Everyone Deserves A Good Death
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The concept of hospice was created as a way to help people with only a few weeks to live spend their...
Short Stuff: The Call is Coming... FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that the "the call is coming from inside the house" urban legend may be based on a very...
The Happy Place of Saturday Morning Cartoons
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The greatest period in the history of humankind took place in the short era between 1970 and 1995. D...
Selects: How Mail Order Marriages Work
04 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Everybody knows mail order marriages are at best a last resort for jerks looking to boss a foreign s...
The Mystery of the Sleepy Sickness
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the early 1900s, a new pandemic happened out of nowhere with odd symptoms, that was never so...
Short Stuff: La Lechuza - The Witch Owl
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we kick off the scariest month with the legend of La Lechuza - The Witch Owl.See omnystudio.co...
Why Would Anyone Want to Appease Hitler?
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It seems ridiculously irresponsible with the benefit of hindsight, but the concept of giving Hitler ...
Selects: How Area 51 Works
27 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The secret military base Area 51 is inextricably linked to every secret, shady project the US govern...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Hinterkaifeck Axe Murders
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1922, a little farm in the woods of Bavaria became the site of what would become Germany’s ...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: SYSK Live: The DB Cooper Heist
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join Josh and Chuck live from Seattle as they (sky)dive into one of the most brazen robberies in the...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: Who Committed the 1912 Villisca Ax Murders?
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a small town in Iowa in 1912 eight people were murdered in the grisliest of ways while they slept...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Tylenol Murders, Part I
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On one terrible day in Chicago in 1982, seven people died suddenly and mysteriously. In just a matte...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The largest ever kidnapping case in the United States went down in the small town of Chowchilla, CA....
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Tylenol Murders, Part II
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The panic that began in Chicago spreads and begins to change the world. The investigation into the m...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Tale of the Bloody Benders
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Long before we knew what serial killers were, a family in remote Kansas was disposing of victims at ...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Harvey’s Casino Bombing of 1980
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In August of 1980 a bomb containing 1,000 pounds of dynamite was quietly delivered to Harvey’s...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Strange Unsolved Murder of Ken McElroy
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The murder of Ken McElroy comes off like a story from a cheap paperback book you’d get to read...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Harrowing Story of the North Hollywood Shootout
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tune in today to listen to the story of when North Hollywood became a war zone after a brazen bank r...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Unsolved Indiana Dunes Disappearances
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In July 1966, three women out for a day at the beach waded into the water of Lake Michigan, got onto...
SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: How The Great Train Robbery Worked
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1963, 15 men got together in England to pull off one of the most daring heists in history. The Gr...
A Tribute To The Far Side
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Far Side is one of the greatest cartoons in history. Today we go to great lengths to convince yo...
Short Stuff: Death Cap Mushroom
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The death cap mushroom lives up to its name. It’s a mushroom cap that causes death. Find out w...
Tdhtdhtdhtdhtdh: Sound Effects!
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sound effects are one of the unsung parts of any movie or TV show – they’re best when yo...
Selects: Slime Mold: 0% Mold, 100% Amazing
20 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever wandered past what looked like a pile of dog barf on a log during a hike in the...
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As part of our shameful history series, today we dive into the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments of the ...
Short Stuff: Killing a Dead Body
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you try to kill someone who was already dead is that a bad thing? Yeah? How bad?See omnystudio.co...
What was the Four Pests Campaign?
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Say one thing about Mao's communist China, they could kill some sparrows. Learn why and how in today...
Selects: What's the deal with subpoenas?
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Subpoenas are all the rage. But what do they even mean if someone can just ignore it? Learn this and...
You’re So Good At Conversation!
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s an understated miracle that humans can get across ideas to one another by saying things o...
Short Stuff: North Sentinel Island
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the last uncontacted people in the world live in the Bay of Bengal and they have made it clea...
The Man with the Golden Arm
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aussie James Harrison gave blood close to 1,200 times over a 60 year period and saved 2.5 million ba...
Selects: Noise Pollution: Arrrgh!
06 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever found your blood pressure rising because some guy down the street doesn’t...
America’s Militarized Police
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, America took stock of itself when scores of low-income cities broke out in riots. It f...
