Shows / Cool Stuff Daily
Cool Stuff Daily
Cool Stuff Daily covers the most interesting and coolest stories in the world of science, progress, life-hacks, memes, exciting art, and hope. This is the antidote to depressing headlines. Smart stuff in podcast form. Cool news, as a service. Hosted by Zach Morris.
Episodes
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 03/25 - Digital Rest Stop Ahead
Digital resting points are an increasingly popular way to recharge and slow down in the midst of endless scrolling. Plus, are we facing a “sensory extinction?”…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 03/24 - You're Not Actually Laughing, lol
The origin and fascinating evolution of “lol.” Plus, it turns out the speed of sound on Mars is different and weirder than anticipated. And some of the…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 03/23 - Lettuce Medicine, Ranch Diamonds, & eWaste Coins
How genetically-modified lettuce grown in space could protect astronauts’ bones on long voyages. Plus, meet Doug, the false potato stripped of Guinness World…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 03/22 - Competitive Water Drinkers On YouTube: One of the Internet's Last Friendly Places?
Turns out humans have been cooking and enjoying carbs for much longer than we initially thought, and the experiments some archaeologists have been conducting…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 03/21 - Squid Tech to Prevent Human Sunburns
How to appear effortlessly charming to new people you meet. Plus, using squid technology to protect humans from the sun. And a new generation of search apps…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 03/18 - What Do We Lose By Keeping The Lights On?
Should we be making a greater effort to reduce light pollution? Plus, scientists are trying to use murder hornets’ own sexual behavior to eradicate them. And…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 03/17 - Why Are Movies So Long These Days?
Why have movies gotten so long recently? Plus, the startups working to develop lab-created chocolate. And a nightmarish creature from Texas to rival all the…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 03/16 - Permanent Daylight Saving Time?
How Prohibition was far more global and far more progressive than it’s often portrayed. And, is the United States about to stay in Daylight Saving Time…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 03/15 - Solar Storms & Subvariants, But It's All Fine
Subvariants, spikes, and sewers. A few indicators remind us that we’re not quite out of the woods yet when it comes to COVID. Plus, a new method that shows how…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 03/14 - Why COVID Causes Loss of Smell and How To (Maybe) Get It Back
How many digits of pi is the right amount to use? Plus, what actually causes people to lose their sense of smell when they get COVID? And how can you work to…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 03/11 - Abe Lincoln: Telegraph Influencer
Abraham Lincoln was a telegraph power-user, and the one thousand telegrams he sent during his presidency might have helped the US win the Civil War. Plus, an…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 03/10 - We Need To Talk About The Spiders
The giant yellow spiders set to invade the eastern seaboard of North America are… not as scary as the internet is making them seem. Plus, the Smithsonian is…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 03/09 - Why Has "Z" Become a Pro-War Symbol?
One of the most famous shipwrecks has finally been discovered at the bottom of a sea in Antarctica. Plus, why the letter “Z” has become a Russian pro-war…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 03/08 - Diamonds Are the Air's Best Friend
Giving all new meaning to “taking a leaf out of their book,” medieval literature scholars have adopted ecological models to quantify lost works of fiction…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 03/07 - Why Have Some Of Us Never Gotten COVID?
After two years, why have some of us never gotten COVID? Plus, the surprisingly artistic and wonderful Squirrel Census. And a volcanic rock in Japan rumored to…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 03/04 - How Hybrid Work Could Change Cities & the Workforce
Is it possible for ocean cleanup programs to do more harm than good? And how might offices, cities, and the nature of work itself change if––as looks…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 03/03 - Designing Gotham: Batman's Universal Hometown
A look at how the design of Gotham City has changed throughout each incarnation of Batman, reflecting the soul and vengeance of the caped crusader. Plus, the…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 03/02 - Death to Plastic
175 nations have agreed to craft a legally binding treaty to reel in the world’s out-of-control plastic problem. Plus, remember that rocket booster no one is…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 03/01 - Dino Drama: Should Tyrannosaurus Be Split Into Three Species?
