Stuff You Should Know

The Killdozer rampage is one of those stories you just couldn't make up. Yet it happened. And we're here to tell you the story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 25 July 2024

Who were the Ritchie Boys? Listen in to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 24 July 2024

Years ago the telephone network was like the internet is to us today: a vast, interconnected means of communicating and sharing information. And, like the internet today, it attracted people who were interested in learning how it worked by hacking it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 23 July 2024

Caffeine is a heck of a drug - at the same time it's both good and bad for you. Learn the good, bad and ugly about this everyday stimulant in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 20 July 2024

Human papilloma virus, HPV, is an unusually common bug among humans. Most of the time it’s benign and your body manages to overcome the infection. Sometimes it can linger and cause warts. But in the worst cases, HPV infections can actually cause cancer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 18 July 2024

Sitzpinklers - men who sit down to pee - is a big thing in Germany, and a handful of other places. And if Josh and Chuck have any say it’ll catch on like wildfire around the world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 17 July 2024

The founding of New England by the Puritans is quite a story. Today, we dive into who those people were.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 16 July 2024

Becoming the first licensed woman physician in America was tough, convincing male surgeons to wash their hands between patients was even tougher. In this classic episode Josh and Chuck pay tribute to a genuine pioneer in medicine and society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 13 July 2024

Salsa is one of the great inventions of the culinary world. Here in the USA it's mainly a vehicle for tortilla chips. In Mexico, it's more like a sauce to add to, well, anything. Get ready to be hungry!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 11 July 2024

If you’re a mobster and you can’t make money off of booze any longer what should you move to next? How about milk?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 10 July 2024

There aren’t too many people walking around today who get a pass from the entire world for anything remotely negative they do or say. That’s just how the world receives Jane Goodall, and she’s earned that from a lifetime of building greater human understanding of our animal relatives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 9 July 2024

In this classic episode, we finish revisiting our 2017 tour of the best sights of the ancient world when we get deep into the history of a lighthouse that stood for 1200 years, an unsettling statue of Zeus, the world’s first mausoleum, and Chuck’s favorite, the Colossus of Rhodes!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 6 July 2024

Women inventors have always had a tough time, for obvious reasons. So we're here today to pay tribute to those who persevered in the face of the laws and customs that prevented progress. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 4 July 2024

While it sounds like something out of a movie, some POWs in WWII really held an Olympics. And it happened more than once. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 3 July 2024

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. How can one molecule be so many things to so many people?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 2 July 2024

If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know the feeling that occurs when the health inspector pays a visit. While nerve wracking, it's the best insurance patrons have that their food will be prepared and served in a proper environment. Learn all about how these inspections work, from their past history to current incarnation, in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 29 June 2024

When paperboys stopped delivering a couple of very big newspapers in 1899 it was a big deal. Big enough that the two biggest publishers in the world got pretty scared. But did it actually accomplish anything? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 27 June 2024

The story of what happened to the car that James Dean crashed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 26 June 2024

Whistling is pretty cool when you think about it because it can mean many things, from simple happy tunes to legit communication. Learn all about this ubiquitous skill today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 25 June 2024

Long before slide rulers and pocket protectors, civilizations across the world used their noggins to build some impressive structures. Almost all have crumbled to ruins over the millennium, but thanks to the earliest tourists, we admire them still today. Explore some of them with Josh and Chuck in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 22 June 2024

Wikipedia changed the world. Before it came along, you had to go to the library to get the answers you sought. And you and your friends had to just agree to disagree on facts. And as the internet grew and commercialized, Wikipedia remains free and open.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 20 June 2024

Those armrests in the middle of benches aren’t just for your comfort, they’re intended to keep the homeless from laying on them. Cities are filled with these mean-spirited inconveniences. But who’s to say how a person should use a bench?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 19 June 2024

In almost every part of the world, in some form or fashion, widows have things harder than they did when their spouses were alive. In some places it means they pay higher taxes, in others it means they’re ostracized to live on the margins of society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 18 June 2024

About 5,300 years ago a Copper Age shepherd was murdered. He just happened to die in a place where his body was so well preserved that gave researchers an actual shot at determining the course of his final day on Earth. Josh and Chuck take you through their reconstruction in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 15 June 2024

Today we take to the friendly skies to detail the fascinating history of air travel. From planes with piano bars and lounges to the current no frills varieties. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 13 June 2024

