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
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
What's the deal with headstones?
Headstones have quite an interesting history. From the beginnings of marking graves with simple wood carvings to the elaborate tombstones that would come in…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Berlin Wall Worked
It's hard to believe now, but just over 25 years ago there was a giant concrete wall separating East and West Germany. In this episode, Chuck and Josh get into…
- Stuff You Should Know
Going Up: Elevators
Elevators are way more interesting than you might think. In this week's episode, Chuck and Josh board the lift to enlighten everyone as to the ins and outs…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Ebola Works
A disease that was discovered and contained to Central Africa in the 1970s has revived and spread in 2014. Now there is an Ebola outbreak that has moved across…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the NSA Works
Chuck and Josh dive into the secret world of the National Security Agency, from the origins of the snooping outfit, to the recent revelations from…
- Stuff You Should Know
What is a Numbers Station?
If you think secretly coded messages sent via short wave radio is Cold War relic, think again. Chuck and Josh are here to dispel that myth, along with many…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Play-Doh Works
Do you love Play-Doh? Chuck and Josh certainly love to talk about it, from its interesting history as a wall cleaner, to its more scientific chemical…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Morgellons Disease Works
There is a condition that can cause people to feel bugs crawling beneath their skin so acutely that they will use tweezers to pluck them from their eyeballs…
- Stuff You Should Know
Is there a dark side of the moon?
Josh and Chuck explore the old notion that there's a dark side of the moon. There is, but it turns out it's not always the same side. And yes, there's a side…
- Stuff You Should Know
The Skinny on Probiotics
You can find probiotics - bacteria thought to have healthful benefits for humans - in everything from pills to yogurt. But does any of it work? Listen as Josh…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Trickle-Down Economics Works
The concept of trickle-down economics is tied to Ronald Reagan, but the idea's been around and in use since the 20s. It's simple: Give more money to the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How In Vitro Fertlization Works
In the U.S. alone, more than 6 million people are affected by infertility and science has taken up the mantle of helping them to conceive. Learn about the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Sushi Works
Sushi grew out of a way to ferment fish a couple thousand years ago and in the late 20th century began to take the world by storm. What began as traditional…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Grass Works? Yes, How Grass Works
There's nothing more boring than watching grass grow, which is why Josh and Chuck aren't asking you to do that. Instead, you can learn about all sorts of neat…
- Stuff You Should Know
Is brain size related to intelligence?
The idea that the larger the brain, the higher the intelligence is an old one, but it's pretty much utterly false. Modern investigation into how the brain…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Monopoly Works
Since more than 1 billion people have played it, you're probably familiar with the board game Monopoly, but we bet you don't know its secret origins as a…
- Stuff You Should Know
How The Louvre Works
The most famous museum in the world, France's Louvre, has been the seat of high art and culture for several centuries. Its history goes back farther than that…
Stuff You Should KnowHow the MPAA Works
You may be surprised to learn those ubiquitous ratings, from G to NC-17, put on movies in America are actually handed down by anonymous employees of a…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the La Brea Tar Pits Work
It's surprising that a few 12-feet-deep pools of asphalt have proven to be one of the most significant troves of Pleistocene fossils, but the La Brea Tar Pits…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Soccer Works
Maybe you hail from a soccer crazed country - or from the U.S. Either way, there's lots to discuss about "the beautiful game", from its prehistory, rules and…
- Stuff You Should Know
Is your employer spying on you?
Your employer may be secretly reading your emails, watching what websites you visit and tracking your whereabouts through your phone. And because of how the…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Placebo Effect Works
For centuries, doctors have prescribed drugs they knew weren't real - but that still somehow worked. It wasn't until the 1980s that the placebo effect, the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Space Race Worked
In the 1950s and 60s, the United States and the Soviet Union battled it out to see who would dominate the race for outer space. The Soviets got out to an early…
- Stuff You Should Know
Why is Venice so wet?
