How Barbie Doll Works
20 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Josh and Chuck explore the history, cultural impact and feminist ire raised by the ...
Lab-grown meat: Order up!
18 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Since Winston Churchill predicted we'd grow meat in a lab by 1981, researchers have considered doing...
How Condoms Work
13 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The earliest depiction of a condom is found in a 15,000-year-old cave painting. Ever since humans re...
Will we reach peak oil?
06 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
A 2012 report showed that the U.S. may be energy-independent in just a few years, but not too long a...
How Vampires Work
04 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Out of obligation, Chuck and Josh mention Twilight, but it is the longstanding vampire lore that get...
How Caving Works
29 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Entrances to the underworld have been places of wonder for eons, and humans have ventured into caves...
Why do leaves change colors in the fall?
27 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Ah, autumn - arguably the most beautiful time of the year, thanks to the vibrant colors trees put on...
Philanthropy: Humankind and Loving It
22 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Sure the fatcats get all the credit for donating millions, but did you know US households making $20...
Should we be designing our children?
20 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In 2009, a fertility clinic controversially offered parents the ability to customize their children....
How Meth Works
15 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You know how when you do a lot of crystal methamphetamine you get meth mouth, where your teeth decay...
How close are we to holographic environments?
13 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Star Trek was famous for its holodeck, a completely immersive holographic environment that could be ...
What will happen when we reach the Singularity?
08 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Futurists have unnervingly predicted an impending moment in human history: the Singularity, when a s...
Yakuza: From Samurai to Slot Machines
06 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The Yakuza trace their lineage back to the 18th century samurai, left masterless following political...
SYSK's Halloween Horror Fiction Winner!
30 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Josh and Chuck have been planning this thing since spring and it's finally here! Tune in to hear whi...
Exoskeletons: How's it coming?
25 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Since the 1960s, the Pentagon has called for a suit that can make a soldier jump higher, run faster ...
How Commercial Jingles Work
23 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You probably can recite five right now. Commercial jingles are designed to hijack your working memor...
How Lion Taming Works
18 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Bossing a lion around in front of a crowd at a circus has been an attraction for 200 years, but exac...
How Black Holes Work
16 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn't too long ago when black holes were strictly predictions in theoretical math. Over decades,...
How Pizza Works!
11 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Sure it's everywhere and there's a more-than-90-percent chance you eat it once a month. But we'll be...
How Rainforests Work
09 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
It's been called the world's lungs, the world's pharmacy and the world's air conditioner. It takes u...
How Fire Works
04 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Creating fire was possibly the most important human discovery, but it's easy to take for granted. Bu...
How Whiskey Runners Worked
02 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Sure, Chuck and Josh have discussed it before, but it's worth revisiting: Running moonshine led to t...
Subways: HUH! What are they good for?
27 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
As ubiquitous as they've become, it's easy to overlook the marvels of engineering that are subways. ...
Q: Are we in the midst of cyberwar? A: Yes
25 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
There's a secret war going on around us, and it's happening on a daily basis. The Air Force recently...
Why does music provoke emotion?
20 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
A well-crafted piece of music can bring us to incredible highs and crushing lows, sometimes within t...
Are we all Martians?
18 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
There's a very good question that no one has yet satisfactorily answered: Where did life on Earth co...
How Book Banning Works
13 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to control the masses, control what they read. After all, books are seeds that germinate...
How Asexuality Works
11 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
When Alfred Kinsey conducted his sex surveys he turned up, but ignored, a fourth sexual orientation:...
Bioluminescence: A Bright and Shiny Fish
06 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Science has a handle on fireflies and glowworms, but most bioluminescent animals live in the ocean a...
Can you test a nuclear weapon without a fallout?
04 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of human existence, thousands of nuclear weapons have been exploded on Earth and in ...
How Flesh-eating Bacteria Work
30 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Possibly the most horrifically-named disease anyone could contract, flesh-eating bacteria can lead q...
How the Electoral College Works
28 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
When you vote in an American presidential election, you're not voting for your candidate - you're vo...
What happens to abandoned mines?
23 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know there are as many as 500,000 abandoned mines in the US, but the federal government know...
Why You Probably Have a Criminal Record
21 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
If you're an American adult, there's a 1 in 4 chance you have a criminal record. While it's less lik...
