Fun Fact

Fun Fact

By Arik Devens and Allen PikeComedySociety & CultureTechnology
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Fun Fact episodes

  • The Bone of Theseus

    Arik improves an idiom, Allen shares a good news fact, Arik shares a grammar fact, and Allen locates your bones.

    • You can’t have your cake and eat it too in other languages
    • Status update on pandas
    • Pisiform bone
    • Sesamoid bones
      • 33 min
    • Cool Fact

      Arik and Allen attempt a live episode, Allen attempts to store dry ice, Arik attempts to use the word “relative”, and Allen attempts to explain what salt does.

      • Carbon capture and storage
        • Permanent storage of carbon dioxide in the marine environment: The solid CO2 penetrator
        • Starboard and larboard - NOAA
        • Do fish drink?
          • 33 min
        • Both Jaunty and Cool

          Allen explains why summer exists, Arik outlines a trademark scheme, and Allen betrays Arik with a fishy biology fact.

          • Seasonal lag
          • List of genericized trademarks
          • Cladistics, the effort to recategorize living things into clades
            • 40 min
          • This Would Be Unsurvivable

            Allen goes deep on whale ingestion, and Arik explains what’s really going on with dinosaurs.

            • National Geographic on the plausibility of whales swallowing humans
            • Dinosaur
              • Evolution of birds
              • Ornithischia
              • Saurischia
              • Scott_D._Sampson
              • ‘Dinosaurs Among Us’ Retraces an Evolutionary Path
                • 36 min
              • Ridiculously Ridonkulously Large

                Our sun proves a nuisance, the former Soviet Union makes a trade, we consider pepper seeds, Isaac Newton considers an apple, mice consider some cheese, rats get exonerated, and we share a superior alternative to implausible.

                • What would the sun sound like?
                • List of common misconceptions
                • It Shipped That Way #6, where Arik and Allen talk about engineering leadership, software architecture, and Netflix’s culture
                  • 37 min
                • Astronomically Unlikely

                  Women handle backward buttons, Allen handles a lot of feedback about very improbable things, and Arik handles digested asparagus.

                  • Why Zippers Are On Different Sides For Men And Women’s Clothing
                    • Sumptuary law
                    • Understanding the Birthday Paradox
                    • Universally unique identifiers (UUID)
                    • Why Does Asparagus Make Your Pee Smell?
                      • 46 min
                    • We Gotta Blow It Up

                      Allen saves us from asteroids, Jack Black’s mom saves some astronauts, Allen offends Arik’s sense of probability, and Arik sets the record straight on streetcar conspiracies.

                      • Asteroid impact avoidance
                      • The Truth About Jack Black’s Mother’s Historic Past
                        • Ep. 63, A Heaving Mass of People
                        • In Memory of Judith Love Cohen
                        • The math behind how unlikely it is that two well shuffled decks have the same order
                          • An attempt to convey how long it would take to shuffle 52! times
                          • Did a conspiracy really destroy Los Angeles’s huge streetcar system?
                            • Kennedy, 60 Minutes, and Roger Rabbit
                            • General Motors streetcar conspiracy
                              • 50 min
                            • Let's All Do Crime

                              A Portuguese scheme attempts to make counterfeit money real, an American scheme attempts to make walking illegal, and we set the record straight on Australian toilets.

                              • Alves dos Reis on Wikipedia
                                • Rose Bailey’s Mastodon thread on the scheme
                                • The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking” - Vox
                                  • The Modern Moloch - 99% Invisible
                                  • Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year - Wikipedia
                                  • Not Just Bikes on YouTube
                                  • Pringles’ Sweet Potato Cinnamon Crisps
                                    • 47 min
                                  • Don't Eat This

                                    Ancient cultures name colours, algae goes wild, toilets inspire poetry, and we attempt to correct the internet.

                                    • What Is Blue and How Do We See Color?
                                      • Did Ancient People Really Not See The Color Blue?
                                      • Himba people - Wikipedia
                                      • Himba people color chart on Wikipedia
                                      • Giant kelp
                                      • Why is a Toilet Called a “John”?
                                        • Why the Toilet is Sometimes Called a “John”
                                          • 37 min
                                        • A Heaving Mass of People

                                          Arik makes an important call, Allen explains flavour, Arik invents football, Allen counts smiths, and we discover Ethiopian Time.

                                          • Bon Appetite on blue raspberry
                                            • Serious Eats on banana flavour
                                            • History of American football
                                              • William Webb Ellis
                                              • Association football
                                              • Blacksmith, whitesmith, greensmith, and brownsmith
                                              • Fun Fact 36 – Joey Two-Lies
                                              • Travel Tips for Ethiopia
                                                • If you have a meeting in Ethiopia, you’d better double check the time
                                                  • 43 min

                                                About Fun Fact

                                                From the publisher's feed

                                                Once a month, Arik Devens and Allen Pike take turns sharing fun facts. Practical, historical, technical, and trivial facts all deserve their fair shake.