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 Know
Fire twucks! Fire twucks! (sic)
Who doesn't love fire engines? We certainly do. So much that we geeked out on this one in a big way. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad-choices at…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Safety Pins
Safety pins are so ubiquitous, we take them for granted. But that’s the genius of their design – they work so intuitively they might as well have come from…
- Stuff You Should Know
Finders Keepers: Real Law
You know that heartbreak of the schoolyard – finders keepers, losers weepers? That’s actual law in a great many grown up places. Enter the murky legal world of…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Kleptomania Works
In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck discuss kleptomania, a disorder in which people have an overwhelming impulse to steal unnecessary…
- Stuff You Should Know
Olive Oil: Mother Nature's Gift
Olive oil is one of Mother Nature's greatest gifts to humanity. Learn everything you ever wanted to know about the NUMBER ONE OIL, right here, right now. Learn…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Lemonade
Ever wonder where lemonade came from? Let’s up the stakes a little, what about pink lemonade? Well wonder no more! Join Josh and Chuck as they (briefly) cover…
- Stuff You Should Know
Pando: Earth’s Oldest, Hugest Organism Is Trees!
In Utah, lives a 106-acre stand of Quaking Aspen trees that are all genetically identical because they are all growing from the same massive root system. It’s…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Pizza Works
Sure it's everywhere and there's a more-than-90-percent chance you eat it once a month. But we'll bet you don't know the full history of that pizza (or tomato…
- Stuff You Should Know
Is yogurt a miracle food?
Yogurt has been touted as a health food, but is it? Maybe. If you eat it every day. We get into the rich and creamy history of this supposed miracle food in…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Vomitoria
A vomitorium was a place where ancient Romans went to make themselves throw up after gorging themselves at a sumptuous banquet. Everybody knows that. Except…
- Stuff You Should Know
What were war masks?
War masks were made for soldiers in WWI who had horrible accidents that left their faces sometimes unrecognizable. Though it may seem rudimentary today, they…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Grief Works
You can probably name the five stages of grief - from denial to acceptance - they've become pretty well known since being proposed in 1969. But later…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Easy Bake Ovens Work
Easy Bake Ovens are as iconic as a toy can get, as American as apple pie or baseball. Learn all about these light bulb cooking, working ovens that endanger…
- Stuff You Should Know
Short Stuff: Labor Day
Labor Day, the day when most people in America paradoxically take off work, is actually rooted in some deeply radical and anarchistic thinking. Learn all about…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK’s 2018 Super Spooktacular
It’s Halloween again and Chuck and Josh want to creep you out. Listen to two great classic horror stories, dripping with Jeri’s creeptastic audio stylings…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: What's with the Winchester Mystery House?
After her daughter and husband died, heiress Sarah Winchester became obsessed with the idea that spirits haunted her and to appease them she had to have a…
Stuff You Should KnowHow the Amityville Horror Worked
In early 1975, the world was introduced to George and Kathy Lutz, a couple who had fled their home in Amityville, NY to escape a powerful, evil supernatural…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Exploding Manholes
If you live in a big city in a cold climate, you should keep an eye out for 100-pound cast-iron manhole covers suddenly launching 50 feet into the air. It’s…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Epilepsy Works
A seizure is like an electrical overload in the brain – when it gets overwhelmed, it just shuts down and resets itself. But imagine being susceptible to these…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Aphrodisiacs Work
For thousands of years humankind has pursued the enhancement of sexual pleasure and performance through a plethora of medicines and practices -- but how many…
- Stuff You Should Know
Waterbeds: The Sexiest Bed?
Waterbeds came and went pretty quickly in the United States, but despite their marketing as sex beds, they were actually invented to deliver a great night's…
- Stuff You Should Know
Short Stuff: Korean Fan Death
There’s a commonly-held belief in Korea that if you fall asleep with a fan blowing on your face you may die in your sleep from it. And while this idea is found…
- Stuff You Should Know
Was There A Real Robin Hood?
Is it true that Robin Hood hung out in Sherwood Forest and stole from the rich to give to the poor? No. No, it’s not. Find out the real story in this episode…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Homelessness Works
Today, millions of people around the world are homeless. In this classic episode, Josh and Chuck take a look at homelessness in the United States, discussing…
- Stuff You Should Know
When inventions kill!
Few things are more ironic than an invention killing its creator. The stories behind real life cases of death-by-invention are pretty interesting too. Pull up…
- Stuff You Should Know
Short Stuff: William King
Did you know that the United States has had one Vice-President who was sworn in on foreign soil? Well it turns out that may be the least interesting part of…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Marathons Work
You’d have to be crazy to try to run 26.2 miles in a single stretch, right? Right. But people still try it anyway. And a lot of them even survive! Find out all…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: Is lethal injection humane?
Since the Supreme Court's ban on capital punishment was reversed, states have sought a humane method of killing sentenced criminals. They settled on lethal…
- Stuff You Should Know
Algae: Food, Fuel, What?
Just a couple years ago, algae was touted as the green, plentiful biofuel of the future. But that didn’t pan out. Why? And is algae down for the count? Don’t…
Stuff You Should KnowShort Stuff: Grandfather Clocks
If you've ever wondered why a grandfather clock is called a grandfather clock and you have 12 minutes to spare, this is your lucky day. Listen in to the brand…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Concorde Worked
The concorde was a wonderful thing, a super fast commerical airliner that got you across the pond in half the time. But it was small and cramped, noisy and a…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: Does the five-second rule work?
