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
Capgras Syndrome: You Are Not Who You Think You Are
There is an extremely rare condition where the sufferer is convinced that everyone around him is an impostor posing as their friends and family. Learn about…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Drag Queens Work
You can trace the origin of men dressing as women in public back to classic Greek theater, but modern drag queens owe their real inception to vaudeville. Dip…
- Stuff You Should Know
How do trees affect the weather?
Sure, you know that trees have an impact on climate change: to wit, fewer trees mean more atmospheric CO2. But did you know that trees can actually impact…
- Stuff You Should Know
What happened to the lost colony at Roanoke?
Before Jamestown became the first successful English colony in the New World, an entire group of settlers vanished. For the last 430 years, Roanoke has been an…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Coffins Work
Sure, you've probably laid in one at the store or a funeral home, but how much do you know about receptacles used to bury the dead? We'll bet you'll learn…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Police Chases Work
Entire TV shows are dedicated to them and Americans love to watch a live one, but police chases aren't as routine as they seem. While police assert chases are…
- Stuff You Should Know
How PTSD Works
With Post-traumatic Stress Disorder the sufferer relives, over and over again, the worst moment of his life. What's worse is medicine still doesn't know how to…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Cicadas Work
Cicadas are crawling out from underground, where they have been hiding in the darkness for almost two decades. As of May 2013, they're invading the East Coast…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Aerosol Cans Work
In the 87 years since they were invented aerosol cans have protected soldiers, temporarily fixed flat tires, killed a boy who used too much deodorant and had…
- Stuff You Should Know
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
How Foot Binding Worked
Once in a while, all the necessary factors converge to produce a peculiar nationalized sexual fetish. In China, that fetish was foot binding and over a…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Fair Trade Works
The West has gotten rich off the backs of underpaid labor living elsewhere; people who are dedicated to Fair Trade feel it's time people at a disadvantage…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Dungeons and Dragons Works
Despite what you've heard, Dungeons and Dragons isn't just for geeks, it isn't satanic and it's actually a pretty great way to exercise your imagination. Find…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Magnets Work
You can stick them to the fridge or use them to transpose sound to tape, whatever they are used for magnets are surprisingly interesting. And knowing just…
- Stuff You Should Know
Uses of the Insanity Defense
The idea that a person who can't understand the crime they've committed is wrong lets them off the hook from culpability for their actions is a longstanding…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Marriage Works
You can tell a lot about a culture through marriage statistics: what age people get married, how many divorce, who is excluded from legal marriage. It forms a…
- Stuff You Should Know
Do men and women have different brains?
It's a pretty touchy subject because of the possible implications - if you find differences between the brains of men and women, does that mean there are…
- Stuff You Should Know
What's the deal with duckbill platypuses?
It is pretty much impossible to describe duckbill platypuses without using the word "hodgepodge" and for good reason. These mammals also share features with…
- Stuff You Should Know
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 the Panama Canal Works
It's on more than one list of the Seven Wonders of the World and for good reason - the Panama Canal is one of the great feats of engineering ever undertaken…
- Stuff You Should Know
How No-fly Zones Work
They have become such a ubiquitous tool used by the UN and NATO to intervene in international crises, that it seems like no-fly zones have been around forever…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Apartheid Worked
After WWII, while the rest of the world grew more socially progressive, the government of South Africa turned inward to focus its attention on domination of…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the U.S. Postal Service Works
The USPS is currently teetering on the edge of going under and there are a lot of plans to save it, from cutting Saturday service to creating…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Police Sketches Work
Creating composite drawings of suspected criminals from eyewitness accounts has been around since a Frenchman introduced it in the 19th century. Despite the…
- Stuff You Should Know
Can We Build an Elevator to Space?
With the end of the shuttle program and an International Space Station still in need of supplies, the aerospace industry is working the kinks of out of a…
- Stuff You Should Know
Do People Really Run Off to Join the French Foreign Legion?
Anyone who knows anything about Jean-Claude Van Damme knows he played a French legionnaire in the movies. He was just one of many actors to star in films that…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Papacy Works
In February 2013, Pope Benedict said he would become the first pope to retire in 600 years. Check out this episode of Stuff You Should Know to find out just…
- Stuff You Should Know
How CPR Works
You have a golden opportunity to make yourself into a worthwhile human being simply by learning how to perform CPR. The chances are you'll never need to use…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Spies Work
Psst. You want to know how governments and corporations get the drop on one another? The frontline of intelligence is populated by spies. Learn about how spies…
- Stuff You Should Know
What Would Happen If the World Stopped Spinning?