Venice, Italy has a problem. It's sinking, and the water around it is rising. Thankfully, some engineers are working hard on the MOSE project - huge gates that…
- Stuff You Should Know
Archaeology in a Nutshell
If you thought Indiana Jones was the model archaeologist, you're pretty much right. Archaeologists are one part scientist, one part scholar, and one part…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Temper Tantrums Work
When your kid boils over in the grocery store, it can be tough to stay calm and ignore it, but that's precisely what experts prescribe parents do to deal with…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Avalanches Work
Each year, as snow builds on peaks across the world's mountain ranges, the potential for avalanches builds. Learn about the science of how these natural…
- Stuff You Should Know
8 Reasons Why Your Body Is So Gross
Your body right now is home to a liter of mucous, countless fat-loving mites, acid that can dissolve metal and plenty of other gross and interesting stuff…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Paleo Diet Works
You may have heard of the Paleo Diet, also known as the Caveman Diet, but do you know the science it's based on? And did you know that the saturated fat it and…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Human Microbiome Project Works
If it was possible to take a full scan of all of the DNA of every cell in and on your body the results would be startling: Only 1 percent would be human. The…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Bipolar Disorder Works
Suffering from bipolar disorder means a lot more than your garden variety mood swings. Bouts of mania and depression are just the headlines. There are also…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Gypsies Work
Gypsies were called that because they were long ago mistaken as Egyptians. Even their more appropriate name, Roma, is a misnomer since they're not from…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Marijuana Works
For millennia people used marijuana for fun and medicine. Not until the 20th century that was it vilified, unfairly say many. Weed has done lots of good…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the ACLU Works
Being a card-carrying member of the ACLU is tantamount to being a super liberal to some, but the ACLU ultimately displays no allegiance to any political…
- Stuff You Should Know
Halitosis: Worst Smell Ever?
Occasional bad breath is one thing, halitosis is another. Or is it? From its odd origins as a marketing ploy to modern weight loss diets that can induce this…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Mars Works
Sure today Mars would kill you with its thin, toxic atmosphere and cold desert temperature swings of 100 degrees, but early on it and Earth were practically…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Burlesque Works
What's old is new again as far as burlesque is concerned. Come explore what was an old-timey outlet for empowering women that later gave rise to the striptease…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Dissociative Identity Disorder Works
Dissociative Identity Disorder was known as multiple personality disorder until a case of mass hysteria brought on by the movie-mad public and unscrupulous…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Natural Selection Works
While evolution gets all the spotlight for moving species into better versions of themselves, but really it's natural selection that is the engine driving the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Charles Darwin Worked
Charles Darwin wasn't the first or only scientist to grasp the theory of evolution through natural selection, but he became its father and icon. Learn about…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Income Taxes Work
They are among the more reviled concepts of modern life, and yet they are as inevitable as death. Join Josh and Chuck as they look into the history and the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How 3D Printing Works
With 3D printing you can print not just pictures and words, but actual objects from files. And as costs come down, the list of things you can print expand…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Landslides Work
Landslides are a form of mass movement of the Earth, and with the amount of death and destruction they wreak on the people and towns they cover, their toll can…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Amnesia Works
Those movies where someone gets hit on the head and can't remember who they are anymore? They're actually not too far off from the reality of amnesia. Learn…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Electricity Works
It is literally all around you (and even inside you) - electricity makes up the basis of modern life. But what exactly is electricity and how does it work?…
- Stuff You Should Know
Tattoos: Not Just For Dirtbags Anymore
Most Europeans first encountered tattoos after sailors visiting the South Pacific returned covered in them. From then on, with a few notable exceptions…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Black Boxes Work
Black boxes are designed to be the only survivor of plane crashes so they can live to tell the tale of what went wrong to prevent future accidents. Learn about…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Online Dating Works
No longer weird, possibly still desperate and approaching normal, online dating's been around almost as long as the Internet itself. So what exactly is the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Spanish Inquisition Worked
The idea of pious monks imbued with unbridled power and with a penchant for dealing torture and death is a scary one indeed, and one both Spain and the…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
Termites: They Bore But They Aren't Boring
Their soft white bodies look creepy and, to be sure, they are, but termites are pretty amazing bugs. They build ventilation systems into their mounds, poop on…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Amputation Works
Amputation is one of the oldest surgeries and an even older punishment for crime, but it wasn't until the American Civil War and its 50,000 amputations that…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Salt Works
A Roman senator once said, "Mankind can live without gold, but not without salt." Right he was. The human body needs salt so much we have developed a taste for…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Cave Dwellers Work
You know the cavemen, a race of human cousins who lived exclusively in caves? They didn't exist. Sure prehistoric hominids used caves sometimes but they lived…
- Stuff You Should Know
Do objects or experiences make us happier?
Since Sartre classified things that make us happy into the categories of having and doing, science took up the investigation into materialism and…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Sign Language Works
It wasn't until the was developed and despite its co-existence alongside English, a user would be hard-pressed to sign with a British person. Find out about…
- Stuff You Should Know
Will computers replace doctors?
With savvy and health-conscious people taking control of their wellbeing through apps and sites, technology is meeting the desire for individuals'…