Shows / Stuff You Should Know
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Episodes
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Freedom House Ambulance Services
As part of Black History Month, we wanted to share the little known story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service. Listen in to learn all about this seminal…
- Stuff You Should Know
The Disappearance of Lars Mittank
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…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: Why Are So Many Disembodied Feet Washing Ashore In British Columbia?
Between 2007 and 2016, 17 disembodied feet - still wearing shoes - have washed ashore between Washington and British Columbia. What's behind the sudden influx…
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How Housing Discrimination Works
Owning a home in the US is a way to pass wealth down from one generation to the next and lift families into a comfortable life down the road. But there have…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: How California Got Its Name
California is a pretty cool name. And the story about where it came from is even cooler. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
- Stuff You Should Know
Sacagawea: Impressive Teen
Sacagawea was only 16 when she joined the Corps of Discovery. That is one seriously impressive teenager. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: Earwax: Live With It
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 beneficial to…
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The NAACP
The NAACP has long been one of the most robust and effective non-profits in the USA. And while it has faded a bit from its glory days, it still remains a vital…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Balloonfest
In 1986 Cleveland released more than a million helium balloons at once! It didn’t go at all according to plan! Learn more about your ad-choices at…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Groundhog Day Works
You know Groundhog Day – the holiday on February 2 when you wake up and have to go through the same day over and over again. It turns out the holiday has deep…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: Maggots: Good For Healing Wounds, Turns Out
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 an…
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How Hydropower Works
Humans have been stealing energy from flowing water for at least two thousand years. It wasn’t until the advent of electricity that things really got cookin’…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Vantablack
How black is vantablack? About as black as you could imagine. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See…
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The KKK: Loathsome Cosplay Rednecks
The history of the KKK is rooted in hatred and racism, and it still is today. Learn all about these loathsome rednecks today. Learn more about your ad-choices…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: How Blimps Work
After newsreels captured the Hindenburg erupting in fire in 1937, the promising development of airship aviation was cut short. Today companies and militaries…
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Finding the Fenn Treasure
In 2010 an eccentric art dealer hid a treasure chest with $2 million in valuables somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and published a poem with clues on where to…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Necco
If you think Necco Wafers are the most disgusting candy on the planet, you are not alone. But it turns out there’s a rich history behind those chalky discs…
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What does a tire company know about food?
The Michelin Guide is an institution. But why does the famous tire manufacturer even put this restaurant guide out? Listen in to find out. Learn more about…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: What Was the Deal With the Hatfields and McCoys?
It was America's most famous family feud, but the history of the Hatfields vs the McCoys is fraught with bias and inaccuracies. Dig into a disagreement in…
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The Science of Cute
If you took our advice and looked up baby beavers a few episodes back, you probably found them sooooo cute you couldn’t stand it. Or you just wanted to eat…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Silverfish
Should you be afraid of these creepy little creatures you find in your basement? Only one way to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
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Hell! Hell! Hell!
What is Hell? It's complicated and depends on which religion you're talking about. We dive into this fiery mess and do our best to explain it. Learn more about…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: How Skateboarding Works
Skateboarding started out as something bored surfers did when the waves weren't breaking, but after a few improvements to the design, it took off like a rocket…
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The Wright Brothers
Orville and Wilbur Wright were not trained professionals, but they were rigorous experimenters who ended up changing the world. Learn more about your…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Is It Theater or Theatre?
Have you ever noticed sometimes theaters – we mean, theatres – oh, forget it – places where you see movies or plays – are sometimes spelled two different ways?…
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Space Weather - What's That?!
Did you know space has weather? It’s true! In our solar system, tons – literal tons – of highly charged gas and magnetized particles spew from the surface…
Stuff You Should KnowSelects: How Auto-Tune Works
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, obnoxious)…
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La Dame de Fer (Eiffel Tower)
The Eiffel Tower is one of the top destinations on Planet Earth. It turns out to be a pretty cool feat of engineering as well. Learn more about your ad-choices…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Ig-pay Atin-lay (Sorry)
Turns out we have little kids from the 19th century, the Three Stooges, and an odd musical composer named Arthur Fields to thank for pig latin. Learn more…
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Theremins: World's First Electronic Music
In 1919 a brilliant Russian scientist accidentally stumbled onto the first electronic musical instrument in history – the theremin – which you play not by…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Sugar: It Powers the Earth
Since sugar spread from Polynesia a few thousand years ago, the world has been crazy for it. Insanely high prices, wars and even slavery couldn't undo world's…
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The SYSK 2020 Holly Jolly Extravaganza!
