Smartest Year Ever

What’s the steepest street in the world? You might think of San Francisco, but the true king of inclines is Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand—and it has the Guinness World Record to prove it… after a heated battle.

Baldwin Street’s brutal 34.8% gradient means a casual walk can feel like a mountaineering expedition. But this record didn’t stay unchallenged—in 2019, a street in Wales briefly stole the title, setting off an international steepest-street showdown.

This episode breaks down:

✔️ How 19th-century British city planners accidentally created a nightmare incline

✔️ The Guinness World Record controversy and how New Zealand fought back

✔️ The wild events people do on Baldwin Street—including racing and rolling chocolate candies down the hill

So there you have it—a record-breaking hill, a world title dispute, and an incline so absurd even locals were hoping Wales would take the crown.

🎧 Listen now on Smartest Year Ever!

Sources:

Guinness World Records. “Steepest Street: Baldwin Street, Dunedin.”

New Zealand Geographic. “Baldwin Street: The Steepest of Them All.”

BBC News. “Dunedin Wins Back Steepest Street Record.”

New Zealand Heritage Trust. “The Story of Dunedin’s Infamous Incline.”

🔍 #DailyFacts #SmartestYearEver #BaldwinStreet #GuinnessWorldRecord #NewZealand #SteepestStreet #Dunedin #WorldRecords

Beware the Ides of March! You’ve heard the phrase, but do you know why it exists? The Ides of March—March 15th—was just a normal Roman date… until Julius Caesar was assassinated by his own senators in 44 BCE. Shakespeare later dramatized the betrayal, but what really happened that day?

📌 Today’s episode covers:

• The real history behind Caesar’s murder

• Why March 15th was a Roman payday before it became infamous

• "Et tu, Brute?" – Did Caesar actually say that?

• Fun facts about Roman debt collection, bad omens, and historical superstitions

Sources:

• Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, c. 121 CE.

• Plutarch, Life of Caesar, c. 75 CE.

• Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1599.

• Everitt, Anthony. The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire. Random House, 2012.

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#SmartestYearEver #History #JuliusCaesar #IdesOfMarch #FunFacts #DailyFacts

Think St. Patrick’s Day is all about wearing green, drinking Guinness, and pretending you know what a shamrock is? Well… not exactly.Turns out, St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish, Ireland never had snakes, blue was the original color, and pubs in Ireland were actually CLOSED on St. Patrick’s Day until the 1970s. So how did this solemn religious feast turn into an excuse to drink like a medieval monk? Irish-Americans, that’s how.Gordy breaks down the real history of St. Patrick’s Day, the myths that people still believe, and how an enslaved teenager became the patron saint of Ireland.

Sources:

• Freeman, Philip. St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
• National Museum of Ireland. The History of St. Patrick’s Day.
• Ó Croínín, Dáibhí. Early Medieval Ireland, 400–1200. Longman, 1995.

Irish Times. Why St. Patrick’s Day Was Once a Sober Affair.

Why do some people have innies while others have outies? Is it random, genetic, or a sign of a doctor’s mistake? (Spoiler: It’s NOT your doctor’s fault.)

Gordy busts the biggest belly button myth and explains why scar tissue is the real reason behind your navel shape. Plus, a surprising look at how Ancient Greeks and other cultures viewed belly buttons.

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🔍 Sources: Moore, Keith L., et al. Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects. Elsevier, 2019. Sadler, T.W. Langman’s Medical Embryology. Wolters Kluwer, 2020. Mayo Clinic. “Umbilical Hernia: Causes and Treatment.” University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Belly Button Myths and Facts.”

Why is alcohol measured in "proof"? And what exactly are we proving? Turns out, the answer is equal parts history, science, and good old-fashioned fire.

Back in the days of the British Royal Navy, sailors had a unique way of making sure their daily rum rations weren’t watered down—by lighting them on fire. If the rum-soaked gunpowder still ignited, that was "proof" it hadn’t been diluted. The magic number? 57.15% alcohol by volume—which became the definition of 100 proof. If it didn’t light, someone was cutting corners, and a mutiny might be brewing.

This fiery test wasn’t just for sailors—tax collectors and distillers also used it before more precise measuring tools existed. The U.S. eventually adopted a simpler system (just double the ABV), but England stuck with their old method until 1980.

So why do we still call it “proof” today? Some traditions just refuse to sink.

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• Smith, Frederick H. Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History. University Press of Florida, 2005.

• Rogers, Nicholas. The Press Gang: Naval Impressment and Its Opponents in Georgian Britain. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007.

• U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. “Alcohol Beverage Labeling and Regulations.”

• Barnett, Richard. The Dedalus Book of Gin. Dedalus Books, 2011.

Sources:

Can dogs and cats be nearsighted? Do they ever need glasses? 🧐 Today, Gordy dives into the fascinating world of animal eyesight—from the blurry vision of your golden retriever to the night-vision superpowers of your cat. Learn why humans are the real outliers when it comes to bad vision, which animals actually develop nearsightedness, and why you’ll probably never see a dog struggling to read the fine print on his kibble bag.