Did Reagan's Star Wars program win the Cold War?
16 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Putting lasers in space to blast Soviet missiles out of the air was a very real part of Ronald Reaga...
The Shark Diaries
14 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode of Stuff You Should Know, Chuck and Josh tip their hats to Shark Week with a...
How Shark Attacks Work
09 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
A shark attack is a terrifying experience for the victim -- but are sharks really man-eating monster...
How Ramadan Works
07 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
It's the holiest month of the Muslim calendar, and for good reason. It was during the month of Ramad...
Can we build an elevator to space?
02 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
With the end of the shuttle program and an International Space Station still in need of supplies, th...
How the Musketeers Worked
31 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You know and love them as a fluffy chocolate nougat and maybe as a book and a movie, but musketeers ...
How Time Travel Works (Live at SD Comic-Con)
26 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
How does time travel work? Could it ever cross the line from science fiction into science fact? Join...
How White-collar Crime Works
24 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
White-collar crime often involves fraud and other nonviolent acts. For most people, the term "white-...
How Lightning Works
12 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You've seen lightning before, and maybe you're even afraid of it. You should be. The air is ripped a...
Geysers: Nature's Innuendo
10 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The spectacular eruptions of steam and water we call geysers are only the tip of the proverbial iceb...
How Tabloids Work
05 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Having started as an egalitarian answer to 19th-century newspapers, tabloids came to peddle shock an...
Is the Dead Sea dead?
03 Jul 2012
Contributed by Lukas
An anomaly of geography, the shores of Dead Sea form the lowest dry spot on Earth. It's been visited...
What's the deal with Executive Orders?
28 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Depending on who's in office, they're either a presidential tradition or the acts of a despot. Execu...
10 Accidental Inventions: By the Numbers
21 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Every once in a while Chuck and Josh do things by the numbers and here's a good example. Turns out a...
How Icebergs Work (Very Cool)
19 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
" Icebergs: floating chunks of ice. True, but whoa there. Scientists are learning that there's a lot...
Whatever happened to acid rain?
14 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Along with the hole in the ozone layer, acid rain was one of the first international environmental t...
Should we have a fat tax?
12 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The concept of fighting unhealthy behavior like overeating by taxing unhealthy food has been around ...
Fractals: Whoa
07 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1980s, IBM mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot gazed for the first time upon his famous fractal. ...
How Moss Works
05 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Think you have moss figured out? You probably don't. Join Josh and Chuck as they explore some of the...
Can it rain frogs?
31 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
If you've seen the movie Magnolia, you've seen what it looks like to rain frogs. While there are rep...
Do video games produce real-life violence?
29 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The disturbing trend of school shootings around the world has dragged violence in video games into t...
Are we obsessed with goals?
24 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
We've all been brought up to keep our eyes on the prize and our pedal to the medal when we go for th...
How Labor Unions Work
22 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Yes, it's true: Unions have a shady mob-related past and were originally championed by anarchists. B...
What is the future of Earth?
17 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
What will the Earth be like in 5,000 or 50,000 years? In this far-sighted episode, Josh and Chuck ex...
Interpol: World Police
15 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Interpol is an international police agency that helps other law-enforcement agencies track criminals...
What is a shotgun house?
10 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Shotgun houses are iconic pieces of American architecture: they're long, narrow, and filled with art...
Did the Dutch trade Manhattan for nutmeg?
08 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Today nutmeg is commonplace, but this wasn't always the case. In the 17th century, the Dutch and the...
How Bullfighting Works
03 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
When the Visigoths ruled Spain, they introduced the idea of battling bulls at festivals. Today matad...
How did language evolve?
01 May 2012
Contributed by Lukas
" Sure animals talk in their own way, with chirps and grunts and the like, but only humans can form ...
How Medical Marijuana Works
26 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Some quarters of the medical establishment endorse it, others abhor it. The DEA is cracking down on ...
How Air Traffic Control Works
24 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You know how when you fly in an airline you usually don't die? You can thank the battalion of air tr...
Social Security Numbers: Less Boring Than You'd Think
19 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Do you know that up until July 2011 an ambitious hacker with a good software program could deduce yo...
How Whaling Works
17 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Despite its embattled status as brutal and illegal, commercial whaling is a tradition that dates bac...
