Stuff You Should Know

By iHeartRadio

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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SYSK Selects: What Was the ...

01.16.2021

It was America's most famous family feud, but the history of the Hatfields vs the McCoys is fraught with bias and inaccuracies. Dig into a disagreement in 19th-century Appalachia that became a very big deal around the world, in this ...

Stuff You Should Know episodes:

01.16.2021 SYSK Selects: What Was the Deal With the Hatfields and McCoys? It was America's most famous family feud, but the history of the Hatfields vs the McCoys is fraught with bias and inaccuracies. Dig into a disagreement in 19th-century Appalachia that became a very big deal around the world, in this ...
01.14.2021 The Science of Cute If you took our advice and looked up baby beavers a few episodes back, you probably found them sooooo cute you couldn’t stand it. Or you just wanted to eat them up, which is weird if you think about it. ...
01.13.2021 Short Stuff: Silverfish Should you be afraid of these creepy little creatures you find in your basement? Only one way to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
01.12.2021 Hell! Hell! Hell! What is Hell? It's complicated and depends on which religion you're talking about. We dive into this fiery mess and do our best to explain it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
01.09.2021 SYSK Selects: How Skateboarding Works Skateboarding started out as something bored surfers did when the waves weren't breaking, but after a few improvements to the design, it took off like a rocket to become its own cultural phenomenon. Come gleam the cube with Josh and ...
01.07.2021 The Wright Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright were not trained professionals, but they were rigorous experimenters who ended up changing the world. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
01.06.2021 Short Stuff: Is It Theater or Theatre? Have you ever noticed sometimes theaters – we mean, theatres – oh, forget it – places where you see movies or plays – are sometimes spelled two different ways? You can thank Noah Webster, author of the first American dictionary, ...
01.05.2021 Space Weather - What's That?! Did you know space has weather? It’s true! In our solar system, tons – literal tons – of highly charged gas and magnetized particles spew from the surface constantly, causing all sorts of weird stuff here on Earth. So far, ...
01.02.2021 SYSK Selects: How Auto-Tune Works What began as a challenge to an oil engineer to make a terrible singer into a pitch-perfect one, Auto-Tune has become a ubiquitous (and, to many, obnoxious) part of the musical soundscape. Learn more in this classic episode. Learn more ...
12.31.2020 One Of Our Favorite Episodes of 2020 - 'How Peanut Butter Works' No food is more all-American than peanut butter – 80 percent of homes in the country have a jar of it in the pantry right now. And while the rest of the world might find peanut butter peculiar, maybe even ...
12.31.2020 La Dame de Fer (Eiffel Tower) The Eiffel Tower is one of the top destinations on Planet Earth. It turns out to be a pretty cool feat of engineering as well. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.30.2020 Short Stuff: Ig-pay Atin-lay (Sorry) Turns out we have little kids from the 19th century, the Three Stooges, and an odd musical composer named Arthur Fields to thank for pig latin. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.29.2020 Theremins: World's First Electronic Music In 1919 a brilliant Russian scientist accidentally stumbled onto the first electronic musical instrument in history – the theremin – which you play not by strings, keys, or even percussion, but by moving your hand in the air around it. ...
12.26.2020 SYSK Selects: Sugar: It Powers the Earth Since sugar spread from Polynesia a few thousand years ago, the world has been crazy for it. Insanely high prices, wars and even slavery couldn't undo world's need for a sugar fix. Today that fix is responsible for the obesity ...
12.24.2020 The SYSK 2020 Holly Jolly Extravaganza! It's here again! Our annual ad-free holiday spectacular. So pour up a hot toddy, throw a log on the fire and listen with the whole family! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.23.2020 Short Stuff: Chinese Food on Christmas What started out as a tradition among Jewish people on the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century has become a full-blown American holiday custom. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.22.2020 How Buffets Work Buffets are every kid’s dream – until they grow up enough to realize how gross communal spreads of food shared with strangers actually are. Then the dream is dashed, for most of us at least. Learn about the golden age ...
12.19.2020 SYSK Selects: The Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978 Long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, George Lucas allowed the Star Wars Holiday Special to be made. What happened on the night of November 17, 1978 can never be fully explained, but we make our best effort ...
12.17.2020 Aspirin: The Wonder Drug Humans have been using a form of aspirin for pain relief since at least the Sumerians. But in recent years we’ve come to learn the wonder drug is indeed awe-inspiring, from preventing heart attacks to possibly protecting humans from cancer. ...
12.16.2020 Short Stuff: Modern Funerals The way we deal with our dead has changed a lot over the past 50 years. Learn all about it in 12-15 minutes right here. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.15.2020 Joseph Merrick, aka "The Elephant Man" Joseph Merrick was known as The Elephant Man because of his suffering from what we now know was Proteus Synrome. Learn all about this brave man in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.12.2020 SYSK Selects: What is a hangover, really? After a night of heavy boozing, many partygoers find themselves the victim of a hangover. But what exactly is a hangover, and what causes it? Join Chuck and Josh as they break down the science behind hangovers -- and how ...
12.10.2020 The Taliesin Massacre Everyone knows who Frank Lloyd Wright is, but did you know there was a grisly massacre at his home in 1914? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.09.2020 Short Stuff: Cramming Cramming is no way to study. Learn why in today's short stuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.08.2020 How Class Action Lawsuits Work Class action lawsuits seem a little odd – a bunch of people get together for a sue-fest against somebody – but in the legal world they’re a practical way of handing huge wrongs. And! They keep justice just in their ...