🔍 Topics Covered:

• Why animals rarely need glasses 👓

• How dogs and cats actually see the world

• Which animals have the most insane eyesight (eagles 🦅, mantis shrimp 🦐)

• The real reason humans have so many vision problems

📢 Follow @SmartestYearEver for more daily facts!

📚 Sources:Miller, P. E., & Murphy, C. J. (1995). "Vision in Dogs and Cats." Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice.Neitz, J., Geist, T., & Jacobs, G. H. (1989). "Color Vision in the Dog." Visual Neuroscience.American Veterinary Medical Association. "Common Eye Problems in Pets."Land, M. F., & Nilsson, D. E. (2012). Animal Eyes. Oxford University Press.

Snake venom… as medicine? That’s right. Modern blood pressure drugs exist because of a deadly pit viper. Scientists discovered that the venom of the jararaca pit viper caused instant drops in blood pressure, making people collapse on the spot. Instead of running away, they studied the venom—and turned it into ACE inhibitors, one of the most widely prescribed heart medications today. From a snake bite to a life-saving drug, this is the wild story of how medicine turns nature’s most dangerous tricks into our best cures.

🔬 The science of snake venom as medicine
🐍 How a pit viper changed modern medicine
💡 Nature’s deadliest tricks turned into cures

Follow @SmartestYearEver on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Spotify for daily facts!

Sources:

• Ferreira, S. H. (1965). "A Bradykinin-Potentiating Factor Present in the Venom of Bothrops Jararaca." Nature.
• Cushman, D. W., & Ondetti, M. A. (1999). "Design of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors from the Snake Venom Peptide Model." Science.
• Opie, L. H. (2004). "The ACE Inhibitor Story." Circulation.
• American Heart Association. "How ACE Inhibitors Work."

Ever wonder why people say "the proof is in the pudding"? Proof of what? And why pudding? Was there some kind of medieval pudding trial we all forgot about?

Turns out, the original phrase actually made sense—but over time, English speakers did what they do best: butchered it beyond recognition.

The original saying was "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," first recorded in the early 1600s. Back then, "proof" meant "test," not "evidence" like in a courtroom. And "pudding" wasn’t a sweet dessert—it was a medieval meat dish, often stuffed with spices, grains, and... questionable chunks of animal parts. Some were delicious. Others? Potentially deadly.

The only way to know if a pudding was safe to eat was, well… to eat it. Thus, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Eventually, the phrase got misheard, shortened, and turned into a modern idiom that makes no sense at all.

So there you have it—a medieval food safety warning turned into an everyday saying, proving that sometimes, history’s biggest test is simply surviving bad translations.

🔗 Sources:

• Simpson, John & Weiner, Edmund (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.

• Ayto, John (2006). Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford University Press.

• Partridge, Eric (2008). A Dictionary of Catch Phrases. Routledge.

• Merriam-Webster. The Scoop on "The Proof Is in the Pudding."

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Once upon a time, Pontiac was the king of American muscle, rolling out classics like the GTO, Firebird, and Trans Am—cars that looked fast even when parked. But by the 2000s, Pontiac wasn’t tearing up the road so much as swerving toward bankruptcy.

So what happened? From its origins as a performance powerhouse to its slow decline into rebadged Chevys, Pontiac’s story is one of muscle, missteps, and financial meltdown. When General Motors went bankrupt in 2009, Pontiac was among the casualties, along with Saturn, Hummer, and Saab. And its final ride? Not a classic sports car but a white 2010 Pontiac G6 sedan, quietly rolling off the line in January 2010—more rental car than rockstar.

So there you have it—Pontiac went from muscle car legend to a mid-tier sedan in a financial crisis. Not exactly a movie-worthy exit, but at least we’ll always have Smokey and the Bandit.

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Sources:

• Mueller, Mike (2009). The Complete Book of Pontiac GTO: Every Model Since 1964. Motorbooks.

• General Motors Archives. Pontiac Brand History.

• U.S. Department of the Treasury. The 2009 Auto Industry Bailout and Reorganization.

Twice a year, millions of people get legally gaslit into thinking it's an hour later than it actually is. Welcome to the weird history of Daylight Saving Time (DST)—a war-time energy trick that refuses to die.

Who actually came up with this? Why does it mess with our bodies? And does it even save energy anymore? Gordy breaks it all down, covering:

• DST’s real origin story (not just Ben Franklin’s joke)

• Why we “spring forward” and “fall back” every year

• The health risks of losing an hour of sleep

• The Sunshine Protection Act and the push to kill DST for good

So there you have it—Daylight Saving Time: a war relic turned sleep-deprivation ritual that makes us question reality every March and November.

📌 Sources:Prerau, David (2005). Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time.National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “Daylight Saving Time History.”U.S. Department of Transportation. “The Uniform Time Act of 1966.”American Heart Association. “Health Risks Associated with Daylight Saving Time.”

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