Damn Interesting

By DamnInteresting.com

Society & Culture Arts Science & Medicine Education Literature Comedy History

What's Damn Interesting about?

The audio side of DamnInteresting.com: Legitimately intriguing true stories from history, science, and psychology. Audiobook-like narration with sound effects and music.

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Damn Interesting episodes:

03.21.2024
A Trail Gone Cold
Against the odds, a tiny Icelandic town speaks of a local Black ancestor. Geneticists and historians combine forces to uncover the man’s eventful life.
03.20.2024
A Trail Gone Cold
Against the odds, a tiny Icelandic town speaks of a local Black ancestor. Geneticists and historians combine forces to uncover the man’s eventful life.
06.13.2023
Journey To The Invisible Planet
The tangled history of humanity’s search for the solar system’s uncharted planets.
05.21.2023
From Where The Sun Now Stands
When the U.S. Army came for their land in 1877, the Nez Perce tribe complied. But tensions boiled over, and Chief Joseph led as they ran for their lives.
03.28.2023
The Ancient Order Of Bali
In 1970s Bali, a sudden rice crisis prompted an unexpectedly far-reaching scientific discovery
12.13.2022
Lofty Ambitions
In 1933, British WWI vet Maurice Wilson hatched an unorthodox plan to reach the still-untouched summit of Everest.
10.27.2022
The Rube's Dilemma
A great pitcher’s great temptation.
05.03.2022
Devouring The Heart Of Portugal
In 1924 a bankrupt businessman in Portugal launched an audacious international scheme to become one of the wealthiest men in the world.
02.28.2022
The Mount St. Helens Trespasser
Robert Rogers, a man obsessed with trespassing, sets his sights on Mount St. Helens in the spring of 1980
02.07.2022
Hunting For Kobyla
The true story of a runaway Nazi, a determined sleuth, and a chase around the world.
10.25.2021
The Unceasing Cessna Hacienda
In 1958, one heavily modified airplane flew out of Las Vegas with a single objective: Don’t land.
08.25.2021
The Kingpin of Shanghai
From the depths of poverty, Du Yuesheng rose through Shanghai’s underworld to become one of the most influential, and overlooked, figures in modern China.
06.02.2021
The Traveler And His Baggage
In Nazi-occupied Paris, “Dr. Eugène” offered Jews an alternative to deportation, slavery, and death camps. But the escape network was not what it seemed.
04.27.2021
Fifteen Years Forsaken
A true story of castaways on a lost and hostile scrap of land, all thanks to some meddlesome Frenchmen and terrible luck.
03.02.2021
A Blight On Soviet Science
Nikolai Vavilov dedicated his life to improving Soviet agriculture and eradicating famine, but his allegiance to science would ultimately lead to his downfall.
12.28.2020
Pugilism On The Plains
How a booming oil town aimed to become a western metropolis through one of the most ill-conceived boxing matches of all time.
10.08.2020
How Miss Shilling's Orifice Helped Win the War
How a female engineer defied all norms to save England in the Second World War.
09.04.2020
Dupes and Duplicity
The true story of the 18th century's greatest femme fatale, and the most unfortunate of her victims.
06.29.2020
Chronicles of Charnia
When an ancient, unexpected imprint is discovered in a stone quarry, scientists endeavor to explain its mysterious origin.
05.05.2020
The Spy of Night and Fog
The Spy of Night and Fog by Damn Interesting
03.25.2020
Radical Solutions
French mathematician Évariste Galois lived a full life. When he wasn't trying to overthrow the government, he was reinventing algebra.
12.11.2019
Private Wojteks Right To Bear Arms
One of Poland’s most beloved and honored World War II veterans was not Polish at all: he was a 500-pound brown bear named Wojtek.
09.10.2019
Dead Reckoning
The 18th century misadventures of HMS Wager and her reluctant crew
09.02.2019
The Eponymous Mr. Ponzi
The little known story of an age-old scam
04.14.2019
The Most Modern Of Modern Sports
The secret runaway success of Kenneth Gandar-Dower’s racing cheetahs.
11.04.2018
A Debaculous Fiasco
The most expensive, bizarre, and obscure work ever created by Dr. Seuss.
07.29.2018
Drawing The Shorter Straw
Working almost single-handedly, visionary Argentine filmmaker Quirino Cristiani created full-length animated films between 1917 and 1931. He has since been all but forgotten.
05.01.2018
The Curse Of Konzo
In 1981, an international group of doctors identified the devastating disease behind a perplexing outbreak of paralysis in northern Mozambique.
03.29.2018
A Jarring Revelation
Amanda Theodosia Jones was a 19th-century poet, entrepreneur, and inventor who found inspiration in some unlikely places.
11.20.2017
Death By Derivatives
The opening of a canal in 1848 led to the birth of modern financial derivatives, and the early demise of some of the men who traded them
07.29.2017
Ghoulish Acts & Dastardly Deeds
In the 1950s, an anonymous terrorist planted a pipe bomb in a New York City public space. Then another. And another.
07.17.2017
No Country For Ye Olde Men
Britain’s practice of transporting convicts to American colonies was a fearsome punishment, but not for the chronic criminal James Dalton.
06.12.2017
Fire And Dice
The story of a tragic hotel fire of Rube Goldberg proportions.
04.11.2017
The Reconstruction of Ulysses S. Grant
As a civilian, the beloved American Civil War general and two-term president failed at every attempt to make money. Except for one.
03.06.2017
The Greatest Baroque Composer Never Known
A 300-year-old hunt for the unsung hero of Salzburg.
12.28.2016
Foreign Exchanges
He made a name for himself organizing the world’s most important economic conference, only to have it tarnished by an outrageous accusation.
11.30.2016
Starving For Answers
During WWII, 36 American conscientious objectors volunteered as subjects in a brutal science experiment to measure the body's response to starvation.
09.26.2016
Ten Minutes In Lituya Bay
A remote bay in Alaska is home to an odd and occasionally catastrophic geology. In 1958, a handful of people experienced this firsthand.
08.06.2016
The King's Letters
The 15th-century scholar who upset the Korean aristocracy by creating a native script for the Korean language, and thus wean it off Chinese characters.
06.13.2016
Mobilis In Mobili
A 1930s effort to reach the Earth's northernmost point via antiquated submarine.
05.11.2016
Into The Bewilderness
Charles Waterton was a pioneer of conservation. He was also extremely nutty, in ways that suggest he may have over-identified with his animal subjects.
03.13.2016
Colonels Of Truth
The tumultuous true story of the life of a fast food icon.
12.14.2015
89, 263, 201, 500, 337, 480
The story of the Beale Ciphers; a set of three encrypted notes from the nineteenth century purportedly describing the location of hidden treasure. Only one has been deciphered.
11.28.2015
The Japanese Art of Self Preservation
On the ancient Japanese Buddhist practice of self-mummification.
10.21.2015
Faxes From The Far Side
Faxes From The Far Side by Damn Interesting
10.10.2015
The Petticoat Rebellion Of 1916
When women in a poorly administered Oregon town hacked an election in order to repair the town's problems.
09.23.2015
The First Ten Years
A happy-tenth-birthday-to-us retrospective.
08.02.2015
Up In The Air
As night fell over the East German town of Pössneck on the evening of 14 September 1979, most of the town's citizens were busy getting ready for bed. But not Günter Wetzel. The mason was in his attic, hunched over...
06.14.2015
The Zero Armed Bandit
"I don’t think it belongs here." Such was the assessment of Bob Vinson, the graveyard shift supervisor at Harvey's Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The "here" Vinson referred to was a nook just outside the telephone equipment room...
04.18.2015
The American Gustation Crisis Of 1985
(This is a podcastification of an older article to observe the 30th anniversary of the events discussed herein). In April 1985, it is rumored that a collection of executives gathered at their corporate headquarters for an emergency meeting. On the table...

