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
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
What will happen when we reach the Singularity?
Futurists have unnervingly predicted an impending moment in human history: the Singularity, when a superhuman artificial intelligence is created. What will…
- Stuff You Should Know
Yakuza: From Samurai to Slot Machines
The Yakuza trace their lineage back to the 18th century samurai, left masterless following political upheaval, who turned to lives of crime. After centuries…
- Stuff You Should Know
SYSK's Halloween Horror Fiction Winner!
Josh and Chuck have been planning this thing since spring and it's finally here! Tune in to hear which listener's scary story won the SYSK Halloween Horror…
- Stuff You Should Know
Exoskeletons: How's it coming?
Since the 1960s, the Pentagon has called for a suit that can make a soldier jump higher, run faster longer and generally be a badder dude. It's only now that…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Lion Taming Works
Bossing a lion around in front of a crowd at a circus has been an attraction for 200 years, but exactly how lion tamers get their captive wild animals to…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Black Holes Work
It wasn't too long ago when black holes were strictly predictions in theoretical math. Over decades, astronomy has gotten better at uncovering these cosmic…
- Stuff You Should Know
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
How Rainforests Work
It's been called the world's lungs, the world's pharmacy and the world's air conditioner. It takes up only 6 percent of Earth's land, yet houses 50% of the…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Fire Works
Creating fire was possibly the most important human discovery, but it's easy to take for granted. But. Josh and Chuck get to the bottom of the chemistry of…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Whiskey Runners Worked
Sure, Chuck and Josh have discussed it before, but it's worth revisiting: Running moonshine led to the creation of NASCAR. Chuck and Josh aren't even NASCAR…
- Stuff You Should Know
Subways: HUH! What are they good for?
As ubiquitous as they've become, it's easy to overlook the marvels of engineering that are subways. Chuck and Josh go boring as they explore these systems of…
- Stuff You Should Know
Q: Are we in the midst of cyberwar? A: Yes
There's a secret war going on around us, and it's happening on a daily basis. The Air Force recently launched a new unit specifically designed to carry out and…
- Stuff You Should Know
Why does music provoke emotion?
A well-crafted piece of music can bring us to incredible highs and crushing lows, sometimes within the same song. Why does music affect humans this way? Join…
- Stuff You Should Know
Are we all Martians?
There's a very good question that no one has yet satisfactorily answered: Where did life on Earth come from? Some look to the Red Planet as the source of life…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Book Banning Works
If you want to control the masses, control what they read. After all, books are seeds that germinate new points of view. As a result, the struggle against…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Asexuality Works
When Alfred Kinsey conducted his sex surveys he turned up, but ignored, a fourth sexual orientation: people who don't experience sexual attraction. It took 60…
- Stuff You Should Know
Bioluminescence: A Bright and Shiny Fish
Science has a handle on fireflies and glowworms, but most bioluminescent animals live in the ocean and are tough to study. Today, researchers are still…
- Stuff You Should Know
Can you test a nuclear weapon without a fallout?
Over the course of human existence, thousands of nuclear weapons have been exploded on Earth and in space. With all of those tests, one can't help but wonder…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Flesh-eating Bacteria Work
Possibly the most horrifically-named disease anyone could contract, flesh-eating bacteria can lead quickly lead to amputations and death. Learn about how this…
- Stuff You Should Know
How the Electoral College Works
When you vote in an American presidential election, you're not voting for your candidate - you're voting for a group of people you hope will in turn vote for…
- Stuff You Should Know
What happens to abandoned mines?
Did you know there are as many as 500,000 abandoned mines in the US, but the federal government knows where only 30,000 of them are? Learn about these places…
- Stuff You Should Know
Why You Probably Have a Criminal Record
If you're an American adult, there's a 1 in 4 chance you have a criminal record. While it's less likely you've committed any serious crime, there are still…
- Stuff You Should Know
Did Reagan's Star Wars program win the Cold War?
