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 KnowWhat were the Freedom Schools?
Freedom Schools were set up in Mississippi in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, with the aim of giving young black school children agency and a future…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Fish n' Chips
How did these two wonderful strangers meet up and become best friends? The answers lie within today's short stuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
- Stuff You Should Know
Guardian Angels: Behind the Red Beret
If you grew up in the 1980s, then you know who the Guardian Angels are. If you don't then you're in for quite a story. Listen in! Learn more about your…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: What Happened at Kent State?
On May 4, 1970, four days of anti-war protests at Kent State University in Ohio culminated in the unthinkable when Ohio guardsmen opened fire on protesters…
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What are paraphilias?
Josh and Chuck dive into the world of paraphilias so you can get the skinny in 45 minutes or less. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Dare Stones
What happened to the Lost Colonists who disappeared from Roanoke Island in the 1580s remains a mystery to this day. But it’s possible a carved stone a man…
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We Are Running Out of Sand and That Actually Matters
Sand, we’re beginning to realize, is a non-renewable resource - and we are consuming it at a voracious pace. We use it in every construction project around the…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Could You Live Without a Refrigerator?
Do you know that hulking refrigerator in your kitchen emits CO2 thanks to the electricity it uses each year? It's a comparatively small amount, in truth, but…
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How the US Interstate System Works
Wait! This is actually a good episode! It turns out that America’s 48,000 miles of superhighways – possibly the largest civil works project in the history of…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Scurvy
Scurvy seems like a terrible way to go: Your gums swell so you can’t eat, your teeth fall out and your brain and/or heart hemorrhages. Fortunately, all you…
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The Skinny on Lyme Disease
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…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Wills Work
Whether it's oral, scrawled in blood or signed on a deathbed everyone should have a will. But how do they actually work? Join Chuck and Josh as they explain…
Stuff You Should KnowSpecial Effects: A Short History
Special effects have been around since the first movies. In fact, the techniques the earliest filmmakers created are still around today, we just use computers…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Papasan Chairs
Oh, the papasan. What a chair! But where did it come from? And what does the name mean? The answers lie within. Learn more about your ad-choices at…
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How Government Shutdowns Work
Every year Congress decides how the federal government will spend money. Simple enough, but in practice politics tend to mess it up. Sometimes it gets so messy…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Ouija Boards Work
Although most people who've used Ouija boards don't think they're communicating with the beyond, there is something mysterious about how it works. Learn the…
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What's the deal with MSG?
MSG got a bad rap in the 70s and 80s. But what is it exactly and how bad is it for you? The answers to those questions lie within. Learn more about your…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Barbed Wire
Barbed wire changed the Western US as much as the railroad and the six-shooter. Before barbed wire arrived, the West was free and open; after, the West became…
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Ed Gein: The Serial Killer's Serial Killer
Any movie featuring a deranged killer who’s perversely devoted to his mother and makes things out of human skin has a real-life person named Ed Gein to thank…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Icebergs Work
Icebergs: floating chunks of ice. True, but whoa there. Scientists are learning that there's a lot more to icebergs. Appropriately enough, we've only come to…
Stuff You Should KnowThe Rubik's Cube Episode
Rubik's Cubes. Ronald Reagan. Jerry Falwell. Just Say No. One of these things was awesome. Take a guess and hop on board the 80s train. Learn more about your…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Dead Bodies and Airline Codes
Did you know there are airline codes for pilots and flight attendants? And some of them have to do with dead bodies on board? Learn all about it today! Learn…
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A Brief Overview of Punk Rock
Punk rock really needs about 10 episodes to do it justice, but we'll try and tackle anyway. Learn all about this movement right now. Learn more about your…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Sleepwalking Works
Sleep behaviors are pretty fascinating. Some people snore, some grind their teeth -- and some take a little stroll, or perhaps a drive. In this classic…
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How Ventriloquism Works
Ventriloquism – where a skilled performer “throws” their voice, making it seem like a dummy on their knee is talking – has taken a long, circuitous road from…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Horseshoe Crab Blood
Perhaps the most expensive liquid on the planet is the blue blood that comes from horseshoe crabs. Researchers realized that horseshoe crab blood could…
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Nuclear Semiotics: How to Talk to Future Humans
The nuclear waste we produce will be dangerous for a very long time. We’ve figured out how to safely store it in the earth until it’s no longer a biohazard…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Are We in a Cyberwar?
There's a secret war going on around us, and it's happening on a daily basis. The Air Force has a unit specifically designed to carry out and defend against…
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How Peyote Works
Josh and Chuck have tackled a lot of drugs on the show, but peyote has loomed like a bad Jim Morrison poem. Learn all about this plant today. Learn more about…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Petrichor
You know that amazing smell when it rains? Kind of clean, kind of earthy, one of a kind? It turns out that a miracle of nature produces it. Learn more about…
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Solar Power: The Future or What?
