Condensed Soup

A snail named Ned has a rare trait: his shell coils to the left, making him part of a 1-in-40,000 group with mirrored anatomy—and a very limited dating pool. Discovered in a New Zealand veggie patch, Ned inspired a nationwide search for a match, echoing a 2017 quest for Jeremy, a similarly sinistral snail whose romantic journey included love triangles and 56 offspring.

Turns out, snail mating is wilder than fiction—featuring love darts, hermaphroditism, and a whole lot of evolutionary drama.

Ned is a perfectly nice snail, but a rare shell means a doomed love life (Charlotte Graham-Mclay, AP, Sep 5, 2025)

Lonely 'lefty' snail seeks mate for love — and genetic study (University of Nottingham, Oct 21, 2016)

Jeremy, The Lonely, Left-Twisting Snail, Dies — But Knows Love Before The End (Camila Domonoske, NPR, Oct 13, 2017)

Snakes and Snail "Handedness" (Stephanie Muddle, Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium, Aug 28, 2020)

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It's National Cheeseburger Day soon, and Dairy Queen is giving away free cheeseburgers -- a fact that leads us to look at the DQ's influence in pop culture and its relationship with retro mall favorite Orange Julius. We chat about the surprise ingredient that made Orange Julius so unique, and how it can dress up your favorite cocktail.

Dairy Queen announces National Cheeseburger Day deal: See how to get a free cheeseburger (James Powel, USA Today, Sep 3, 2025)

20 Things You Didn't Know About Dairy Queen (Stacy Conradt, Mental Floss, Sep 3, 2018)

Original Orange Julius (kittcatmom, Food(dot)com, accessed Sep 5, 2025)

Why and how to Use Egg Whites in Cocktails (Tyler Zielinski, Liquor(dot)com, Feb 15, 2022)

How to Use Egg Whites in Cocktails (The Glenlivet, accessed Sep 5, 2025)

How to make egg white foam for cocktails (Patron, Sep 27, 2024)

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At a 7-Eleven in Alhambra, California, a woman flashed a hand signal behind her back — and someone inside the store recognized it as a silent plea for help. That simple gesture, created during the pandemic by the Canadian Women's Foundation, led to the arrest of a man with an active warrant, a stun gun in his possession, and ties to a domestic violence incident.

We talk about the viral "signal for help," how it's already saved lives across the country. Learn how to recognize it and use it (although I hope you never have to).

Domestic violence victim uses hand signals to ask for help, suspect arrested: Police (Megan Forrester, ABC News, Sep 3, 2025)

Woman at 7-Eleven with alleged abuser uses hand signal that's a cry for help, police say (Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, Sep 3, 2025)

Missing teen rescued after making a hand gesture she learned from TikTok to signal for help (Amanda Jackson, CNN, Nov 8, 2021)

Hand gesture saves Hickman County woman from domestic violence (Andy Jordan, WKRN(dot)com, Apr 11, 2022)

5 Easy-to-Spot Distress Signals That Are Already Saving People's Lives (Sara Li, InStyle, Jun 3, 2025)

These 'Distress Signals' May Help You Get Out of an Unsafe Situation (Claire Wolters, Verywell Health, Nov 19, 2021)

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James Patterson just gave 12 writers a golden ticket: $50,000 each to finish their books. It's part of his new "Go Finish Your Book" campaign — and it's not the only way he's quietly becoming publishing's greatest philanthropist.

From grants for teachers and librarians to scholarships, bookseller bonuses, and even military book donations, Patterson's funding the future of storytelling one check at a time. Also, I revisit my favorite library-centric romcom: Desk Set (1957), where Spencer Tracy meets Katharine Hepburn and a room-sized computer threatens her card catalog kingdom.

James Patterson offers new writers up to $50,000 to finish their books (Hillel Italie, AP, Sep 3, 2025)

Frequently Asked Questions, 2020 Classroom Library Grant (Scholastic, accessed Sep 3, 2025)

James Patterson (official, accessed Sep 3, 2025)

Desk Set (Rotten Tomatoes, accessed Sep 3, 2025)

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In today's episode: howling drones, heavy metal wolves, and the science behind why your dog gives you those eyes. Ranchers are blasting AC/DC and dramatic scenes from the sky to scare off gray wolves — but what really separates those wild cousins from our couch-surfing pets?

We're going from wolf psychology to oxytocin experiments. Who rescued whom, indeed.

Drones blasting heavy metal and Hollywood clips help biologists scare wolves away from cattle (CBS News / AP, Sep 2, 2025)

Gray Wolf (Smithsonian's National Zoo, accessed Sep 2, 2025)

Gray wolf (National Geographic, accessed Sep 2, 2025)

Wolf vs dog: what's the difference between man's best friend and its wild cousin? (Debbie Graham, Discover Wildlife / BBC, Jan 9, 2024)

What's the difference between your dog and a wolf? (Wolf Education & Research Center, Sep 23, 2020)

How dogs stole our hearts (David Grimm, Science (dot) org, Apr 16, 2015)

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A proposed Chinese embassy (with secrets) is drawing scrutiny in London, which leads us to a gift that hung above the U.S. ambassador's desk for seven years (but was listening the whole time.) Today we're tracing the strange, musical science behind Soviet espionage in plain sight, how a Beach Boys–adjacent inventor pulled it off, and how to make sure you're not being spied on in your Airbnb.