Short Stuff: The Mpemba Effect
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why does water seem to freeze faster when it starts out warmer?See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...
How Dolphins Work!
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
E-e-e-eek! E-e-e-eek, we say! Adding to the tradition of our wonderful animal episodes we contribute...
Selects: What Were the BONE WARS?
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A pair of old timey fossil hunters had a rootin’ tootin’ rivalry that spilled from acade...
What are Blue Zones?
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Blue zones are areas where people supposedly have more 100+ year-olds than average. But is it all ba...
Short Stuff: 1561 Celestial Event
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An amazing case of an early modern mass sighting of UFOs came in Nuremberg, Germany in 1561. Except ...
The History of Orthodontics
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Crooked teeth have always been a thing, but it took us a long time to do something about it. Learn a...
Selects: The Flannen Isles Mystery
23 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In December 1900 three lighthouse keepers vanished without a trace from a deserted island in Scotlan...
Private Equity: Your Ears Will Bleed
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Private equity is a business operation where companies are bought and run at their leanest to maximi...
Short Stuff: The Lost (?) Continent of Lemuria
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why aren't there lemurs in Africa? That question created a whole theory about a lost continent. Turn...
The Unsolved Murder of Hall and Mills
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1922, a pastor and his mistress were murdered in New Jersey. Nobody was ever convicted of the cri...
Selects: How Rape Kits Work
16 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rape kits are simple forensic evidence collection kits used when someone is sexually assaulted. But ...
Heavy Metal Pt II
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of Heavy Metal Week Josh and Chuck break down how specialized heavy metal music has beco...
Short Stuff: Devil Horns
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Metal fans have many ways to express themselves, but none are as metal as throwing the devil horns. ...
Heavy Metal Pt I
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the most talented musicians in the world play heavy metal, some of the hardest-hitting music...
Selects: The Disappearance of Flight MH370, Part II
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the absence of an official explanation of why flight MH 370 disappeared in 2014, conjecture and c...
Selects: The Disappearance of Flight MH370, Part I
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, a Boeing 777 airliner disappeared. Despite two full years of searching an area of ocean cov...
Who's Up For A Circular Economy
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if we could take all the trash and waste we generate every year – gigatons worth – ...
Short Stuff: Marianne Bachmeier: Vigilante Mother
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Marianne Bachmeier committed a shocking act of violence in court in Germany in 1981 to avenge the mu...
The Iconic, Complicated VW Beetle
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The VW Beetle is the best selling car of all time. The story behind its creation is a bit complicate...
Selects: Is birth order important?
02 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Child Prodigies: Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Child prodigies are unique in that they achieve adult levels of achievement, but do not typically ex...
Short Stuff: Bliss Point
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The food we eat – especially the junk food – is a highly engineered technical marvel tha...
The Humble and Deadly Cigarette
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is not about smoking or lawsuits or lung cancer. This is about the cigarette itself, a truly un...
Selects: The Tale of the Church of the SubGenius
26 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Church of the SubGenius is a religion, but really a parody of religion. Learn all about this gro...
AQ Khan: How to Live Dangerously
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
He’s been called the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and a real-life Bond villain and ...
Short Stuff: Paperclips
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How Boycotts Work (Or Do They?)
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We have boycotts coming out of our ears these days, but did you know they go back a couple centuries...
Selects: What exactly is stoicism?
19 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The word stoic has taken on its own meaning apart from the philosophical movement which gave it life...
How Alchemy Worked
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alchemy evokes sorcerers working by candlelight combining potions to create magical items, real Dung...
Short Stuff: Bengal Cats
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bengal cats are gorgeous animals, but they are bought and sold on the designer pet market, so booo. ...
The Great Big Yarn of Mel's Hole
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most bizarre stories to emerge from the cult radio show Coast to Coast AM – and tha...
Selects: Child Labor: Not Funny
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Child labor is no laughing matter. Even though we've taken care of it in the USA (mostly), it's stil...
Sixdegrees.com: A Social Media Origin Story
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before Facebook and MySpace, before even Friendster, there was SixDegrees. Dive in today to learn ab...