What's Damn Interesting about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Damn Interesting episodes:

A Trail Gone Cold

A Trail Gone Cold

Journey To The Invisible Planet

From Where The Sun Now Stands

The Ancient Order Of Bali

Lofty Ambitions

The Rube's Dilemma

Devouring The Heart Of Portugal

The Mount St. Helens Trespasser

Hunting For Kobyla

The Unceasing Cessna Hacienda

The Kingpin of Shanghai

The Traveler And His Baggage

Fifteen Years Forsaken

A Blight On Soviet Science

Pugilism On The Plains

How Miss Shilling's Orifice Helped Win the War

Dupes and Duplicity

Chronicles of Charnia

The Spy of Night and Fog

Radical Solutions

Private Wojteks Right To Bear Arms

Dead Reckoning

The Eponymous Mr. Ponzi

The Most Modern Of Modern Sports

A Debaculous Fiasco

Drawing The Shorter Straw

The Curse Of Konzo

A Jarring Revelation

Death By Derivatives

Ghoulish Acts & Dastardly Deeds

No Country For Ye Olde Men

Fire And Dice

The Reconstruction of Ulysses S. Grant

The Greatest Baroque Composer Never Known

Foreign Exchanges

Starving For Answers

Ten Minutes In Lituya Bay

The King's Letters

Mobilis In Mobili

Into The Bewilderness

Colonels Of Truth

89, 263, 201, 500, 337, 480

The Japanese Art of Self Preservation

Faxes From The Far Side

The Petticoat Rebellion Of 1916

The First Ten Years

Up In The Air

The Zero Armed Bandit

The American Gustation Crisis Of 1985

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