Putting lasers in space to blast Soviet missiles out of the air was a very real part of Ronald Reagan's defense policy. While his "Star Wars" program was…
- Stuff You Should Know
The Shark Diaries
In this special episode of Stuff You Should Know, Chuck and Josh tip their hats to Shark Week with an old-fashioned radio play. Join the guys (and a few…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Shark Attacks Work
A shark attack is a terrifying experience for the victim -- but are sharks really man-eating monsters with a taste for human flesh? Join Josh and Chuck as they…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Ramadan Works
It's the holiest month of the Muslim calendar, and for good reason. It was during the month of Ramadan that Mohammed began to issue the Koran. Learn about 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
How the Musketeers Worked
You know and love them as a fluffy chocolate nougat and maybe as a book and a movie, but musketeers were quite real and quite deadly. Visit with Josh and Chuck…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Time Travel Works (Live at SD Comic-Con)
How does time travel work? Could it ever cross the line from science fiction into science fact? Join Josh and Chuck -- along with a live audience at the 2012…
- Stuff You Should Know
How White-collar Crime Works
White-collar crime often involves fraud and other nonviolent acts. For most people, the term "white-collar crime" conjures up images of CEOs conniving their…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Lightning Works
You've seen lightning before, and maybe you're even afraid of it. You should be. The air is ripped apart and a sudden electrical discharge burning six times…
- Stuff You Should Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Tabloids Work
Having started as an egalitarian answer to 19th-century newspapers, tabloids came to peddle shock and sleaze. They've cleaned up a bit, but they remain the…
- Stuff You Should Know
Is the Dead Sea dead?
An anomaly of geography, the shores of Dead Sea form the lowest dry spot on Earth. It's been visited by millions, including King Herod and Cleopatra, all…
- Stuff You Should Know
What's the deal with Executive Orders?
Depending on who's in office, they're either a presidential tradition or the acts of a despot. Executive orders are not spelled out in the Constitution, yet…
- Stuff You Should Know
10 Accidental Inventions: By the Numbers
Every once in a while Chuck and Josh do things by the numbers and here's a good example. Turns out a surprising amount of ubiquitous items in our everyday…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Icebergs Work (Very Cool)
" 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 Know
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…
- Stuff You Should Know
Should we have a fat tax?
The concept of fighting unhealthy behavior like overeating by taxing unhealthy food has been around since 1994. But as the debate over a fat tax rages on in…
- Stuff You Should Know
Fractals: Whoa
In the 1980s, IBM mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot gazed for the first time upon his famous fractal. What resulted was a revolution in math and geometry and our…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Moss Works
Think you have moss figured out? You probably don't. Join Josh and Chuck as they explore some of the surprising aspects of these most ancient and important…
- Stuff You Should Know
Can it rain frogs?
If you've seen the movie Magnolia, you've seen what it looks like to rain frogs. While there are reports of frogs, fish and even squid raining down that are…
- Stuff You Should Know
Do video games produce real-life violence?
The disturbing trend of school shootings around the world has dragged violence in video games into the hot seat. But are violent video games actually more…
- Stuff You Should Know
Are we obsessed with goals?
We've all been brought up to keep our eyes on the prize and our pedal to the medal when we go for that brass ring, but does the Western interest in goals verge…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Labor Unions Work
Yes, it's true: Unions have a shady mob-related past and were originally championed by anarchists. Born from medieval trade guilds, these organizations also…
- Stuff You Should Know
What is the future of Earth?
What will the Earth be like in 5,000 or 50,000 years? In this far-sighted episode, Josh and Chuck explore how Earth may change over time. Listen in to learn…
- Stuff You Should Know
Interpol: World Police
Interpol is an international police agency that helps other law-enforcement agencies track criminals who operate across national borders -- but how does it…
- Stuff You Should Know
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? In this…
- Stuff You Should Know
Did the Dutch trade Manhattan for nutmeg?
Today nutmeg is commonplace, but this wasn't always the case. In the 17th century, the Dutch and the British fought a trade war over nutmeg. Join Chuck and…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Bullfighting Works
When the Visigoths ruled Spain, they introduced the idea of battling bulls at festivals. Today matadors get paid $100,000 and perform in front of 50,000 fans…
- Stuff You Should Know
How did language evolve?
" Sure animals talk in their own way, with chirps and grunts and the like, but only humans can form words. It is this, some evolutionary psychologists contend…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Medical Marijuana Works
Some quarters of the medical establishment endorse it, others abhor it. The DEA is cracking down on it, but the Veterans' Administration supports it as a…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Air Traffic Control Works
You know how when you fly in an airline you usually don't die? You can thank the battalion of air traffic control professionals who studiously track every…
- Stuff You Should Know
Social Security Numbers: Less Boring Than You'd Think
Do you know that up until July 2011 an ambitious hacker with a good software program could deduce your social security number based on your date and place of…
- Stuff You Should Know
How Whaling Works
Despite its embattled status as brutal and illegal, commercial whaling is a tradition that dates back 1,000 years and served as the economic engine of the…