Towards the end of World War I many doctors began noticing a disease spreading throughout their population by 1919 it was around the world infecting millions. And we're not talking about the Spanish Flu.

A new disease emerged that put people to sleep and caused death by respiratory failure. Dubbed "The Sleeping Sickness", much about it is not known about it today, partly by the fact it was overshadowed by the much deadlier Spanish Flu.

Find out what the sleeping sickness pandemic did and if the disease ever came back... (hint: it did).

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
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Sources
https://www.neurologylive.com/view/encephalitis-lethargica-still-unexplained-sleeping-sickness

https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/140/8/2246/3970828

https://theconversation.com/a-viral-infection-of-the-mind-the-curious-case-of-encephalitis-lethargica-660

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/encephalitis-lethargica#:~:text=Encephalitis%20lethargica%20

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3930727.stm

https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Encephalitis_lethargica

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/014107689709000916

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

In 1992 the team at Midway Games was just trying to bring John Tobias's vision to life in a little game called Mortal Kombat. Little did they know, Mortal Kombat would be the tipping point that would pit video game companies against the U.S congress and lead to a set of rules that would change video games forever.

Find out the history of it all on today's episode of Facts-Chology!

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/20/17263846/nintendo-night-trap-howard-lincoln-congress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2017-05-04/dont-buy-the-grand-theft-fallacy-that-video-games-cause-violent-crime

https://thesplintering.com/2018/09/13/25-years-after-mortal-monday-the-home-versions-of-mortal-kombat-celebrate-silver-anniversary/

https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/frustration-in-mastering-video-games-linked-to-aggression/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/video-game-health/201907/blame-game-violent-video-games-do-not-cause-violence

https://www.polygon.com/22346875/mortal-kombat-violence-esrb-ratings-lieberman

https://web.archive.org/web/20181127144229/https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/an-oral-history-of-mortal-kombat

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/02/senator-calls-for-warnings-on-video-games/74450503-ed9a-4084-9910-b8e65ac6f0cb/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/business/video-games-violence.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27620071

Today we look at the deadliest surgery in history but we also look at the man who performed it, Robert Liston. We'll take a quick look at his accomplishments and a couple of other surgeries that didn't go so well.

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/10/time-me-gentlemen-the-fastest-surgeon-of-the-19th-century/264065/

https://www.facs.org/-/media/files/archives/shg-poster/2016/05_liston.ashx?la=en

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/robert-liston-19881.php

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/l/robertliston.html

There's an urban legend that a pope in the the 13th century issued a papal bull or an official decree telling people to exterminate cats because of their association with the devil and witchcraft.

Today we take a quick look at the history of the relationship between witchcraft, cats, and lots of popes to find out what really happened in the 13th century.

Hear the full story on today's episode of Facts-Chology!

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://www.history.com/news/how-medieval-churches-used-witch-hunts-to-gain-more-followers

https://www.academia.edu/1061079/LUFF_R_M_MORENO_GARC%C3%8DA_M_1995_Killing_cats_in_the_Medieval_Period_An_unusual_episode_in_the_history_of_Cambridge_England_Archaeofauna_4_93_114

https://museumhack.com/black-cats-black-death/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ritualistic-cat-torture-was-once-a-form-of-town-fun

https://allthatsinteresting.com/pope-massacred-cats

http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/Vox_in_Rama

https://www.interesly.com/great-cat-massacre-middle-ages/

https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/11/05/were-cats-really-killed-en-masse-during-the-middle-ages/

For 30 years pinball was illegal beginning in New York City then spreading to other cities throughout the United States. Pinball machines were blamed for corrupting the minds of children leading them down a dark path of gambling and the devil.

The wave of bans started with one man, Mayor La Guardia, in the 1940's and ended with another man, Roger Sharpe in the 1970's.

Hear the full story on today's episode of Facts-Chology!

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://arcadology.net/new-york-pinball-ban/

https://knowledgenuts.com/2014/06/12/new-york-citys-war-on-pinball/

https://www.6sqft.com/pinball-prohibition-the-arcade-game-was-illegal-in-new-york-for-over-30-years/

https://www.history.com/news/that-time-america-outlawed-pinball

https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/did-you-know-pinball-was-illegal-in-nyc-for-over-30-years

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/g284/4328211-new/?slide=11

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/the-mayor-who-took-a-sledgehammer-to-nycs-pinball-machines/267309/

There's an old joke about pens, NASA, and Russia which turned into an urban legend. Today we debunk NASA spending billions on a space pen and find out the true story behind the space pen that reduced the dangers of writing in space and another pen that quite literally saved the moon landing.

