Stuff You Should Know

By iHeartRadio & HowStuffWorks

Society & Culture

What's Stuff You Should Know about?

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

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What's the deal with subpoe...

10.22.2019

Subpoenas are all the rage. But what do they even mean if someone can just ignore it? Learn this and a lot more in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Stuff You Should Know episodes:

10.19.2019 SYSK Selects: The 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980s In the late 1980s, the United States experienced a "Satanic Panic," leading parents to fear for the safety of their children. But were there any real examples of Satanic ritual abuse? Find out this and more in this classic episode. ...
10.17.2019 How Project Blue Book Worked, Pt II A rash of UFO sightings kicks off a new spike in America’s UFO fever and new headaches for the Air Force, which continues to reluctantly investigate. After becoming a laughingstock for its limp explanations, the Air Force looks for an ...
10.16.2019 Short Stuff: The Disappearance of Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce was a journalist and writer of short stories. He also disappeared rather mysteriously. Listen in and learn of the various theories on what happened to him. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
10.15.2019 How Project Blue Book Worked, Pt I Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
10.12.2019 SYSK Selects: How Black Boxes Work Black boxes are designed to be the only survivor of plane crashes so they can live to tell the tale of what went wrong to prevent future accidents. Sit in with Josh and Chuck and learn about how these grim ...
10.10.2019 The Ins and Outs of Beekeeping Who wants fresh honey? We do! Learn all about the ancient art of beekeeping today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
10.09.2019 Short Stuff: The Devil's Den The Devil's Den is the sight of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Is it haunted? Nope. But still creepy. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
10.08.2019 How Environmental Psychology Works In the 60s, psychology expanded from exploring inside the mind to exploring the inside of buildings. Environmental psychology looks at how our spaces affect us – from how a busy mall can create a panic attack to how looking at ...
10.05.2019 SYSK Selects: How Pez Works PEZ began in Vienna as a mint meant to help people quit smoking. But once American kids got ahold of it, the candy took off and a symbol of childhood - and healthy secondary market among collectors - was born. ...
10.04.2019 Introducing Bear and a Banjo Bear and a Banjo is a new musical podcast that tells the incredibly tall tale of a band that time forgot. Although history may have left them behind, Bear and Banjo rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest musical icons ...
10.03.2019 What were the Freedom Schools? Freedom Schools were set up in Mississippi in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, with the aim of giving young black school children agency and a future. They remain one of the more inspiring and progressive programs in American ...
10.02.2019 Short Stuff: Fish n' Chips How did these two wonderful strangers meet up and become best friends? The answers lie within today's short stuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
10.01.2019 Guardian Angels: Behind the Red Beret If you grew up in the 1980s, then you know who the Guardian Angels are. If you don't then you're in for quite a story. Listen in! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
09.28.2019 SYSK Selects: What Happened at Kent State? On May 4, 1970, four days of anti-war protests at Kent State University in Ohio culminated in the unthinkable when Ohio guardsmen opened fire on protesters, killing four students. How could this tragedy take place? Learn more in this classic ...
09.26.2019 What are paraphilias? Josh and Chuck dive into the world of paraphilias so you can get the skinny in 45 minutes or less. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
09.25.2019 Short Stuff: Dare Stones What happened to the Lost Colonists who disappeared from Roanoke Island in the 1580s remains a mystery to this day. But it’s possible a carved stone a man vacationing in North Carolina found in the 1930s may have solved it ...
09.24.2019 We Are Running Out of Sand and That Actually Matters Sand, we’re beginning to realize, is a non-renewable resource - and we are consuming it at a voracious pace. We use it in every construction project around the world and to create new land. And we’re wrecking the ecosystems we ...
09.21.2019 SYSK Selects: Could You Live Without a Refrigerator? Do you know that hulking refrigerator in your kitchen emits CO2 thanks to the electricity it uses each year? It's a comparatively small amount, in truth, but enough that some people have foresworn their fridge and adopted a life without ...
09.19.2019 How the US Interstate System Works Wait! This is actually a good episode! It turns out that America’s 48,000 miles of superhighways – possibly the largest civil works project in the history of humanity – may have also ruined what made America a cool place. Learn ...
09.18.2019 Short Stuff: Scurvy Scurvy seems like a terrible way to go: Your gums swell so you can’t eat, your teeth fall out and your brain and/or heart hemorrhages. Fortunately, all you need is an orange to cure you. Or some – blech – ...
09.17.2019 The Skinny on Lyme Disease If you live in the Northeastern U.S. then you may know someone who has had Lyme disease. But it's spreading all over the country and parts of the world. Learn all about this tick-borne disease today. Learn more about your ...
09.14.2019 SYSK Selects: How Wills Work Whether it's oral, scrawled in blood or signed on a deathbed everyone should have a will. But how do they actually work? Join Chuck and Josh as they explain that "of sound mind" thing in this classic episode. Learn more ...
09.12.2019 Special Effects: A Short History Special effects have been around since the first movies. In fact, the techniques the earliest filmmakers created are still around today, we just use computers to do them faster and cheaper. Put on your beret and get ready for SYSK ...
09.11.2019 Short Stuff: Papasan Chairs Oh, the papasan. What a chair! But where did it come from? And what does the name mean? The answers lie within. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
09.10.2019 How Government Shutdowns Work Every year Congress decides how the federal government will spend money. Simple enough, but in practice politics tend to mess it up. Sometimes it gets so messy the budget doesn’t get passed and parts of the government shut down. Then ...