Over the last 400 million years, the day has grown longer by two full hours thanks to a slowing of the rotation of the Earth on its axis. While it will be a…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Surfing Works
You know the Beach Boys and you've seen those Hang Ten shirts with the little feet emblem, but there's a lot more to surfing than appears on pop culture's…
- Stuff You Should Know
Myths About the Brain
As is usual for SYSK, Josh and Chuck go over some, but not all, of the entries in this list of ten common myths about the brain. While it lives there in your…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Jet Lag Works
It was only since 1958 that the Jet Age began, and jet lag became a real condition. Also known as desynchronosis, jet lag can lead to all manner of ailments…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Weather Modification Works
It began with old-timey guys dropping dry ice on clouds. Since then weather modification was used to keep the 2008 opening ceremonies dry and flood the Ho Chi…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Willpower Works
You use it every day to overcome your lower self (which wants you to eat cake until your vision blurs) in pursuit of the goals of your higher self (which wants…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Garbage-powered Cars Could Work
We're not so far off from being able to power our cars using beer and banana peels, like Doc in Back to the Future. Rather than solving the energy crisis with…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Gold Works
Only 161,00 metric tons of gold has been mined in the entire history of the world. Considering about 85 percent of the precious mineral is recycled, there's a…
Stuff You Should KnowHow Stuntmen (and -women) Work
They get blown up, shot, drowned and thrown out of windows on the silver screen - and we don't even know their names. Stuntpeople are the unsung heroes of the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Bees Work
With less than a million neurons in their tiny heads, bees shouldn't be able to do much more than eat, sleep and reproduce. And yet, bees are capable of high…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Frick Fracking Works
Fracking, the process of breaking trapped resources like natural gas and oil from shale, has led to a revolution in energy production in the U.S. It's also…
- Stuff You Should Know
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
How Death Masks Work
One of the earliest civilizations we've detected, the Myceneans, kicked off the habit of creating a mask of a deceased person's face in deathly repose. What…
- Stuff You Should Know
Can you outrun an alligator in a zig-zag?
You've heard the warning before: If you're being chased on land by an alligator, run in a zig-zag. Of course, the average person should be capable of…
- Stuff You Should Know
What was America's first terrorist threat?
From the moment it was established, the United States had headaches with terrorism of the pirate variety. For decades, the federal budget even include bribe…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Bigfoot Works
For centuries North American tribes have told stories of a hairy wild giant in the wilderness, and once Europeans arrived they claimed to see it, too. Chuck…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Dog Shows Work
You know those shows where people wearing sensible shoes jog dogs around in circles? They actually represent the pinnacle of a long and complex path to glory…
- Stuff You Should Know
Josh and Chuck's Christmas Extravaganza 2012
Kick back and raise a glass of eggnog to Josh and Chuck as they carry on a new holiday tradition of exploring the ins and outs of all things Christmas - and…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Barbie Doll Works
In this episode, Josh and Chuck explore the history, cultural impact and feminist ire raised by the Barbie doll. The boys are joined by Gordon Javna, the…
- Stuff You Should Know
Lab-grown meat: Order up!
Since Winston Churchill predicted we'd grow meat in a lab by 1981, researchers have considered doing just that. And thanks to the current work of about 30…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Condoms Work
The earliest depiction of a condom is found in a 15,000-year-old cave painting. Ever since humans realized sex led to children, we've been using condoms to…
- Stuff You Should Know
Will we reach peak oil?
A 2012 report showed that the U.S. may be energy-independent in just a few years, but not too long ago the specter of peak oil loomed large on the political…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Vampires Work
Out of obligation, Chuck and Josh mention Twilight, but it is the longstanding vampire lore that gets the most attention in this examination of how the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Caving Works
Entrances to the underworld have been places of wonder for eons, and humans have ventured into caves to sleep, hunt, create art and explore. Thanks to the…
- Stuff You Should Know
Why do leaves change colors in the fall?
Ah, autumn - arguably the most beautiful time of the year, thanks to the vibrant colors trees put on display as they close up for the winter. Ever wonder why…
- Stuff You Should Know
Philanthropy: Humankind and Loving It
Sure the fatcats get all the credit for donating millions, but did you know US households making $20,000 or less contribute the highest percentage of their…
- Stuff You Should Know
Should we be designing our children?
In 2009, a fertility clinic controversially offered parents the ability to customize their children. How will society take the idea of designing children? Do…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Meth Works
You know how when you do a lot of crystal methamphetamine you get meth mouth, where your teeth decay? Of course you don't! So check out this in-depth look on…
- Stuff You Should Know
How close are we to holographic environments?
Star Trek was famous for its holodeck, a completely immersive holographic environment that could be any space a user wanted. Thanks to telemersion technology…