Stuff You Should Know

Josh and Chuck dive into two spooky true stories in today's Short Stuff.

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One of the greatest unsolved historic mysteries is found in a lake atop a mountain glacier high up in the Indian Himalayas. The skeletons of as many as 800 people are inexplicably in and around the lake. No one knows who they are or what happened to them.

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One of the worst legacies of war are the millions of landmines left behind. They hide for decades after a conflict is over, exploding beneath unsuspecting civilians and children. To many, removing mines and banning new ones is of paramount importance. Learn all about the scope of the problem and this important work in this classic episode.

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Most people think of Tinkerbell when we think of fairies, but the Disney versions capture only the last century or so of what we’ve conceived fairies to be. Over millennia they’ve gone from ugly and scary to pretty and helpful and everything in between. Come meet the fae!

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Every August, abandoned storefronts across America are filled with the spirit of Halloween, by way of the store, Spirit Halloween. Learn all about this wildly successful pop-up today.

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Q Anon believes many things, including that Tom Hanks is a Satan-worshipping, child-eating pedophile. Yeah. We'll just leave our "drop" right here for you to make up your own mind.

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We love animals. A lot. Especially underrated ones like the darling porcupine. Listen in to this classic episode to learn all about these stabby little boogers.

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If you're from the American South, then kudzu is something that cannot be avoided. But how did this invasive species get here and why does it love to consume everything in its path?

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The process of redacting sensitive information is long and storied. But are there even any rules that apply to when and how it's done? 

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You might have owned the Anarchist Cookbook once, but you probably didn’t use it to turn a shotgun into a grenade launcher or build a bomb. Unfortunately some people did and the author called for this book of “forbidden knowledge” to be taken out of print.

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Paramedics are not EMTs. Or fire fighters. Or cops. But they do ride around in ambulances (and drive) to help to save lives. It's a stressful job and in this classic episode we shine a light on this noble profession. 

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The story of the Swatch is super cool and one of the great retail successes. Listen in today to find out just why a country known for the finest craftsmanship started making plastic watches for the masses. 

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In another chapter of our continuing mysteries of the sea theme, we deliver a truly baffling mystery involving a ship that was lost and found, which brought more questions than answers.

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Gobekli Tepe is a profoundly ancient spiritual site that shouldn’t exist, according to conventional wisdom. The massive site of columns and pictograms was built thousands of years before humans were thought to have been able to create anything like it.

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In 1962, three ordinary criminals transcended into folk heroes when they crawled out of their cells in Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary took to the water in a homemade raft and were never heard from again. Could they have possibly survived? Find out more in this classic episode.

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The Lysol we know now is sold as disinfectant only. But at one time it was also marketed as a means of birth control. Listen in today to the twisted history of this common household product. 

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What we equate with acid, hippies, and garish polyester prints actually began as a theatrical way of protesting bans on free speech and the Vietnam War. When the hippies got hold of it, it definitely transformed.

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As far as we know life evolved once in the universe – here on Earth in the form of life as we know it. Could life have originated in other conditions with different raw materials? If so, we may be sharing the planet with lifeforms we don’t recognize yet.

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Rosa Parks finishes out our Black History Month episodes in grand fashion. While most know her from that fateful day on the Montgomery city bus, she actually had a long life as an advocate, protestor and agent of change. Join us via this classic episode as we celebrate one of America's great history makers.

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A greatest hit of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s came when the metal band Judas Priest was put on trial for the suicides of two teens. While the case was preposterous – based on alleged hidden satanic messages in the music – it arose from a real tragedy.

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We love our ghost ships here at SYSK and this is one of the better ones. But did it really even exist? Not likely. 

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Glasses as we know them have only been around for a few hundred years. So what did people do before this? And how did things change once spectacles were on the scene? Listen in to find out.

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Every year Congress decides how the federal government will spend money. Simple enough, but in practice politics tend to mess it up. Sometimes it gets so messy the budget doesn’t get passed and parts of the government shut down. Then the hurting begins. Learn all about it in this classic, always timely episode.

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There's a good chance that if you don't live in San Antonio, Texas, you may not know who scientist/adventurer Tom Slick is. Today we tackle the story of the most interesting man you've never heard of. 

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The Killing Stone looms large in Japanese folklore, so when it split in half in March 2022, people were worried it would bring devastating effects in its wake. Except... they really didn't.

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What if science could create a drug that made you connect with people more deeply, let your emotions flow more openly, and sparked love and attachment in you for other people? Would you take it? Better hurry and decide because they might be on their way.

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Listen in to this classic episode for the conclusion of the story of the Manson Family Murders.

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The town of Celebration, Florida was supposed to be a utopia. What it ended up as is a mediocre neighborhood on the outskirts of Disney World. 

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Who is Uncle Sam anyway? Was it a real person or just a marketing exercise? And why does he refuse to go away? Listen in to find out.

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Henry Ford was an odd guy, but one who had a vision for America that centered around a populist, affordable and reliable automobile. He was also a noted antisemite and not a great father. Today, we dive into the life of FMC's founder. 