09.07.2019 SYSK Selects: How Ouija Boards Work Although most people who've used Ouija boards don't think they're communicating with the beyond, there is something mysterious about how it works. Learn the ins and outs of the popular parlor game that sprang directly from the 19th-century spiritualism movement ...
09.05.2019 What's the deal with MSG? MSG got a bad rap in the 70s and 80s. But what is it exactly and how bad is it for you? The answers to those questions lie within. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
09.04.2019 Short Stuff: Barbed Wire Barbed wire changed the Western US as much as the railroad and the six-shooter. Before barbed wire arrived, the West was free and open; after, the West became concentrated in the hands of a few big ranchers. No wonder it ...
09.03.2019 Ed Gein: The Serial Killer's Serial Killer Any movie featuring a deranged killer who’s perversely devoted to his mother and makes things out of human skin has a real-life person named Ed Gein to thank for inspiration. He was Buffalo Bill, Norman Bates, and Leatherface all rolled ...
08.31.2019 SYSK Selects: How Icebergs Work Icebergs: floating chunks of ice. True, but whoa there. Scientists are learning that there's a lot more to icebergs. Appropriately enough, we've only come to understand the tip of the iceberg and recent research shows there's plenty more to uncover. ...
08.29.2019 The Rubik's Cube Episode Rubik's Cubes. Ronald Reagan. Jerry Falwell. Just Say No. One of these things was awesome. Take a guess and hop on board the 80s train. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
08.28.2019 Short Stuff: Dead Bodies and Airline Codes Did you know there are airline codes for pilots and flight attendants? And some of them have to do with dead bodies on board? Learn all about it today! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
08.27.2019 A Brief Overview of Punk Rock Punk rock really needs about 10 episodes to do it justice, but we'll try and tackle anyway. Learn all about this movement right now. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
08.24.2019 SYSK Selects: How Sleepwalking Works Sleep behaviors are pretty fascinating. Some people snore, some grind their teeth -- and some take a little stroll, or perhaps a drive. In this classic episode, Josh and Chuck investigate how sleepwalking, or somnambulism, works. Learn more about your ...
08.22.2019 How Ventriloquism Works Ventriloquism – where a skilled performer “throws” their voice, making it seem like a dummy on their knee is talking – has taken a long, circuitous road from early prophets, to witches, then finally to the stage. Get to the ...
08.21.2019 Short Stuff: Horseshoe Crab Blood Perhaps the most expensive liquid on the planet is the blue blood that comes from horseshoe crabs. Researchers realized that horseshoe crab blood could indicate the presence of pathogens and the massive, ongoing horseshoe crab harvest began. Learn more about ...
08.20.2019 Nuclear Semiotics: How to Talk to Future Humans The nuclear waste we produce will be dangerous for a very long time. We’ve figured out how to safely store it in the earth until it’s no longer a biohazard. Now we just have to figure out how to warn ...
08.17.2019 SYSK Selects: Are We in a Cyberwar? There's a secret war going on around us, and it's happening on a daily basis. The Air Force has a unit specifically designed to carry out and defend against cyberwar. Go deep into this alarming type of war in this ...
08.15.2019 How Peyote Works Josh and Chuck have tackled a lot of drugs on the show, but peyote has loomed like a bad Jim Morrison poem. Learn all about this plant today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
08.14.2019 Short Stuff: Petrichor You know that amazing smell when it rains? Kind of clean, kind of earthy, one of a kind? It turns out that a miracle of nature produces it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
08.13.2019 Solar Power: The Future or What? We’ve been promised solar energy for a while now – where is it? Turns out, it’s been quietly and steadily growing across the world. And with a few breakthroughs, we just may be able to say goodbye to fossil fuels. ...
08.10.2019 SYSK Selects: What Is a Shotgun House? Shotgun houses are iconic pieces of American architecture: they're long, narrow, and filled with artistic flourishes. But where did they come from? Join Chuck and Josh and explore the mysterious origins of shotgun houses. Learn more about your ad-choices at ...
08.08.2019 Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 2 As the operation expands it also begins to unravel. Word starts to leak out of the illegal stuff the Reagan administration was up to, Congress and the press investigate and people start to point fingers. Spoiler alert – they all ...
08.07.2019 Short Stuff: Time Zones Time zones are a pain. Let's get rid of them! Can we? Sure! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
08.06.2019 Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 1 When Ronald Reagan was president, America got involved in some deeply shady stuff, not the least of which was the Iran-Contra scandal – a convoluted operation that managed to combine an illegal covert war in Nicaragua with secretly selling arms ...
08.03.2019 SYSK Selects: How the Black Death Worked The Black Death was gruesome: Symptoms included tumors, purple splotches, fevers and vomiting. But how did this disease manage to spread from the Gobi desert and kill approximately one-third of the population of 14th-century Europe? Find out in this classic ...
08.01.2019 What Were the BONE WARS? A pair of old timey fossil hunters had a rootin’ tootin’ rivalry that spilled from academic journals into the American Wild West - where fossils were dynamited and employees turned double agent. Learn about the two-fisted origins of American paleontology. ...
07.31.2019 Short Stuff: The Man Who Didn’t Eat for a Year In 1965, a 456-pound man walked into a hospital in Scotland and asked for help with a fast. That was the last day he ate for more than a year. Learn about the medical marvel that was Angus Barbieri. Learn ...
07.30.2019 Will Deepfakes Ruin the World? Very recently, thanks to a new type of AI, it’s gotten much easier to create convincingly realistic videos of people saying and doing things they’ve never said or done. Will fake videos undermine our shared sense of reality and lead ...
07.27.2019 SYSK Selects: How Human Cannonballs Work There's no question that human cannonballs are daredevils. They pack themselves into the confines of huge cannons, which shoot them into the air. But how does it work? Join Josh and Chuck to learn more about the bizarre performances of ...

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