It's here again! Our annual ad-free holiday spectacular. So pour up a hot toddy, throw a log on the fire and listen with the whole family! Learn more about…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Chinese Food on Christmas
What started out as a tradition among Jewish people on the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century has become a full-blown American holiday custom…
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How Buffets Work
Buffets are every kid’s dream – until they grow up enough to realize how gross communal spreads of food shared with strangers actually are. Then the dream is…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: The Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978
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 can never…
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Aspirin: The Wonder Drug
Humans have been using a form of aspirin for pain relief since at least the Sumerians. But in recent years we’ve come to learn the wonder drug is indeed…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Modern Funerals
The way we deal with our dead has changed a lot over the past 50 years. Learn all about it in 12-15 minutes right here. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
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Joseph Merrick, aka "The Elephant Man"
Joseph Merrick was known as The Elephant Man because of his suffering from what we now know was Proteus Synrome. Learn all about this brave man in today's…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: What is a hangover, really?
After a night of heavy boozing, many partygoers find themselves the victim of a hangover. But what exactly is a hangover, and what causes it? Join Chuck and…
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The Taliesin Massacre
Everyone knows who Frank Lloyd Wright is, but did you know there was a grisly massacre at his home in 1914? Learn more about your ad-choices at…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Cramming
Cramming is no way to study. Learn why in today's short stuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See…
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How Class Action Lawsuits Work
Class action lawsuits seem a little odd – a bunch of people get together for a sue-fest against somebody – but in the legal world they’re a practical way of…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Chaos Theory Changed the Universe
Since the age of Descartes, science has put all of its eggs in the basket of determinism, the idea that with accurate enough measurements any aspect of the…
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John Lennon and the FBI
Did you know that Richard Nixon had a FBI case file open on Beatle John Lennon? Well he did! Why? Listen in to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Pimento Cheese!
Pimento cheese was originally nothing like it is now: It was mass produced, it was made from cream cheese and it was conceived in New York. Today it’s…
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Cabbage Patch Kids: Must-Have Toy of the Century
Surprisingly, Cabbage Patch Kids have turned up on SYSK almost as much as the Nazis or Seinfeld. It’s finally time to dive all the way into CPKs, from their…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Tea Works
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 popularity…
- Stuff You Should Know
Gobble Gobble: Turkeys!
Turkeys are a very interesting bird as it turns out. Which may be why many people are leaving it off their Thanksgiving table this year. Learn all about them…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: How Eyes In a Painting Follow You
Ever noticed how eyes in a painting sometimes follow you around the room? It’s weird! But it’s also fully explainable and Josh and Chuck do just that here…
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Patty Hearst: Brainwashed or Bandit?
Patty Hearst was a young heiress living a quiet life studying art history at college when one Monday evening her home was invaded, she was kidnapped, and her…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Whatever happened to acid rain?
Along with the hole in the ozone layer, acid rain was one of the first international environmental threats. It's fallen to the wayside in the face of climate…
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The Great War of the Worlds Panic Myth
On Halloween 1938 young radio star Orson Welles scared the pants off of America with a fictional news bulletin claiming Martians had landed and were destroying…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Squirrel Nuts
We know squirrels hide nuts. But it's actually more complex a system than you think. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com…
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How Pain Works
In recent decades we’ve come to understand that there’s a lot more to pain than: touch hot stove/feel burning hand. Pain is a far more sophisticated experience…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Who Gets to Name Continents?
America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, right? Maybe not. And who named Australia? Find out the unusually uncertain origins of the continents and other…
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How Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Works
For almost a century, Macy’s department store has kicked off the holidays in America with a grand parade. And when you march thousands of clowns, lip synching…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Plastic Pink Flamingos
Plastic flamingos started out as innocent yard art, transformed into folk art, and have become a (kind of mean) symbol of high campiness. There’s a lot to this…
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The Bay of Pigs Disaster
The Bay of Pigs is one of the blackest of eyes on American foreign policy. Learn all about this dark spot of American history today. Learn more about your…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Geysers: Nature's Innuendo
The spectacular eruptions of steam and water we call geysers are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the result of thousands of years of specific natural…
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All the Gold In Fort Knox: Meh
When Fort Knox was built in the 1930s to house America’s gold supply, it was billed as an impenetrable, impregnable, don’t-even-think-of-trying vault. But as…