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Science fiction writers have made some amazingly accurate predictions over the years, but in 1945 the pace of technological change created a field that spun off of sci-fi forecasting, futurology. Learn all about it with Josh and Chuck in this classic episode.

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Outside of Germany, King Ludwig II is relatively unknown. And, yet, he is one of history’s most tragic and romantic kings. He was a gay icon and a ruler who eschewed public appearances for turn inward into a fantasy realm of his own making.  

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You – yes, you! – can be a hero to neglected and abused animals. But there’s a right way to do it, and that does not involve sneaking onto a neighbor’s property and stealing their dog or cat. Learn how to do it real legal-like in this episode.

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When Napster reared its head in 1999, it marked the beginning of the end of the compact disc era. Today, we trace the history of the slowly evolving death of physical music media. 

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The '60s ended with a lot of turbulence, not the least of which was the Manson Family Murders. What made Charles Manson so alluring to his family? What makes one person kill for another? And what did The Beatles have to do with it all? Learn all this and more in this first part of our two part classic episode.

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Out of all the jobs a person can have, few are as overtly dangerous as making sure bombs don’t go off and if they do, making sure they’re away from people. Learn how bomb technicians do it safely, without a 100% turnover rate.

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How did a large section of downtown Los Angeles become a permanent fixture of unhoused individuals? Will it always be this way? Listen in to learn all about LA's famous Skid Row.

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The Olympic marathon of 1904 is an incredible story filled with wacky characters, cheating, heat and humidity, dust and dirt, and oh yeah, a few actual qualified athletes. 

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If you didn’t already know how amazing hummingbirds are, prepare to learn. Not only do they count among their numbers the smallest bird species, they are also lightning fast and have the endurance of a marathoner and a telethoner put together. Get up to speed on these wonderful creatures in this classic episode.

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Today we think of Luddites as people who don’t know how to use technology or are maybe even afraid of it. That’s pretty far from what the original Luddites were all about. They were the first workers to fight for fair treatment. They were not successful.

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What in the world is a chupacabra? Is it even real or is it the stuff of legend? Listen in to find out. 

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There is A LOT of made-up stuff on the internet that gets passed off as true. But once in a while something truly odd comes along. Here are three stories of real mysterious events in the internet’s recent history that are yet to be fully explained. 

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Body language is how you communicate without words. Some say it bears more impact in communication than speaking words. In this classic episode, learn about how you say what you say could mean more than you think.

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Cher is an icon, with hits spanning an unbelievable SEVEN decades. So kick back as we laud the singer/actress/legend. 

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Being tarred and feathered is an old trope in America, but the actuality of it was pretty brutal, not the least of which included burning skin. Let's dive into history - now!

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It’s so simple, yet so compelling: you mine blocks and cut down trees to put things together to make cool new stuff. There isn’t really a point and there’s not really a way to win. Minecraft is a non-game and it’s the second-most popular game of all time. 

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Depending on who you talk to, Genghis Khan was either a sadistic madman or one of the great leaders in world history. One thing is sure, he was one of the most advanced military minds of all time. Learn all about him in this classic episode.

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Many of us have experienced the odd sensation that we shouldn’t trust ourselves not to simply jump from a high place for no reason. Some even feel an urge. Philosophers and psychologists have tried to make sense of this senseless urge for centuries now. 

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We know how our skin prunes, but we don't know for sure why. Chuck likes the leading theory, Josh does not. WHO WILL WIN? (nobody)

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Rudolf Diesel was a game changing inventor, though his most famous product was not used how he envisioned it. Listen in and learn about his life and mysterious death.

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Throughout much of the world, the forests are being managed through sustainable timber harvesting practices. This has come at the cost of much legal battling and a century of practice. Find out all about it in this classic episode.

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The car wash you get to ride through on a journey to sparklingness is made of a handful of different tools that have been developed over the last century. They have just now reached the point where it all works together so well the industry is booming.  

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ZIP codes are pretty self-explanatory, but there are all kinds of fun facts around the topic. Listen in to find out.

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You may have his soap in your shower, but what do you know about the man himself? Buckle up, here comes Dr. Bronner!

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In reality, the Tulsa "race riots" of 1921 was more like a massacre. Yet it was almost lost to history until 1997, and still not widely known outside of Oklahoma until HBO's The Watchmen put it on the cultural map. Learn all about this dark chapter in American history in this classic episode.

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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. 

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Who were the Ritchie Boys? Listen in to find out. 

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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The founding of New England by the Puritans is quite a story. Today, we dive into who those people were.

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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.

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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!

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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?

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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.

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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!

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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. 

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While it sounds like something out of a movie, some POWs in WWII really held an Olympics. And it happened more than once. 

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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?

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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.

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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? 

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The story of what happened to the car that James Dean crashed.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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Learn all about the saddest phone notification in today's episode. 

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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In the exciting conclusion of our two-part episode on Hoover, we come in at the Cold War and end on a strange note.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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?

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Even the dullest hockey game is worth seeing when the Zamboni comes out to resurface the ice.

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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.

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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.

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