Stuff You Should Know

Eels are pretty much objectively unsettling. They’re not quite fish (although they are) and if they’re snakes, they’re messed up snakes (they aren’t). But they’re fascina...

George Mallory was a member of the first three European expeditions to Everest, world’s tallest mountain. He wanted to summit it so badly, he gave his life trying. Since that fateful day in 1924...

Hard to believe we haven't covered this one yet, but here we are. Why did the Hindenburg crash and burn? We still don't really know.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Strange but true, actor Tippi Hedron kickstsarted the Vietnamese manicure industry in the United States in the 1970s. This is that story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

If you don’t believe in any kind of god or afterlife - or even that there’s a meaning to life – does that mean you’re doomed to a life of gloom and doom? Heck no!, say humanist...

First of all, movies can't be cursed because curses aren't real. However, that can't stop Josh and Chuck from taking a look at some movies throughout history that have had a disturbing number of bad t...

Camp David is awesome. But not all presidents have liked it. We'll dig into this historic property in today's episiode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Kangaroos are the only marsupial to hop, which is pretty weird. We'll investigate why. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Boeing used to be one of the most respected engineering firms in the world. Then it changed its focus from making great airplanes to increasing its stock value. The result was the 737-MAX, a plane tha...

Psychologist Julian Jaynes came up with a stunning hypothesis in 1976, that human consciousness only developed in the last 3000 years. And he seemed to have proof in ancient texts. Scholars have been ...

Of course we're talking all about maple syrup today - the tapping, the processing, the eating.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

By all rights there should be three sets of molars in your mouth. But it turns out that our skulls aren’t really set up to accommodate that many anymore. Exactly why depends on who you ask.See o...

In the 1970s, conservation groups around the world rose up to protect dwindling whale populations, some on the verge of extinction. They all worked under the same banner: Save the Whales! It turned ou...

Fever dreams can be unsettling experiences. These ramped up nightmares are vivid, detailed and only happen when the human body experiences a fever. What is it about the combination of fevers and dream...

Humanity’s created a lot of neat things over the eons and starting in the 1940s, the UN created an agency focused on preserving those things for the whole world and future people. But that missi...

There’s a kind of bird that lots of people think is a real jerk. And it kind of is. But in the brown-headed cowbird’s defense, it’s just evolved that way. Find out why it has such a ...

Once in a while someone comes up with a solution for a problem we didn’t know we had, and maybe even a problem that didn’t even exist. Even more rarely, the stars align just right so that ...

In this classic episode Josh and Chuck sit down and detail the complicated life of the late, great Sammy Davis Jr.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

In 2014 a ferry carrying hundreds of South Korean high school students on a field trip sunk, killing almost everyone on board. Hauntingly, their deaths were fully avoidable: everyone from the dock ins...

The Japanese Cherry Blossom is a sight to behold. But how did they get to Washington D.C.?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

We all love to tour our generation's superiority, but who decides where the split occurs and what to name it? And is this even a thing or just an arbitrary division?See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

If you think secretly coded messages sent via short wave radio is Cold War relic, think again. In this classic episode, Chuck and Josh are here to dispel that myth, along with many others relating to ...

The worker co-op has a rich tradition and can work a variety of ways. Join us as we dig into the nuts and bolts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

If you think Spring Break started with northern college kids heading to Florida to party, you'd be correct. But there's slightly more to it than that. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

Jump in today to hear all about the disaster that was the movie ROAR.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

If you live in the Northeastern U.S. then you may know someone who has had Lyme disease. But it's spreading all over the country and parts of the world. Learn all about this tick-borne disease in this...

Deciding how to share water is pretty important stuff when there isn't much of it around. Today we dive into the Colorado River Compact.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Pretty much everyone agrees that English is a chaotic language. There are nutso rules of grammar and spelling other languages don’t have. More than once, movements have emerged to simplify Engli...

Lots of nations gauge the health of their country by how the middle class is doing. There’s just one issue with that – no one can say exactly what defines the middle class. But even when y...

In 2014, a young German man walked into an airport in Bulgaria with a flight booked, then suddenly ran out leaving all his posessions behind, never to be heard from again. This classic episode tells t...

Malcolm X was one of the most revered, feared leaders of the civil rights movement. In contrast to Martin Luther King, Jr., X advocated black self-reliance and separateness in American society and tha...

In 1876 it rained meat out of the clear blue sky on a homestead in Bath County, Kentucky. While the mystery of what happened will never be solved, the best explanation makes the story even weirder tha...

The first fires came from lightning strikes. After that, no one is super sure when we started controlling it and then later, starting our own. But it's sure fun to speculate!See omnystudio.com/listene...

If there's one thing we've learned about Chuck over the years it's that he loves his gin. And he loves it even more now that understands it. Pour yourself a martini and cozy up to the classic gin-cast...

Caterpillars are simply the best. Don't think so? Well listen in and you'll soon agree.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

If you thought caterpillars were awesome, just wait until you see them with colorful, iridescent wings!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

They seem gross and bothersome at first, but once you get down to ground level and get to know snails, we’ll bet you’ll grow quite fond of them. They are living in a whole world we’r...

Dandelions are way more interesting than you think. Trust us and click play.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Permaculture is a growing trend in the world of farming and home landscaping. It's basically a design principle that emphasizes sustainability and the would-be, natural ecosystem of an area. Simple co...

Unless you have an arcane disorder from a lesion on a very specific spot on our medulla, the chances are you sneeze. Turns out most animals do it, even lizards! Learn the whys and hows of this most in...

It’s time to get jazzed up for some Earth science of the waterlogged variety. Join Chuck and Josh as they tour some of the most interesting ecosystems on the planet and learn why we need to stop...

You may think composting is just a bunch of old banana peels rotting away into dirt but, friend, you're not looking closely enough. Inside that compost pile is a microcosmic universe doing some magica...

Squirrels are rodents, sure, but they’re rodents with personalities the size of Las Vegas and Detroit put together. Get to know your bushy-tailed (and sometimes not so bushy) neighbors who live ...

Honey is an amazing thing. Just ask any bee. They make a ton of it. So much that humans get what bees can't use and that's a lot of honey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

If you could put your leg behind your head, would you? Of course you would! You might even make a career out of it, amazing people around the world with your flexibility. That’d make you a conto...

The Jeddah Tower is set to be the tallest building in the world. If it ever gets finished. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Ruth Lyons basically invented the daytime talk show, yet she doesn't get the credit. Why is that? Probably because she was a woman in a man's industry. Today we tell her story.See omnystudio.com/liste...

Mangroves are incredible survivors and adapters. They're also amazing at lessening the impact of tropical storms and climate change. And heck, they're cool looking. So jump into the brackish waters an...

From the 1970s to the early 1990s a patch of land in Hong Kong the size of just a few football fields was the most densely-populated area in the world – and by a longshot. Even more remarkable, ...

Movies on planes have changed a lot in the last couple of decades. Today, we'll go over how this stuff works. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....