'The most ingenious stunt since the Trojan Horse': The Soviet artwork that spied on the US (Matt Wilson, Aug 27, 2025)

Ministers ask China to explain redacted designs for London 'super-embassy' (Eleni Courea, The Guardian, Aug 6, 2025)

The Soviet Spy Who Invented the First Major Electronic Instrument (Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, Dec 3, 2020)

How to Spot Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb With These 7 Tips (Tyler Lacoma, CNET, Aug 18, 2025)

Does Your Airbnb Have Hidden Cameras? Here's How to Check (Chandra Steele, PC Mag, May 21, 2025)

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First, we catch up with the crosswalks in Orlando and how citizens are showing up. Then we shift to real crimes. From Miami high-rises to Margaritaville resorts, we're looking at the people who can't keep their beer bottles to themselves. Plus: the myth of the lethal penny dropped from the Empire State Building.

Judge frees man arrested at former Pulse memorial crosswalk, no wrong doing found (Grace Bellinghausen, CBS 12, Aug 31, 2025)

Judge Dismisses Florida Arrest Over Rainbow Chalk Art Near Pulse Nightclub (Naomi Lachance, Rolling Stone, Aug 30, 2025)

Man accused of regularly throwing glass bottles from Miami high-rise faces deadly missile charges (Andrea Torres, Local 10 (dot) com, accessed Aug 31, 2025)

Man arrested after tossing beer bottles, refusing to leave Margaritaville Resort on Fort Myers Beach (Samantha Romero, Gulf Coast News Now, May 21, 2024)

What if I threw a penny off the Empire State Building? (Marshall Brain, How Stuff works, Mar 7, 2024)

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Every September, the Dutch city of Tilburg hosts Redhead Days, a free festival celebrating natural redheads with music, food trucks, and even skin cancer prevention workshops. The only rule? Only redheads can be in the official Sunday photo — which once set a Guinness World Record. Plus, my favorite redheads (one saved Star Trek!)

Thousands of redheads celebrate their strands at a festival in the Netherlands (Molly Quell, AP, Aug 30, 2025)

5 Health Risks of Being a Redhead (Rachael Rettner, Live Science, Aug 22, 2013)

Why Redheads May Need More Anesthesia (Cleveland Clinic, Apr 9, 2024)

Charlie Brown Never Found His Little Red-Haired Girl, but We Did (Darryn King, Vanity Fair, Nov 6, 2015)

How Lucille Ball Helped Star Trek Become a Cultural Icon (Star Trek (dot) com, Aug 6, 2023)

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Today's episode is a grab bag of oddball gems that didn't quite fill a full show—but were too good not to share. We've got a Yankee Stadium squirrel that scored its own Topps card, a teenage founder of a micronation vying for Eurovision glory, and the uncanny reality of AI-generated podcasts that sound a little too human. From baseball field invasions to international law loopholes to synthetic podcast hosts, it's a ten-minute tour of the weird and wonderful.

Squirrel honored with Topps card after interrupting Yankees game (Ben Hooper, UPI(dot)com, Aug 25, 2025)

'We would love to enter Eurovision!' The boy who saw some unclaimed land — and founded his own country (Lucy Knight, The Guardian, Aug 19, 2025)

I AI-generated some podcasts — and the results are uncanny (Stuart Heritage, The Guardian, Oct 16, 2024)

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Is merging early the polite move—or just causing more traffic? This episode breaks down the controversial zipper merge. From real road rage stories to surprising laws in Illinois and Utah, we dig into why waiting to merge until the last moment may actually be the better move—and why doing it too early might be slowing everyone down. Plus: the psychology behind merging and why this one driving habit sparks so much fury.

Should drivers zipper merge? Is it actually faster? What you need to know (Ahmed Jawadi, USA Today, Aug 26, 2025)

Zipper Merge (Missouri Department of Transportation, accessed Aug 28, 2025)

The Zipper Merge: The Best Way to Merge in Traffic (Kevin Feather, AAA Connect, Nov 11, 2024)

What is the zipper merge? Illinois law brings technique to highways, rulebook (ABC7, Feb 28, 2020)

Disregarding new Utah law could cost $750 (Adam Sandbek, Hill Air Force Base, Jan 6, 2023)

West Michigan family escapes close call in 'zipper merge' road rage incident (Charlie Tinker, ABC13, Aug 16, 2022)

Why The 'Zipper Merge' Will Never Work (Carlyn Beccia, Medium, Jul 26, 2021)

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