Stuff You Should Know

Movies on planes have changed a lot in the last couple of decades. Today, we'll go over how this stuff works. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

What happens when a career grifter tries to throw a "luxury" music festival in only six months? Not much it turns out.This was the Fyre Festival.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Something spooky was born on the American frontier in the mid-19th century: the idea that people’s personalities survive death and that some gifted individuals can communicate with them. It deve...

Before the internet could show you anything in the universe - including stuff it made up - people had few opportunities to have their minds blown. But every few years, somewhere in the world nations w...

You might be familiar with the outlaw Johnny Ringo from the movie Tombstone. He was indeed a real-life black hat gunslinger, and a tragic figure at that.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa...

There was a time less than 100 years ago when you could exchange your paper currency at the bank for actual gold. Gave folks a sense of stability, it did. Depending on your view, we either ruined or b...

Dopamine is perhaps the most talked-about, most misunderstood biochemical in our bodies. It’s linked to not only addiction and depravity, but also focus, motivation, and living a productive life...

Back in 1973 a male chauvinist played tennis against champion Billie Jean King. This is that story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

What’s a MacGuffin? We don’t know. No one knows. But it has to do with movies and that’s fun to talk about.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Stanford University was co-founded by Jane Stanford. Not long after she was murdered and it was covered up. We'll probably never know what really happened. Listen in today.See omnystudio.com/listener ...

Free range parenting is all about giving your child the freedom to play and explore life on their own. Are there benefits? Sure. Do some people hate the concept? Yes! Listen to this classic episode an...

The Flexner Report shook up medicine in the United States when it was released in 1910 and it's never been the same since. For better or worse.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Back in the 1800s, people had an outsized fear of being buried alive. Enter... THE SAFETY COFFIN!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

If you’ve ever been out of your house you’ve probably been in a crowd before. They can be as mundane as an elevator full of people or as consequential as a mass of protesters. But did you ...

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. In this classic episode, learn about the man who reluct...

It turns out that lasers are even cooler than they look. And as far as acronyms go, they’re pretty solid in that respect too. There’s way too much cool stuff about lasers to tease here so ...

In the late 90s, a strange musical instrument was excavated under the streets of CDMX. Listen in to learn all about the Aztec Death Whistle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Humans have all sorts of weird quirks that cause us to do silly things and make bad decisions. It’s not our fault though. Our brains are wired that way. Learn about the psychology of cognitive b...

If look into the mythology of just about any culture in the world, you will find a myth about a great flood that destroyed humanity and submerged the Earth in the distant past. Does this mean that a g...

The Cajun Navy was formed after Hurricane Katrina and really got its legs after the Louisiana flood of 2016.  They save a lot of lives, but some fear the pitfalls of "vigilante heroism." Learn al...

Have you ever cried way longer than usual when you were in a yellow room? You’ve been smacked by color psychology my friend and it’s got your number.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan were one of the most amazing non-magical duos in history. Imagine living trapped in your own mind – unable to see or hear – and then imagine learning to read...

In World War II, a secret department of British 'corkscrew thinkers' hatched a plan to use the cadaver of an unclaimed homeless man to turn the tide of the war in the Allies' favor. It worked. Listen ...

If you think the Golden Gate Bridge is named because of its color then you are wrong. That name proceeds the bridge by a long time. But that’s just one interesting fact about this amazing struct...

The Magic 8 Ball, the mystical fortune telling pool ball started out as a piece of customer swag for the Brunswick Billiard Company.  Since then, it has changed the course of history and shaped n...

The Charge of the Light Brigade is a famous poem about a lesser famous military action during the Crimean War. Tune in today for a rare SYSK walk through wartime history.See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

You’d think terms like cage-free and free-range means the chickens we eat are frolicking happily in the fresh air under the shining sun, but you’d be so, so wrong. Cage-free is a huge impr...

Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur had a famous beef with one another in the mid-90s. It was so intense, it sparked an even wider rivalry between the East and West Coasts. In just a few years, both men ha...

The Seven Deadly Sins are tied to religion, but not really in the Bible. So where did this naughty list come from?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Today, Chuck and Josh walk you through the history of keeping time, from sticks in the sun to atomic clocks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Borderline Personality Disorder has been described as emotional “third degree burns over ninety percent of your body.” It’s as close to a curse as a personality disorder can be: deep...

Data centers are the backbone of our digital world. All the sites you visit and social media you post happen there. A boom in huge data centers to support AI is underway, and they’re taking a bi...

During the Cold War, the CIA used the legend of a vampire named Aswang to scare locals into not helping the communists. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

West Virginia is home to sensitive radio telescopes that could easily pick up your cell phone’s signal on Mars. And the cell reception on Mars is about as good as it is in the NRQZ, since cell t...

For most of history, forgiveness fell under the domain of religion. But in the 1980s science started investigating it and found that forgiving someone is really, really good for you. Learn how anybody...

Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is much more than the winter blues. It's a serious subset of depression. Learn all about it and what to do if you suffer from it today. See omnystudio.com/lis...

Since 1972 neighborhoods have been officially banding together to prevent crime together. Does it work? It seems to. Does it go too far? It often does, yes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

Today we dive into the interesting story of paranormal power couple the Warrens, inspiration behind The Conjuring movie franchise. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

We love us some MC Escher. Turns out his story is pretty fascinating too. Tune in to this classic episode and find out all about it with Josh and Chuck.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

Whatever you think of TV, you have to admit it has shaped the world (maybe more than the internet, according to Josh). There have been moments here or there in TV history where the world took a new co...

What exactly is this durable ceramic anyway?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Home economics seems antiquated – a class that teaches high school kids how to bake a cake and sew doesn’t sound super useful. But would you believe that everything from the obesity epidem...

Playing miniature golf is a very fun thing to do and, you’re about to find, learning about its origin and history is very fun as well. Join Josh and Chuck in this classic episode as they tee off...

In this special Christmas Day episode, we get cuddly with one of the all-time great holiday gifts, dolls! Where did they come from? Why are the so cute? Why are they sometimes creepy? Why do they tell...

Holly is waxy and super sharp, not exactly the kind of thing you'd want all over your house. Yet it happens every holiday season. Today we dig in to discover why.See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

Deck your tidings and get your halls nice and gladded because it’s time for maybe the best episode of the year, where SYSK loosens our ties, puts on our smoking jackets and Santa hats and create...

When your life is as outsized as the World’s Greatest Showman PT Barnum it’s pretty easy to - you know - gloss over the grimmer aspects when you turn it into an uplifting musical movie. Bu...

The story of Doggerland is pretty fascinating. The idea is that mainland Europe and the UK were connected not only by a land bridge, but a place where plants, animals and even humans, thrived. Se...

At the end of WWII in Europe, one of the strangest battles of the war took place between German troops fighting alongside Americans and French to beat back an assault by the Nazi SS.See omnystudio.com...

Everybody’s always bagging on pessimists and telling everybody they should be more optimistic. Well, nuts to that! There are plenty of benefits from being a pessimist. Although being an optimist...