Smartest Year Ever

Abraham Lincoln is known for delivering some of the most powerful speeches in American history. But there’s one that shook the room so hard, no one wrote it down.

In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy unravels the mystery behind Lincoln’s so-called “Lost Speech”—a fiery address delivered at the 1856 Illinois Republican Convention that electrified the crowd, helped shape the early Republican Party, and may have been too controversial to publish.

So why didn’t anyone record it? Was it really too powerful to write down? Or was it buried on purpose?

Watch to uncover the legend, the theories, and the strange absence of one of Lincoln’s most pivotal moments.

New episodes daily. No days off. Smartest Year Ever.

Sources:

• Donald, D. (1995). Lincoln. Simon & Schuster.
  

• Holzer, H. (2004). Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President. Simon & Schuster.
  

• Zall, P. M. (1957). Abe Lincoln Laughing: Humorous Anecdotes from Original Sources by and about Abraham Lincoln. University of California Press.
  

• National Park Service. (n.d.). Abraham Lincoln and the Lost Speech. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/lostspeech.htm
  

• Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, Northern Illinois University. Retrieved from https://lincoln.lib.niu.edu
  

#LincolnSpeech #LostSpeech #AbrahamLincoln #HistoryMystery #CivilWarEra #PresidentialHistory #SmartestYearEver #AmericanHistory Music thanks to Zapsplat.

In 1998, a renovation crew stumbled on something shocking beneath one of London’s oldest Georgian townhouses—once home to Benjamin Franklin himself. What they found would launch a historical investigation with a dark and surprising twist.

Gordy dives into the story of how a pit of human bones ended up beneath the home of America’s most eccentric Founding Father. From the birth of modern medical science to the shadowy world of 18th-century grave robbing, this episode explores what happens when scientific curiosity collides with moral gray zones—and why Franklin may have known more than he let on.

Bones in the basement? Surgery scars? A secret anatomy school? This one’s part colonial mystery, part scientific deep dive, and part dark historical trivia you’ll be dying to share.

No days off. New fact daily.

Sources:

• Benjamin Franklin House. (n.d.). Bones in the Basement. https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org
  

• Cook, H. J. (2007). Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. Yale University Press.
  

• Lineberry, C. (2006). The Founding Father’s Anatomy Lesson. Smithsonian Magazine.
  

• Nature. (1998). Anatomy of a Murder Mystery, 396.
  

• The Guardian. (1998). Grave Robbers, Ghosts, and the Founding Father.
  

#HistoryFacts #BenFranklin #WeirdHistory #MedicalHistory #ColonialAmerica #hiddenhistory #dailyfacts #creepyhistory Music thanks to Zapsplat.

Was “Uncle Sam” actually a real person—or just a myth wrapped in red, white, and blue? In this episode, Gordy digs into the surprisingly tangled history behind America’s most iconic face. From barrels of salted meat in the War of 1812 to the finger-pointing recruitment poster of World War I, the truth behind Uncle Sam might not be what you think.

Find out how a New York meat packer, a satirical nickname, and a cartoonist who invented Santa Claus all shaped the character we now call Uncle Sam. And discover how this symbol of the U.S. government evolved from friendly patriot to bureaucratic scapegoat.

Today is Episode 182 of 182 straight days—marking the official halfway point of the Smartest Year Ever. 183 more to go. No days off.

Like, share, and comment if you’re learning something new every day.

Sources:

• U.S. Congress. (1961). Public Law 87-153: Designating “Uncle Sam” Wilson as the progenitor of America’s national symbol. U.S. Government Publishing Office. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-75/pdf/STATUTE-75-Pg409.pdf
  

• Library of Congress. (n.d.). Who is Uncle Sam? Retrieved June 2025 from https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/september-13
  

• Smithsonian Magazine. (2013). Who Was Uncle Sam? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-the-real-uncle-sam-11285679/
  

• Britannica, T. Editors. (2023). Uncle Sam. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Sam
  

• Reaves, J. (1991). Thomas Nast: Political Cartoonist. Scribner.
  

• U.S. National Archives. (n.d.). Uncle Sam Was a Real Person—Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York.
  

#AmericanHistory #UncleSam #dailyfacts #historynerd #USA #didyouknow #UShistory Music thanks to Zapsplat.

Every day, over 150,000 people die—from illness, age, accidents, war, and everything in between. But Gordy asks a deceptively simple question: Has there ever been a day when no human died?