You know when you drop a piece of food and if you pick it up within five seconds it's still good to eat? Researchers have studied whether that's true or not…
- Stuff You Should Know
Seriously, What Is Dark Matter?
Chuck and Josh take on astrophysics again and this time it pans out well. It turns out that there simply isn’t enough matter in the universe to account for its…
- Stuff You Should Know
What is colorblindness?
Being colorblind doesn't mean you see in black and white, although in severe cases it can look a bit like that. The condition is on a spectrum ranging from…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: Was Malthus right about carrying capacity?
Thomas Malthus concluded that humanity is bound to outgrow Earth's carrying capacity. The prediction was based on humanity's exponential growth and the linear…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Ranked Choice Voting Works
In the US, winner-take-all voting has created A LOT of political polarization. But what if rather than voting for one candidate, you could rank all of them so…
- Stuff You Should Know
Roundabouts: The Problem Is You
They’re as American as Washington, DC yet most people in the US are terrified of them, hate them or both. What is it about traffic circles and roundabouts -…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Commercial Jingles Work
You probably can recite five right now. Commercial jingles are designed to hijack your working memory and implant a product or service and they really work. In…
- Stuff You Should Know
What are think tanks all about?
Think tanks? More like stink tanks! We're kidding. Think tanks do valuable work, when they operate in a non-partisan way of course. Learn all about the history…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Live: How Game Shows Work
Join Josh and Chuck and a whole bunch of great people at the Gothic Theatre in Denver for this live show on game shows and their place in cultures around the…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Circumcision Works
Circumcision is a common practice in which the foreskin of a male's penis is removed, typically as a baby. In this classic episode, Josh and Chuck take a look…
- Stuff You Should Know
The Lava Lamp: Goes Great With Acid
What started out as an egg timer at a London pub became a furnishing for bachelor pads before it took its rightful place as the most recognizable icon of…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Police Lineups Work
Police lineups are something most people have never had any firsthand experience with. What you see on TV and in movies isn't so far off though. Learn about…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Patents Work
What was originally designed to encourage innovation by rewarding the people who create technological advances, the U.S. patent system has become a big mess…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Elimination Diets Work
Elimination diets are all about whittling down what you eat, then building it back up again in order to identify foods that don't work for your body. Is it…
- Stuff You Should Know
Why There Aren't So Many Hotel Fires Anymore
1946 was a particularly deadly year for hotel fires in the US. Fires killed hundreds of people in Chicago, Dubuque, Dallas and, in Atlanta, the worst hotel…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: What's the deal with Voodoo?
Voodoo is a religion found in parts of Africa and Haiti that's often misunderstood. In this episode, Josh and Chuck separate the faction from the fiction as…
- Stuff You Should Know
Pterosaurs: Not Flying Dinosaurs
Almost everything you know about pterosaurs is wrong. They weren't birds, they weren't flying dinosaurs and they weren't all pterodactyls. Which makes this a…
- Stuff You Should Know
Ballpoint pens? Heck yes, ballpoint pens!
Get ready, folks. The ballpoint pen is far more interesting than you could ever imagine. For real. Brilliant in its simplicity. Took the world by storm. We…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Electroconvulsive Therapy Works
With the exception of lobotomies, no other psychological treatment has a worse reputation. But thanks to some thoughtful tweaks, ECT has lately emerged from…
- Stuff You Should Know
Who is The Man of the Hole?
In 2018, there's a man from a lost tribe still living deep in the jungles of Brazil who has been all alone since the mid 1990s. He's referred to as the Man of…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Board Breaking Works
If you’ve ever seen someone break a stack of boards or concrete blocks with a single karate chop you know what it means to experience awe. Board breaking is…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Traffic Works
Whether you've been stuck in a traffic jam or forced to merge and avoid road construction, everyone's had a few bad experiences with traffic. But how does…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Attila the Hun Worked
If you go to the Internet you'll see a few people championed as all-time greatest conquerors - Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun. Listen in…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Search and Rescue Works
There are thankfully about as many ways to look for someone as there are ways to get lost. And the people who dedicate themselves to saving the lives of people…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How Miranda Rights Work
Back in 1966, the Supreme Court decided that suspects in criminal cases had the right to be reminded that they didn't have to talk to the fuzz if they didn't…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the U.S. Military Draft Works
The U.S. military draft is far more interesting than you'd think. The process of conscription can get quite complicated, but we're here to clear it up for you…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Pony Express Worked
For as long a shadow as it casts across the history of the Old West, the Pony Express was a failed business venture, doomed from the start, that only lasted 18…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK Selects: How the Cannonball Run Worked
The Cannon Ball Run is a cross-country car race famously portrayed in the campy 1981 movie "Cannon Ball Run." But it isn't fictional. Tune in as Josh and Chuck…
- Stuff You Should Know
The Dyatlov Pass Mystery
The incident at Dyatlov Pass is one of the more enduring wilderness mysteries of all time. Russian hikers found in various states of undress, frozen. What…