12.05.2020 SYSK Selects: How Chaos Theory Changed the Universe Since the age of Descartes, science has put all of its eggs in the basket of determinism, the idea that with accurate enough measurements any aspect of the universe could be predicted. But the universe, it turns out, is not ...
12.03.2020 John Lennon and the FBI Did you know that Richard Nixon had a FBI case file open on Beatle John Lennon? Well he did! Why? Listen in to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
12.02.2020 Short Stuff: Pimento Cheese! Pimento cheese was originally nothing like it is now: It was mass produced, it was made from cream cheese and it was conceived in New York. Today it’s something much better, thanks to the South! Learn more about your ad-choices ...
12.01.2020 Cabbage Patch Kids: Must-Have Toy of the Century Surprisingly, Cabbage Patch Kids have turned up on SYSK almost as much as the Nazis or Seinfeld. It’s finally time to dive all the way into CPKs, from their controversial origins to the Christmas craze of ‘83 to their alter ...
11.28.2020 SYSK Selects: How Tea Works Legend has it that tea was discovered by a curious Chinese emperor after leaves blew into his boiled water. Now tea is the second only to water in popularity worldwide. And despite the varieties of tea, they all come from ...
11.26.2020 Gobble Gobble: Turkeys! Turkeys are a very interesting bird as it turns out. Which may be why many people are leaving it off their Thanksgiving table this year. Learn all about them right now! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.25.2020 Short Stuff: How Eyes In a Painting Follow You Ever noticed how eyes in a painting sometimes follow you around the room? It’s weird! But it’s also fully explainable and Josh and Chuck do just that here. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.24.2020 Patty Hearst: Brainwashed or Bandit? Patty Hearst was a young heiress living a quiet life studying art history at college when one Monday evening her home was invaded, she was kidnapped, and her life took a totally unforeseen turn that she would have trouble explaining ...
11.21.2020 SYSK Selects: Whatever happened to acid rain? Along with the hole in the ozone layer, acid rain was one of the first international environmental threats. It's fallen to the wayside in the face of climate change, but we have yet to lick it. Join Chuck and Josh ...
11.19.2020 The Great War of the Worlds Panic Myth On Halloween 1938 young radio star Orson Welles scared the pants off of America with a fictional news bulletin claiming Martians had landed and were destroying the country. People across the nation ran wild with panic in the streets – ...
11.18.2020 Short Stuff: Squirrel Nuts We know squirrels hide nuts. But it's actually more complex a system than you think. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.17.2020 How Pain Works In recent decades we’ve come to understand that there’s a lot more to pain than: touch hot stove/feel burning hand. Pain is a far more sophisticated experience and, unfortunately, a system that can often go haywire, with terrible effects. Learn ...
11.14.2020 SYSK Selects: Who Gets to Name Continents? America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, right? Maybe not. And who named Australia? Find out the unusually uncertain origins of the continents and other interesting stuff in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.12.2020 How Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Works For almost a century, Macy’s department store has kicked off the holidays in America with a grand parade. And when you march thousands of clowns, lip synching celebrities, bands, and giant balloons through New York things get remarkable. Learn more ...
11.11.2020 Short Stuff: Plastic Pink Flamingos Plastic flamingos started out as innocent yard art, transformed into folk art, and have become a (kind of mean) symbol of high campiness. There’s a lot to this particular plastic yard art. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.10.2020 The Bay of Pigs Disaster The Bay of Pigs is one of the blackest of eyes on American foreign policy. Learn all about this dark spot of American history today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.08.2020 SYSK Selects: Geysers: Nature's Innuendo The spectacular eruptions of steam and water we call geysers are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the result of thousands of years of specific natural conditions and physical processes. Learn the Stuff You Should Know about geysers in ...
11.05.2020 All the Gold In Fort Knox: Meh When Fort Knox was built in the 1930s to house America’s gold supply, it was billed as an impenetrable, impregnable, don’t-even-think-of-trying vault. But as the world has moved further away from gold, the stockpile’s lost a bit of its luster. ...
11.04.2020 Short Stuff: Fruit Flies, Why? Have you ever wondered why we do so much scientific testing on fruit flies? Turns out they make better models for humans than you’d think. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
11.03.2020 The Amazing Roberto Clemente Roberto Clemente was what’s called a “complete” baseball player – he could hit, run and, man could he throw, so it’s no surprise he was made a Hall of Famer. But he was also a humanitarian, a civil rights icon, ...
10.31.2020 SYSK Selects: How Ghosts Work According to a 2009 poll, more Americans believe in ghosts than don't. But what are ghosts exactly? If they do exist, what are they made of and why are they hanging around? In this classic episode airing for Halloween, Josh ...
10.29.2020 SYSK’s Scare Your Pants Off (and Back On) Halloween Spooktacular It’s that time of year again! So turn down the lights, pull the sheets over your eyes and prepare to be thrilled and frightened with two great Halloween stories from Philip K. Dick and M.R. James. Learn more about your ...
10.28.2020 Short Stuff: Poe Toaster For at least sixty years a mysterious person (or persons) showed up at Edgar Allen Poe’s grave to toast the master on his birthday. No one ever found out who this legendary figure was. Learn more about your ad-choices at ...
10.27.2020 A History of Nursing Homes In America, we've treated our senior citizens in very different ways over the years. Tune in to hear about how we've tackled compassionate care. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
10.25.2020 Chuck Bryant On The Why I’m Voting Podcast Hey, SYSK listeners! We wanted to make sure you heard Chuck on iHeartRadio’s Why I’m Voting podcast. Check it out and don’t forget to vote on November 3rd! If you want to change, preserve, or build a better America, there’s ...

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