Short Stuff: 8 Track Cartridges
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
8 tracks were during vinyl, but preceded cassettes. Why? So people could listen to their music on th...
Sherlock Holmes: The Man, The Myth
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most famous fictional character in the world, and for good reason. Mo...
Selects: How Coelacanths Work
05 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Coelacanths are incredibly interesting as far as fish go. For one, they were thought to have gone th...
What was the purpose of USAID?
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
USAID has saved tens of millions of lives across the globe since its inception. But those days are o...
Short Stuff: BM Radio
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There was a time – a glorious time – when you could turn the dial in any city in the US ...
The Phil Hartman Story
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sadly, Phil Hartman may be best remembered for being murdered in his sleep by his wife. This episode...
Selects: What was Tin Pan Alley?
28 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tin Pan Alley was an area of New York around the beginning of the 20th Century that served as ground...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: What's the deal with Bond, James Bond?
28 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
James Bond, the most infamous secret agent ever to grace the silver screen, originated in the pages ...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Steadicams Work
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There have been many inventions that have advanced filmmaking, but maybe none as important as the st...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How the MPAA Works
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You may be surprised to learn those ubiquitous ratings, from G to NC-17, put on movies in America ar...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Josh and Chuck's List of Horror Movies that Changed the Genre
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Once in a while a movie comes along that's so forward-thinking it changes the way that horror is don...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Special Effects: A Short History
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Special effects have been around since the first movies. In fact, the techniques the earliest filmma...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Some Movies That Changed Filmmaking
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An estimated 50,000 films were made worldwide in 2009 alone. Many are surely clunkers, but in this e...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Stuntmen (and -women) Work
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
They get blown up, shot, drowned and thrown out of windows on the silver screen - and we don't even ...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Exploitation Films Work
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In today's SYSK Select episode, we learn about exploitation films. During the 1930s-80s, the work of...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: The True Story of BlacKkKlansman
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, director Spike Lee brought the story of Ron Stallworth to the big screen to great effect. T...
SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Why was Titicut Follies banned?
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Titicut Follies is a documentary made famous by its banning. But why was it banned? And what was it ...
Sunset Blvd: One Famous Road
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sunset Blvd is a long road, but is most known for the 1.7 mile stretch called The Sunset Strip. But ...
Short Stuff: Oedipus Complex
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Oedipus complex is probably Sigmund Freud’s most famous theory – that every little b...
Shameful History: Project 100,000
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During Vietnam, the U.S. lowered the IQ standards for the draft in order to bulk up their front line...
Selects: The Great Nuclear Winter Debate of 1983
21 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the height of the Cold War, a group of concerned scientists promoted their findings on the horrif...
Who are the Zizians?
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the Zizians is an unusual one. Are they a cult? Or are they simply a group who wants a ...
Short Stuff: The Shortest War
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How long was the shortest war in human history? Under an hour. Hard to believe? Not when you hear th...
The Fencing Of The Commons
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When England privatized its commons – lands that by custom belonged to all English to work and...
Selects: The Kitty Genovese Story
14 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most people have heard of the story of Kitty Genovese. She was murdered near her apartment in 1964 a...
Anacondas: Not Like in the Movie
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are anacondas big? For sure. Are they able to crush and consume a human? Maybe, but thankfully they ...
Short Stuff: Andrew Jackson's Inauguration
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wild stories about a crazy party after Andrew Jackson's inauguration have been around since the week...
How Styrofoam Works
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All those to-go cups and food containers aren’t actually Styrofoam but those cups and Styrofoa...
Selects: How Dementia Works
Sat, 07 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to explode in the coming decades and, in a ...
Selects: How Dementia Works
07 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to explode in the coming decades and, in a ...
Impression Management
Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:00:00 +0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We all in some way care about what other people think of us. At our core we all have a fear of sayin...
Impression Management
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all in some way care about what other people think of us. At our core we all have a fear of sayin...
Short Stuff: Can You Not Have A Name?
Wed, 04 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Is it legal to live without a name? Is it even possible? Find out today in this episode.See omnystud...
Short Stuff: Can You Not Have A Name?
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is it legal to live without a name? Is it even possible? Find out today in this episode.See omnystud...