We’ve been promised solar energy for a while now – where is it? Turns out, it’s been quietly and steadily growing across the world. And with a few…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: What Is a Shotgun House?
Shotgun houses are iconic pieces of American architecture: they're long, narrow, and filled with artistic flourishes. But where did they come from? Join Chuck…
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Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 2
As the operation expands it also begins to unravel. Word starts to leak out of the illegal stuff the Reagan administration was up to, Congress and the press…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Time Zones
Time zones are a pain. Let's get rid of them! Can we? Sure! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See…
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Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 1
When Ronald Reagan was president, America got involved in some deeply shady stuff, not the least of which was the Iran-Contra scandal – a convoluted operation…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How the Black Death Worked
The Black Death was gruesome: Symptoms included tumors, purple splotches, fevers and vomiting. But how did this disease manage to spread from the Gobi desert…
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What Were the BONE WARS?
A pair of old timey fossil hunters had a rootin’ tootin’ rivalry that spilled from academic journals into the American Wild West - where fossils were dynamited…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: The Man Who Didn’t Eat for a Year
In 1965, a 456-pound man walked into a hospital in Scotland and asked for help with a fast. That was the last day he ate for more than a year. Learn about the…
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Will Deepfakes Ruin the World?
Very recently, thanks to a new type of AI, it’s gotten much easier to create convincingly realistic videos of people saying and doing things they’ve never said…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Human Cannonballs Work
There's no question that human cannonballs are daredevils. They pack themselves into the confines of huge cannons, which shoot them into the air. But how does…
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How Eyewitness Testimony Works(?)
Few things are more compelling than a witness pointing out a defendant in the courtroom as the perpetrator. But few things are also more unreliable than…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Aristides de Sousa Mendes
This week we highlight another little known historical hero. In this case, a Portuguese diplomat who rescued people from Nazi Germany, at his own peril. Dig in…
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MOVE: Or When the Philly Police Dropped a Bomb on a Residential Neighborhood
Believe it or not, in 1985 the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb from a helicopter onto a residential building in an African-American neighborhood…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How Crack Works
Back in the mid-1980s a new and extremely potent drug hit the scene: crack cocaine. In short order, America was in the grip of both a sweeping addiction and a…
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Sand Dunes: They Are What You Think They Are
Sand dunes are exactly what you think they are. But still pretty interesting. Learn all about them right now! Learn more about your ad-choices at…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Yellow Rain
After the Vietnam War, the Hmong people told the world a toxic weapon was being used on them. Thus began a mystery that still remains today, which might have…
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How Going to the Moon Works
Fifty years ago, the first humans stepped onto the moon. After going back a few more times, humanity lost its taste for moon travel. But it’s being revived…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: Duels - A Guide to Throwing Down the Gauntlet
Pretty much everything you know about duels is true - it's a challenge to violence to defend honor. But did you know the U.S. Navy used to publish detailed…
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How Sloths Work
Everyone knows sloths are super slow, but do you know they’re slow because their bodies produce an astoundingly small amount of energy? And did you know that…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: The Coconut Cult
Why we love short stuff - because we can tell stories like this one. A man goes to an island to start a commune of sorts that subsists entirely on coconuts. It…
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Cleopatra: Ms. Understood
One of the great misunderstood figures in history was the last pharaoh of Egypt. Cleopatra’s story is almost always told along with the men in her life, and…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: What Makes us Yawn?
What is it that makes us suddenly draw in a deep breath through a wide-open mouth? The beautiful thing about yawning is that researchers really don't know…
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How the Fairness Doctrine Worked
Back in the day, broadcasters were bound by law to provide contrasting opinions on political matters. Why? Because of the Fairness Doctrine. What happened to…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Mitsuye Endo
In today's short stuff, we look at another amazing woman who has all but been ignored by history. The story of Mitsuye Endo. Learn more about your ad-choices…
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Is photographic memory a real thing?
Photographic memory is the stuff of movies and TV, but is it real? Sort of. But not really. But kind of. It's a little bit a matter of semantics. Listen in and…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: What Makes a One-hit Wonder?
The term "one-hit wonder" gets thrown around a lot, and - yes - you probably are using it correctly, but Chuck Bryant went to the trouble to really define what…
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What is the Civil Air Patrol?
The Civil Air Patrol is a civilian group of pilots and plane enthusiasts who do a lot of things, namely help out in search and rescue missions. But their…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Prison Food
Prison food is kind of a joke, like airplane food. But there are real consequences involved. Let's get into it in today's short stuff. Learn more about your…
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Planned Obsolescence: Engine of the Consumer Economy
If you’ve ever heard an old timer gripe that things aren’t built like they used to be, that old timer was right! Learn about the nefarious, possibly mythical…
Stuff You Should KnowSYSK Selects: How the Donner Party Worked
Did they or didn't they? There is plenty of written evidence that the ill-fated Donner Party resorted to cannibalism - except there are no bones. Learn the…