Stuff You Should Know

How long was the shortest war in human history? Under an hour. Hard to believe? Not when you hear the story.

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How long was the shortest war in human history? Under an hour. Hard to believe? Not when you hear the story.

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When England privatized its commons – lands that by custom belonged to all English to work and support themselves for centuries – it began the modern era, industrialization, wage labor, industrialization, or all of those things and more.

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Most people have heard of the story of Kitty Genovese. She was murdered near her apartment in 1964 and her neighbors didn't do much to help. It caused a nationwide outcry, but the story has often been misrepresented. In this classic episode, we set the record straight.

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Are anacondas big? For sure. Are they able to crush and consume a human? Maybe, but thankfully they don't really do that. Don't believe everything you see in the movies. 

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Wild stories about a crazy party after Andrew Jackson's inauguration have been around since the weeks after it went down. But how wild was it really?

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All those to-go cups and food containers aren’t actually Styrofoam but those cups and Styrofoam are both forms of foam polystyrene, one of the rare materials that isn’t biodegradable. Which is a problem, because we make – and throw away – so much of it.  

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The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to explode in the coming decades and, in a pleasant surprise, countries around the world are taking steps to plan for the increase in friendly, caring ways. Find out all about this devastating disease and what's being done to prepare in this classic episode.

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We all in some way care about what other people think of us. At our core we all have a fear of saying something dumb or embarrassing ourselves somehow. One sociological theory says that our effort to prevent those embarrassments is the basis of society.

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Is it legal to live without a name? Is it even possible? Find out today in this episode.

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