The peace sign is one of the most globally recognized symbols around today, but it’s only a few decades old. And it wasn’t the hippies who created it, it was a group of Brits dedicated to nuclear disarmament in the 50s.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 12 June 2024

When we think of an abused spouse we tend to think of horrific physical or emotional violence. But over the last decade or so, it’s become clear that’s only a symptom – that domestic abuse is in fact an all-consuming form of interpersonal terrorism. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 11 June 2024

It's pretty obvious something's gone wrong when you get a sunburn, but did you know a tan means you've damaged your DNA? Dive into the three Ss of summer and learn all about how to protect yourself from the sun.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 8 June 2024

In the last decade American schools became enrapt by a new psychological concept centered on persevering. Things went south when they started attaching funding to it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 6 June 2024

Learn all about the saddest phone notification in today's episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 5 June 2024

You've probably been to a symphony performance and wondered, what in the heck are conductors doing up there anyway? Well we're here to explain that as best we can.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 4 June 2024

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 of these heady institutions in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 1 June 2024

If you grew up in the 70s and 80s in America, you probably have the image of your tattered Guinness Book of Records. The book was ubiquitous then, but is still thriving today in despite the internet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 30 May 2024

Mudlarking is a uniquely British hobby, though you can dig through river mud anywhere there's a river. But the Thames has the good stuff. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 29 May 2024

Unit 731 was a secret group within the Japanese Army in WWII that committed unspeakable atrocities against humans in the name of scientific research. Listen with caution. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 28 May 2024

No one - no one - likes to vomit, but there are some people who would prefer to die rather than vomit, people who spend their days worrying they will vomit at any moment and become so obsessed they curtail their lives to prevent it from happening. Learn all about it with Josh and Chuck in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 25 May 2024

In the exciting conclusion of our two-part episode on Hoover, we come in at the Cold War and end on a strange note.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 23 May 2024

By definition hobos are people who travel from town to town taking odd jobs as they go. But some towns are friendlier than others, and hobos developed a system of symbols they left one another to know what to expect from a town.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 22 May 2024

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that J. Edgar Hoover was perhaps the most powerful American of the 20th century. By the time he established the FBI as America’s police force, presidents were afraid of him. Just exactly how did he get to be so puissant?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 21 May 2024

On Halloween 1938 young radio star Orson Welles scared the pants off of America with a fictional news bulletin claiming Martians had landed and were destroying the country. People across the nation ran wild with panic in the streets – or did they? Listen to this classic episode to find out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 18 May 2024

The idea that we aren’t the first advanced civilization to live on Earth sounds like a fringe theory, but it raises a good question: How can we be so sure that a civilization didn’t arise and die on Earth so long ago that any trace of it has been erased?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 16 May 2024

Even the dullest hockey game is worth seeing when the Zamboni comes out to resurface the ice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 15 May 2024

Taking care of 12,000 tons of residential trash every day is a hard job. But how does that even work? Listen in to marvel at the NYC sanitation system.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2024

Despite as much as one percent of the adult population having the condition, science doesn't actually know how stuttering works. The best it's come up with so far: there seems to be an issue between the physical process of speaking and the thought process that underlies it. Find out what science means by this in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 11 May 2024

Sometimes you just have to turn it off for a while – all the thinking, and overthinking, analyzing, and figuring out. Sometimes it’s nice to just breathe through your mouth and talk about dumb things criminals do for an episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2024

We all know the story of the Titanic and the tragedy of lives lost. So hey, let's talk about the survivors for a change!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2024

Misophonia is a condition in which certain sounds trigger people in very negative ways that can really disrupt someone's life. Listen in today to learn all about this fairly recently recognized condition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2024

As if being murdering SOBs weren’t enough, the Nazis were also thieving rats. During WWII, they stole billons in gold from countries they overran and moved it to Germany. But at the end of the war, only part of it was recovered. Where’s the rest? Find out the extent of our knowledge in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 4 May 2024

The only thing more complicated than an atomic clock is researching how they work and then figuring out how to explain it to other people. But believe us, they are fascinating. Even if you don’t care about clocks or atoms you’ll still like this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 2 May 2024

Getting the wind knocked out of you is scary, but passes quickly. Learn exactly what's happening with all that today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed - Published: 1 May 2024