Body Odor: You Stink
11 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Chuck and Josh end up making reduxes of past episodes on things like sweating and deodorant in this ...
Was Atlantis a real place?
10 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
While the search for Atlantis has been pushed to the fringes since the 19th century, archaeologists ...
How Diamonds Work
03 Apr 2012
Contributed by Lukas
There's no denying that diamonds are pretty -- but where do they come from, and why are they so expe...
How Music Sampling Works
29 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Today music sampling is a common practice, especially in electronic or hip-hop music. But how does i...
10 Big Cases of Revenge
27 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Who doesn't love a good story about comeuppance? Whether served cold or piping hot, revenge is an an...
How Tipping Works
22 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Tipping is commonly expected in some places, such as U.S. restaurants. Yet this practice varies acro...
How Comic Books: Live from SXSW
20 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Although you might not be a fan of comic books, there's no denying that they have a fascinating plac...
How the Donner Party Worked
15 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Did they or didn't they? There is plenty of written evidence that the ill-fated Donner Party resorte...
Should chimps be used for medical testing?
13 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
If you've got half a heart it's an easy question to answer. But if you're happy living without polio...
How Noah's Ark Worked
08 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Stories of a great flood and a man who managed to stay afloat while the world drowned abound in anci...
Duels: A guide to throwing down the gauntlet
06 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Pretty much everything you know about duels is true - it's a challenge to violence to defend honor. ...
How SETI Works
01 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
SETI stands for 'search for extraterrestrial intelligence,' and the term is used to describe both th...
How Crying Works
28 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You probably did it around 70 times last year, yet you probably don't understand the psychological a...
Fasting: deadly or what?
23 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Avoiding food for religious or health reasons has been around for millennia. But while God may appre...
How Autopsies Work
16 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In the 400th episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck take a trip through the morgue and loo...
How Zero Works
14 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Few numbers have as storied a past as zero. Even fewer have had as great an impact on our ability to...
How Coral Reefs Work
09 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Coral reefs are the largest organic structures on Earth, yet they're created through a symbiotic rel...
Pickpockets: Artists or Crooks?
07 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
There aren't many criminal pursuits that are as storied as pickpocketing, and some people fondly rem...
How Floods Work
26 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Floods happen when more water is introduced to an area than can be quickly removed. That's about it,...
How Human Trafficking Works
24 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Despite worldwide prohibitions, slavery still exists. Slaves are forced or coerced into prostitution...
How Mexican Wrestling Works
19 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps it's the colorful masks or the high-flying, rapid-fire acrobatic moves. Whatever it is, ther...
Are contrails actually chemtrails?
17 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You know those trails that jets leave in the sky? While science has explained why they happen, plent...
What's the deal with the Bermuda Triangle?
12 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
There's roughly 500,000 squares miles encompassed in a triangle with points in Miami, Bermuda and Sa...
Can you vacation in Antarctica?
10 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The answer is yes, but there's a lot more to traveling to the southernmost continent. Learn why empe...
Was there a curse on King Tut's tomb?
05 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
When Howard Carter opened Tutankhamen's tomb, some believe he unleashed a curse on everyone associat...
How Yo-Yos Work
03 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
You may have played with a yo-yo before -- perhaps you've even walked the dog -- but do you know abo...
Coffee: The World's Drug of Choice
29 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
There's a 98 percent chance you're drinking coffee right now. Maybe not, sure, but coffee is ubiquit...
What happens in the brain during an orgasm?
27 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Chuck and Josh test the limits of their decorum as they explore the physiology of an orgasm. Learn a...
Josh and Chuck's Christmas Extravaganza
22 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered why the poinsettia is the official plant of Christmas or why we hang stocking...
How Pepper Spray Works
20 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Lt. John Pike of the Davis, Calif., police department brought the wrath of the Internet on himself w...
How Earthworms Work
15 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Earthworms come in a wide range of sizes: The average U.S. earthworm is 6 to 11 inches long, and the...
How the Digestive System Works
08 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
The digestive system uses mechanical and chemical processes to absorb and transport all the nutrient...
How Daylight Saving Time Works
06 Dec 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Franklin first came up with daylight saving time in 1748, and people still practice it toda...