Fun Fact

Fun Fact

By Arik Devens and Allen PikeComedySociety & CultureTechnology
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Fun Fact episodes

  • Hint O’ Lead

    Allen discusses handling whisky and plutonium, Arik discusses how to name islands and escape prison, and we touch on our electric wagon quest.

    • Crystalware
    • Dirty bomb
    • Iceland
    • The Sagas of Icelanders
    • Naddodd
    • Garðar Svavarsson
    • Hrafna-Flóki_Vilgerðarson
    • Erik the Red
    • Prison Escape
    • Prison Escape is Legal
    • Prison Break in Germany
    • Episode 18: Probably a Scheme
      • 432 Park Avenue’s noise leaks and cracks
      • The VW “Space VIZZION”
      • Station wagon aerodynamics analysis
        • 53 min
      • Banana Split Bonanza

        Arik takes a second look at “ye”, Allen investigates a Sonic-related coverup, and we review an accent that doesn’t exist. After the Fact: hypocrisy and synergy.

        • Ye olde
          • Old English Latin alphabet
          • Anglo-Saxon runes
          • Ultima Underground
          • Thorn
          • Old English writing
          • Up Up Down Down
            • Two Spies
            • Sonic the Hedgehog 3
              • Sonic 3’s Carnival Night Zone music
              • Analogue
              • Poorly drawn Sanic
              • Is There a Place in America Where People Speak Without Accents?
                • Pacific Northwest English
                • General American English
                • Canadian raising
                • General American vs. Received Pronunciation
                  • 58 min
                • Ye Olde Pub

                  Allen discovers woods, Arik transports us back to the olde tymes, and we do not start a Patreon.

                  • Hardwoods vs. softwoods
                    • The Canada-US softwood lumber dispute
                    • The Canada-US border dispute video
                    • English orthography
                    • The Great Vowel Shift
                    • The podcast series on the Great Vowel Shift
                      • 50 min
                    • Ineffective and Addictive

                      Cough medicine is a surprisingly bad idea, medieval monks get surprisingly saucy, and mundane terms have surprising origins.

                      • Cough medicine
                      • Throat lozenge
                      • Why it’s a really good thing cough medicine doesn’t work
                      • Knights vs. Snails
                        • The Snail in Gothic Marginal Warfare
                        • A defecating monk is chastised by a naked cleric
                        • Knights & Snails app
                        • List of eponyms
                        • General Ambrose Burnside
                        • Guy Fawkes vs Che Guevara. Epic Rap Battles of History.
                        • Globe and Mail on why we have no small EVs
                          • 55 min
                        • Hat-Savvy Area

                          Allen surveys a straw hat snarl, Arik examines the electoral college’s errors, and we finish with some feline followup.

                          • The Straw Hat Riot
                            • The etiquette of straw cowboy hats
                            • City has Wild Night of Straw Hat Riots, New York Times
                            • The Electoral College
                              • The Appointment of 2020 Electors
                              • Why Was the Electoral College Created?
                              • The 12th Amendment
                              • Can the President and VP be from the same state?
                              • The Three Fifths Compromise
                              • The Connecticut Compromise
                              • Seventeenth Amendment
                              • CGP Grey’s The Trouble with the Electoral College, and The Sneaky Plan to Subvert the Electoral College
                              • The Florida panther, a distinctly not-black panther
                                • 46 min
                              • Two Gun to Yuma

                                Allen revisits big felines, Arik catalogues well-armed historical figures, and Allen cares way too much about electric trunks.

                                • Francis Crowley
                                  • The Famed Crowley shootout photo
                                  • The Short Life of Two-Gun Crowley
                                  • Two-Gun Cohen
                                  • Two Guns White Calf, Two Gun Pete, Two Gun Law, Two-Gun Caballero, The Two-Gun Man, Two-Gun Betty, Two-Gun Man from Harlem, Two-Gun Kid, James Vincenzo Capone
                                  • CGP Grey’s Race to Win Staten Island
                                  • A variety of cars that aren’t quite right
                                    • The Golf Sportwagen and e-Golf
                                    • The Telsa Model Y and Model X
                                    • The highly anticipated VW ID.3
                                    • The wee Honda E
                                    • Rivian’s truck offering
                                    • Polestar 2
                                    • Mustang Mach e
                                      • 1 hr 10 min
                                    • Joey Two-Lies

                                      Allen attempts to pitch a miniseries, Arik attempts to explain calendars, and a Spaniard attempts to become a spy.

                                      • Historicity of Jesus
                                      • Juan Pujol García
                                      • The Ultra programme
                                      • The Ethiopian calendar
                                        • The current year in various calendars
                                        • Chinese calendar numbering
                                        • Why the Ethiopian calendar is behind
                                        • Adoption of the Gregorian calendar
                                        • The Illuminatus! Trilogy
                                          • 57 min
                                        • Pick Your Danger

                                          Astronauts make stuff to breathe, Europeans plunder stuff to sell, Australians and New Zealanders have a cute animal showdown.

                                          • The ISS Life Support Cycle
                                          • Nubian pyramids
                                          • The Treasure of Queen Amanishakheto
                                          • A kiwi and a platypus
                                          • The X from Outer Space
                                            • 52 min
                                          • Not All Fun Facts Are Fun

                                            Whiteness is a construct, emoji are problematic, history is racist, and Black and indigenous lives matter.

                                            • White people
                                            • Scientific racism
                                            • Definitions of whiteness in the United States
                                            • Emoji skin tone modifiers
                                            • White People Don’t Use White Emoji
                                            • The Problem with Skin Tone Emoji
                                            • Code Switch: White skin, black emoji
                                            • Black Lives Matter
                                              • 52 min
                                            • Quakers & Quasars

                                              Video calls are a problem, the universe is mind-boggling, a preacher defies expectations, and we receive formal titles.

                                              • Quasars
                                                • A totally badass rendering of a quasar
                                                • How New Westminster Lost the Capital
                                                  • Fun Fact 13, featuring the Victoria Day celebration in New Westminster
                                                  • The Public Universal Friend
                                                  • How Point Roberts is the safest place
                                                  • List of courtesy titles in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
                                                    • 1 hr 2 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.