Is the tyrannosaurus rex going to be broken up into three species? Plus, we’ve talked a lot about meat alternatives, but now it’s time for: dairy milk…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 02/28 - Pres. Zelensky's Uncanny Comedy Career & the Perils of Idol-worship
That thing you’re looking at right now, it’s already fifteen seconds in the past. Plus, new findings from Apple and Harvard’s giant period-tracking study. And…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 02/25 - The Meme Accounts Behind Misinformation
The meme accounts behind some of the spread of misinformation already this week, as well as some guidance for seeking out and sharing accurate information…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 02/24 - The Little-Known Women Who Saved Millions of Children
The too-little-known story of the creation of the whooping cough vaccine. Plus, the remarkable initiatives in Taiwan that are helping keep the country clean…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 02/23 - I'm Feeling Lucky
Why does Google still have the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button? And what do the ways Google Search has changed mean for us as a society? Plus, a proposed global…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 02/22 - Hot Jupiter Is Raining Gems
The mysteries of people with super color vision. Plus, a Hot Jupiter that rains gems. And Hank the Tank, the furry 500 pound dumpster diving home invader…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 02/21 - Emo Poet & Wrestling Champ Abe Lincoln
Hundreds of birds dropped from the sky in northern Mexico. Why it happened and two brothers in India who heal birds who have suffered a similar fate. Plus…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 02/18 - Did the Index Destroy How We Read? Will eBooks?
How a medieval hatred of indexes mirrors debates today about how search engines are changing our brains. Plus, a round-up of the unceasing Wordle news and…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 02/17 - The Origins and Physics of Luge
The history and the science of luge, bobsledding, and skeleton. Plus, a new study has found that the US’s corn-based ethanol is worse for the climate than…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 02/16 - EPCOT 2.0? Disney's New Residential Housing Communities
A new startup that is working on making steaks and chicken breasts out of thin air. Plus, the first woman has seemingly been cured of HIV. And Disney is…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 02/15 - The Love Story Behind the High Five Wikipedia Page
Uncovering the story behind two anonymous people whose photographs serve as instructions on the high five Wikipedia entry. Plus, people apparently find…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 02/14 - Rejected Olympic Sports
Speed skiing, synchronized skating, ski ballet, and other rejected sports from the Olympics. Plus, remember that SpaceX rocket stage headed for the moon? Turns…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 02/11 - Rams vs. Bengals In the Wild
MoviePass is back and it wants to track your eyeballs. Plus, who would win in a real-world animal showdown: a ram or a Bengal tiger? NASA has released the…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 02/10 - Valentine's Meat Juice
A possible third planet has been spotted orbiting Proxima Centauri. Plus, a new record has been set by a nuclear fusion lab in the UK. And, just in time for…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 02/09 - 300 y/o Arctic Sponges Found Surviving on Fossilized Worms
The mysterious century-old sponges somehow surviving on a dead underwater mountain near the North Pole. Plus, doctors in Canada can now prescribe patients…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 02/08 - Wine Bricks To The Rescue + Decoding Dickens & Digital Dollars
Is a national digital currency coming to the US? And what would that look like? Plus, coders have teamed up with scholars of British literature to decode…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 02/07 - How Many Micromorts Is Listening To This Podcast?
Micromorts, the unit of measurement that predicts your risk of death. How effective are they and how could we make it more effective, especially with regards…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 02/04 - The "Eminently Boycottable" Olympics
The Olympic Games have officially begun––how to reconcile excitement for the sports and the spectacle with the reality of the situation. Plus, controversy is…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 02/03 - Where Did Numbers Come From?
When did we start counting? Are numbers just a modern human concept? Plus, we have more details about the impending end of the International Space Station as…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 02/02 - How Many Weeks of Winter When the Groundhog Dies?
