned landfills have only recently come into widespread use. Recently, waste managers have found that they work a little too well and now the l...

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 imprinting experiments and the debate over their ethics. L...

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 that out of the way, you should definitely learn ...

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 to take down spans. Learn about the fascinating in...

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 than the cosmic background noise. Since then every...

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 mostly on land. But we are globally affected by the...

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 membership doubled from 2006-2011. What's driving this i...

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 female executive to make a line of plastic food storage...

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 usually are stored as fat. Yet junk food is irresistib...

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 us all the time. But why should minutely different ...

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 piracy. But the tools to protect these things are...

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 into cars that zip along at up to 20 mph. Learn abou...

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 regulations meant to protect Americans from tainted food, in...

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 bonkers transformation from childhood to adulthood. To ...

How Therapeutic Hypothermia Works

05 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Physicians noticed centuries ago that people exposed to cold temperatures often have amazing recoveries from serious medical emergencies. Now medicine...

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 arachnids who are only deadly to humans under the worst c...

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 know what they had on their hands. With the birth of ...

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 are here to kill you then you are exactly wrong. L...

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 around 1800 and ever since they have been getting s...

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's predictions didn't pan out but his ideas launche...

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. From accidental origins to an unlikely resurrection, ...

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 figured out about them and how they work, we still d...

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 polyamorists aren't weirdos and deviants, they're...

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 pagan holiday to the multi-billion dollar industry it...

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 the body do so at different rates. Learn all abou...

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. Learn all about the efforts to desalinate H2O in chea...

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 us as wacky. And they're still at it today! Learn ...

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 earwax is clinically known) is actually quite bene...

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 unconsciousness in patients, surgery was brutal for all in...

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 water. Now tea is the second only to water in pop...

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 feeding habits, fleas are practically designed to be a n...

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 monument complex in England known as Stonehenge was b...

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 skeptics. But some respected researchers have dared to...

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 episode Chuck and Josh talk about the ones that eme...

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 fact has utterly left science baffled. In searchi...

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 been manipulating that for centuries with scents of ...

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 for more than 200 years. Some of them lost their l...

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 people. Art, literature, stories, dance, music, t...

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. Or at least that's the simplified "Western" vers...

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 colloidal foam? Prepare for deep cravings that will surely...