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=19131

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-fisher-space-pen-boldly-writes-where-no-man-has-written-before-1020748/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/50-years-pen-saved-apollo-11/story?id=64228723

https://www.eetimes.com/how-a-felt-tipped-pen-saved-the-apollo-11-mission/

https://www.asicentral.com/news/web-exclusive/july-2019/how-a-felt-tipped-marker-saved-the-moon-landing/

https://www.history.com/news/buzz-aldrin-moon-landing-accident

Ponce De Leon never searched for the Fountain of Youth but the search for it extends thousands of years and even multiple countries. What is the true history of the Fountain of Youth? And what does Mean Girls have to do with Ponce De Leon and his name being tied to it?

Find out on today's episode of Facts-Chology!

*You definitely won't live forever

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodotus-Greek-historian

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-the-Great#ref59260

https://www.greekboston.com/culture/mythology/fountain-of-youth/

https://www.history.com/news/the-myth-of-ponce-de-leon-and-the-fountain-of-youth

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/fl-fountainyouth/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ponce-de-leon-never-searched-for-the-fountain-of-youth-72629888/

https://www.grunge.com/236799/the-tragic-history-of-the-search-for-the-fountain-of-youth/

https://www.dma12.org/the-fountain-of-youth-myth-or-reality/

https://www.theroot.com/did-a-black-man-discover-the-fountain-of-youth-1790899464

On April 18th, 1955 Albert Einstein passed away and the world lost a genius and then we lost his brain... Well, it was stolen by pathologist Thomas Harvey and he would go on to have quite the amount of road trips with the brain in a search to study it.

Find out the whole story of life after death for Einstein's brain on today's episode of Facts-Chology!

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/secrets-of-einsteins-brain/

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32354300

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-tragic-story-of-how-einsteins-brain-was-stolen-and-wasnt-even-special

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/061899sci-einstein-brain.html

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4602913

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/22/science.research

https://historyofyesterday.com/the-story-of-how-albert-einsteins-brain-was-stolen-a17b93ee1b7f

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/timeline/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/publication-bias

In 1938 rising star Orson Welles performed a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel 'The War of the Worlds'. The next day the newspapers reported mass panic, riots, and even deaths, but did that really happen? Well, if you read the title then no, but why did they report this? And why do some people still think it did cause a panic?

Find out on today's episode of Facts-Chology!

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://www.neh.gov/article/fake-news-orson-welles-war-worlds-80

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/10/30/241797346/75-years-ago-war-of-the-worlds-started-a-panic-or-did-it

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7ztk4f

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/infamous-war-worlds-radio-broadcast-was-magnificent-fluke-180955180/

https://www.wellesnet.com/the-war-of-the-worlds-radio-script/

https://slate.com/culture/2013/10/orson-welles-war-of-the-worlds-panic-myth-the-infamous-radio-broadcast-did-not-cause-a-nationwide-hysteria.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles

I've always heard the famous Shakespearean tragedy "Macbeth" is cursed but why is it supposedly cursed? Turns out it's origins is full of a lot more witches than I realized... and demons, fairies, and magic too.

Today we'll look at the origin of William Shakespeare classic "Macbeth" and check our cognitive bias to find out if it is in fact really cursed.

If you have a question you want us to research, send an email to [email protected]
And if you like the show, give us a rating, leave a review, or subscribe!

Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_Acts#Scottish_Witchcraft_Act_1563

https://www.bard.org/news/king-james-i-and-macbeth

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2018-11-02/macbeths-myriad-of-misfortunes/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703

https://www.rsc.org.uk/macbeth/about-the-play/the-scottish-play

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25929/25929-pdf.pdf

https://writinghood.com/the-curse-of-shakespeares-scottish-play-macbeth/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchmielewski/2020/06/08/lin-manuel-mirandas-hamilton-crashes-broadways-billion-dollar-club/?sh=2dd543035b3c

https://apnews.com/article/7c622b5ceefc2c46e0d98baca65f7d6c

https://www.theatreaficionado.com/2010/10/broadway-injuries.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainers_who_died_during_a_performance