How does your brain know when you’ve had enough to drink each time you take a sip of water? Plus, a Groundhog Day tragedy, how North America came to celebrate…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 02/01 - 2,500 Subway Cars Under the Sea
The New York City subway cars taking on a second job on the ocean floor. Plus, a successful drone created using Leonardo da Vinci’s aerial screw design. And…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 01/31 - I Want a Christmas Moon Tree & A Shot of Spikevax
The lost history of moon trees. Not quite as exciting as it sounds, but still really cool. Plus, the lineup of new emojis that just dropped on iOS 15.4––as…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 01/28 - Why the Metaverse Doesn't Have Legs
Catalonia is set to pardon a thousand people who were condemned for witchcraft four hundred years ago. Plus, a mysterious object discovered in our galaxy has…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 01/27 - The History of “sus” is… pretty sus
What’s up with the drastically different predictions for this weekend’s Nor’easter, and how is snowfall measured anyways? Plus, the sus-prisingly long history…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 01/26 - Dun, Dun, Duuuuun!
Is there liquid water under Mars ice cap or isn’t there? Recent studies have claimed both. And what about an underground ocean on Saturn’s death star moon?…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 01/25 - Extreme Ironing: Can You Take The Heat?
A look into the world of extreme ironing. Plus, how China has been making strides in controlling the weather by shooting rockets at clouds. And, a much more…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 01/24 - Why Do Americans Eat So Much Peanut Butter?
The James Webb Space Telescope has officially reached its destination. What can we expect next? And why do Americans eat so much more peanut butter than anyone…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 01/21 - False Bananas & Sexy Skeletons
How a new technique for 3D printing metal could revolutionize manufacturing. Plus, the great potential of the false banana. And archeology’s “sexual…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 01/20 - A Film Studio IN SPACE
Some reassurance from the experts that being bad at Wordle is not a sign you’re less smart than everyone else. Plus, the International Space Station is getting…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 01/19 - No Fries, Pricey Lumber, & Fake Soup
From french fries to snow plows, the global shortages continue. But are we starting to see the beginning of a whole new world for workers and the supply chain?…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 01/18 - tl;dr idk (and that's ok)
Choosing to remain in the dark; on the power of “deliberate ignorance.” Plus, AI that can make academic articles more comprehensible, and one site in…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 01/17 - What's In a Name? From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to MLK
The thought leaders who inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plus, his childhood name change, what to make of his legacy, and more. Also today, what caused the…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 01/14 - The Internet's (and French Dressing's) Identity Crisis
What is slow internet and is it a thing we should still be striving towards? What about slow email? Plus, in some very pressing news, the US Food & Drug…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 01/13 - Un-distilled Non-Whiskey & the King of No One
The growing market for non-alcoholic beers, and a new “undistilled non-whiskey” that’s arrived just in time for Dry January. Plus, the search for a new king of…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 01/12 - Go Ahead and Listen To This Episode at 1.5x Speed
The real physics of Wile E. Coyote’s 10 billion volt electromagnet. Plus, cannabis can prevent SARS CoV-2 from spreading. Technically. And does listening to…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 01/11 - Wordle Wordle Everywhere
A human has received a genetically-altered pig’s heart in a transplant for the first time ever. Plus, China’s lunar lander found water on the moon. And a look…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 01/10 - Deep Space Tardigrades
Scientists are working on a plan to shoot tardigrades into interstellar space on lasers. Plus, the James Webb Space Telescope is so-far going better than…
Cool Stuff DailyFri. 01/07 - Boaty McBoatface and the Doomsday Glacier
How Boaty McBoatface is helping diagnose the severity of the situation at the Doomsday Glacier in Antarctica. Plus, it looks like solar shingles are finally…
Cool Stuff DailyThu. 01/06 - 1922's Predictions for 2022 + FOVs (Fish-Operated Vehicles)
A look at predictions for today from a 1922 article in The New York Herald. Plus, move over self-driving cars, introducing fish-operated vehicles. And car…
Cool Stuff DailyWed. 01/05 - The Climate Emergency: Reasons to Hope
Gravity as a possible solution to one major drawback of wind and solar power, and reasons to be cautiously optimistic about our prospects for the climate…
Cool Stuff DailyTue. 01/04 - Time Capsules in a Confederate Statue & the History of the Future
The history and future of predicting the future. Plus, a new “open-source” COVID vaccine that could help way more people around the world get vaccinated. And…
Cool Stuff DailyMon. 01/03 - It's Raining Fish (Hallelujah)
A fresh argument for reclassifying Pluto as a full-fledged planet that would open the doors for way more planets than just the OG nine. Plus, it was raining…