To find out, we dive deep into prehistoric population crashes, explore the Toba supervolcano, and run the numbers on what it would take to have a true deathless day in human history.

This episode of Smartest Year Ever blends population science, anthropology, mortality data, and genetics to answer one of the eeriest thought experiments of all time. If it ever happened... you probably didn’t hear about it.

Sources:

• World Health Organization. (2023). Global Health Estimates 2020: Deaths by Cause, Age, Sex, by Country and by Region. https://www.who.int/data/gho
  

• United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2022). World Population Prospects 2022. https://population.un.org/wpp/
  

• Gurven, M., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Longevity Among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination. Population and Development Review, 33(2), 321–365.
  

• Ambrose, S. H. (1998). Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution, 34(6), 623–651.
  

• Arsuaga, J. L., et al. (2014). Traumatic lesions in a 430,000-year-old cranium. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(13), 4387–4392.
  

• Hovers, E., et al. (2000). Early human burial at Qafzeh Cave. Nature, 403(6771), 313–318.
  

• Maddison Project Database. (2020). Historical Population Estimates. University of Groningen. https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/
  

#HumanHistory #Anthropology #UnsolvedQuestions #humanmortality #didyouknow #anthropologyfacts #Dailyfacts #volcanos Music thanks to Zapsplat.

Gordy unpacks the unexpected reason we call letters “uppercase” and “lowercase”—and the answer has nothing to do with grammar.

This finale to Word Origins Week dives deep into the evolution of letterforms, the rise of Carolingian minuscule, and how a printing press storage hack became a permanent fixture in modern language—and even computer code.

Along the way, you’ll find out: – Why ancient Roman writing was all caps – How Charlemagne’s scribes reshaped reading – What Gutenberg actually invented—and what he didn’t – And why being “out of sorts” once meant literally running out of the letter “e”

This one’s a wild ride from chisels to Unicode—and it just might change how you look at your keyboard forever.

No Days Off. New Fact Daily. Follow for more on the quirks, chaos, and hidden histories behind the words we use every day.

Sources: – Bringhurst, R. (1992). The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks. – Petrucci, A. (1995). Writers and Readers in Medieval Italy: Studies in the History of Written Culture. Yale University Press. – Houston, K. (2013). Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks. W. W. Norton & Company. – Crystal, D. (2006). The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left. Oxford University Press. – Coulmas, F. (2003). Writing Systems: An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

#WordOrigins #Linguistics #LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory #printingpress #gutenberg #uppercase #lowercase Music thanks to Zapsplat.

What does it take to have your name turned into a global protest tactic?

In today’s episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy digs into the surprising true story of Charles Boycott—a British land agent in 19th-century Ireland whose brutal treatment of tenant farmers sparked a movement so effective, his name became a verb. This is the origin of the word “boycott,” a form of nonviolent resistance that exploded across the English-speaking world and has never left.

Along the way, Gordy explores the Irish Land Wars, the rise of moral shunning as political protest, and how one man’s name became a symbol of grassroots power—even though he never said the word himself.

If you've ever wondered how words are born from real people and historical events, this is the kind of story you won’t forget.

#WordOrigins #linguistics

Sources

• Kelly, J. (2012). The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People. Henry Holt and Company.
  

• Kinealy, C. (1995). This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845–52. Gill & Macmillan.
  

• O'Tuathaigh, G. (2010). Ireland Before the Famine: 1798–1848. Gill & Macmillan.
  

• Oxford University Press. (2025). Boycott, v. Oxford English Dictionary Online. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/22049
  

• Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2025, June 15). Charles Cunningham Boycott. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Cunningham-Boycott
  

• Rogers, R. (2025, March 8). The Boycott Origination Story. Irish America. https://www.irishamerica.com/2025/03/the-boycott-origination-story
  

• JSTOR Daily. (2018, April 20). Boycotting Captain Boycott. https://daily.jstor.org/boycotting-captain-boycott
  

• International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. (2019, April 4). The Original Irish Boycott. https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/the-original-irish-boycott
  

Music thanks to Zapsplat.

#LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory #boycott #irishhistory

Where did the most recognizable word on Earth actually come from? In today’s episode, Gordy traces the bizarre, ironic, and political backstory behind “OK”—a word that’s now used in dozens of languages, from aviation to text messages to global diplomacy.

