Over the course of our lives, 80 percent of us will experience acne. Ultimately, acne comes down...
41:34
Podcasts de how stuff works
Did you know that science still doesn’t know the exact origin of the moon? Do you know how the...
38:05
Gambling predates the written word; dice made of bones have been discovered at prehistoric sites....
42:42
How the World Trade Center Memorial Works
The World Trade Center was once a global symbol of progress. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, the...
43:08
Instead of actually detecting lies, polygraph machines sense physiological variations, ostensibly...
27:47
The Cheesiest SYSK Episode Ever
Cheese is often overlooked as a one of humanity's great achievements. Making cheese is...
43:47
How to Land on a Government Watch List
The U.S. Government's Consolidated Terrorist Watch List keeps track of people who are known or...
32:54
How Murphy’s Law Works, the Redux
Years back, Josh recorded this show without Chuck, and the old version's omitted facts bugged...
30:50
The response to humor starts with electrical activity, potentially translating to physical...
42:29
What's the future of the internet?
It's tough to predict the future. Instead, the future looks a lot like it does now: Faster data...
39:16
Ethnobotany: How to Get Drugs from Plants
In 1820, most of the drugs listed in the American Pharmacopoeia were plant-based; by 1960, it was...
38:10
A condition known as chromhidrosis can be jarring: The sufferer excretes colored sweat from the...
24:20
While it’s kind of perverted in the West, the concept of karma is a central tenet of several...
32:29
There's no question that human cannonballs are daredevils. They pack themselves into the confines...
28:49
Who was America's first murderer?
John Billington didn't just sign the Mayflower Compact -- he was also the colony's first...
29:51
Although U.S. museum collections are rife with counterfeits, shrunken heads are far from fiction....
55:01
It 1981 the first modern suicide bomber blew himself up. But this was by no means the first...
27:27
Was Malthus right about carrying capacity?
Thomas Malthus concluded that humanity is bound to outgrow Earth's carrying capacity. The...
24:07
How the Underground Railroad Worked
As early as 1786, groups assembled to help slaves escape lives of bondage. And, as the 19th...
35:06
Sure, nicotine doesn’t cause cancer, but it does rearrange the brain's reward system. Humans have...
33:08
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