But its true origin? Not what most people think. Before “OK” was universal, it was an inside joke, a campaign slogan, and a punchline in 1830s Boston. Gordy unpacks the strange history, rival origin theories, and how two little letters conquered the planet.

Don’t miss this one—it's about more than a word. It’s about how a joke can accidentally reshape the way the world communicates.

Sources:

• Metcalf, A. (2010). OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word. Oxford University Press.
  

• Crystal, D. (2010). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  

• Read, A. (1938). The first stage in the history of “O.K.” American Speech, 13(1), 5–24.
  

• Read, A. (1964). The folklore of “O.K.” American Speech, 39(1), 5–18.
  

• Liberman, A. (2008). Word Origins... and How We Know Them. Oxford University Press.
  

#WordOrigins #linguistics Music thanks to Zapsplat. #LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory

Where did the word “barbarian” come from—and what did it really mean to the Ancient Greeks? On Day Four of Word Origins Week, Gordy unpacks the wild linguistic journey of one of the oldest insults in human history. From Greek mockery of foreign languages to Roman propaganda, this word’s transformation reveals a lot more about cultural dominance than you might expect.

You’ll learn how language, judgment, and power shaped the ancient world—and how words like “barbarian” still carry that baggage today. Stick around for the unexpected connection to the name Barbara, the Barbary Coast, and why being called a “barbarian” is suddenly… kind of a compliment?

Hit play to learn how a sound became a slur—and why “bar-bar-bar” was never just nonsense.

Sources:

• Cartledge, P. (2002). The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford University Press.
  

• Hall, E. (1989). Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy. Oxford University Press.
  

• Hornblower, S., & Spawforth, A. (Eds.). (2003). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
  

• Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  

• Crystal, D. (2010). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  

#WordOrigins #linguistics

#LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #barbarians #LanguageHistory Music thanks to Zapsplat.

Why would anyone look at a flexed bicep and think… mouse?

Welcome back to Word Origins Week on Smartest Year Ever, where Gordy uncovers the surprising, sometimes absurd stories behind the everyday words we take for granted. In today’s episode, he traces the etymology of “muscle” all the way back to the Latin word musculus, which meant something you probably won’t guess unless you’re fluent in ancient rodent metaphors.

This linguistic deep-dive also unpacks:

• Why the Romans saw mice in their arms
  

• How the word muscle shaped everything from cars to Christianity
  

• And how language builds metaphors into our anatomy
  

Plus, find out what your seafood platter, your calves, and your pupils all have in common.

📚 It’s a story of metaphors, movement, and mice—and it might just change the way you look at your own body.

Sources

• Harper, D. (2024). Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/muscle
  

• Oxford English Dictionary. (2023). muscle, n. Oxford University Press.
  

• Lewis, C.T., & Short, C. (1879). A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  

• Skeat, W. W. (1910). An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Oxford University Press.
  

• Kahn, A. (2020). “Why Are Muscles Called ‘Little Mice’?” Anatomy Insider Journal, 14(3), 18–21.
  

#WordOrigins #linguistics #LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory #wordhistory #latinlanguage Music thanks to Zapsplat.

It’s Day Two of Word Origins Week on Smartest Year Ever—and today, Gordy asks a deceptively simple question that will trip up your brain: which came first—the word for the color, or the fruit?

It seems obvious... until you really think about how colors got their names. From misheard articles to centuries of trade routes, today’s episode takes a strange and satisfying linguistic detour through etymology, color naming, and a fruit that changed the English language forever.

Plus: why redheads aren’t called orangeheads, how “a norange” became “an orange,” and what other colors (like violet, peach, and rose) were named after objects, not the other way around.

Word Origins Week continues all week long—5 days, 5 words, and all the strange twists in how our language got made.

Sources:

• Bon Appétit. (n.d.). The Etymology of the 'Orange'. https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/the-etymology-of-the-orange
  

• Literary Hub. (2021). Color or Fruit? On the Unlikely Etymology of 'Orange'. https://lithub.com/color-or-fruit-on-the-unlikely-etymology-of-orange
  

• IFLScience. (2023). The Color or the Fruit: Which Word 'Orange' Came First?. https://www.iflscience.com/the-color-or-the-fruit-which-word-orange-came-first-72205
  

#WordOrigins #linguistics

Music thanks to Zapsplat.

 #LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory