The BrainFood Show

By Cloud10

In this show, the team behind the wildly popular TodayIFoundOut YouTube channel do deep dives into a variety of fascinating topics to help you feed your brain with interesting knowledge.... more

4.9

13701,370 ratings

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about The BrainFood Show:

How many episodes does The BrainFood Show have?

The podcast currently has 215 episodes available.

The BrainFood Show episodes:

March 04, 2026 The Most Bizarre Substance Known to Science and What It Can Do
If ever there was a criminally underrated natural resource, it would
have to be Helium. Though most commonly associated with party balloons
and making one’s voice sound like a cartoon, Helium’s most important
application is in cooling the magnets of Magnetic Resonance Imaging or
MRI machines. While the finite and ever-dwindling global supply of this
vitally important gas is a topic worthy of its own video, perhaps even
more fascinating is just how bizarre an element Helium truly is. For if
Helium is liquefied and cooled to a low enough temperature, it begins to
behave like no other liquid on earth, seemingly violating the laws of
gravity, thermodynamics, and even logic itself. This is the story of
superfluid Helium II, the weirdest substance known to science.
In order for Helium to be liquefied, it must be cooled to a temperature
of -268.8 degrees Celsius or 4.2 Kelvin – that is, only 4.2 degrees
above Absolute Zero, the coldest temperature theoretically possible. By
contrast, Nitrogen liquefies at a relatively balmy 77 Kelvin, Oxygen at
54 Kelvin, and Hydrogen at 33 Kelvin. The reason Helium is so difficult
to liquefy lies in its electron orbitals being completely filled, making
it – like the other noble gases Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and Radon –
electrically neutral and chemically inert. This means that the only
force which can pull Helium atoms together is the so-called Van de Waals
Force, which is caused by electrons shifting from one side of an atom
to the other and creating a momentary electrostatic charge. This force
is incredibly weak, meaning that Helium must be cooled to extremely low
temperatures in order for the Van de Waals forces to overcome the energy
of the moving atoms and pull them close enough together for the gas to
liquefy. Solidifying Helium is even more difficult – so difficult, in
fact, that it cannot be done at regular atmospheric pressures. Only at
pressures of 25 atmospheres and above can solid Helium be created.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
17min
March 03, 2026 How the Hell Did Winston Churchill Lose the Election Right After Defeating Germany?
Nazi Germany officially surrendered on May 7, 1945. With the war still
raging in the Pacific against Japan and sporting a popularity rate at
around 83%, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill seemed a shoe-in to
maintain his position as Prime Minister of the British Empire. Just
before the announcement of the results of the election, Churchill had
been at the Potsdam Conference with U.S. President Truman and Joseph
Stalin, only intending to travel home briefly to accept his victory, and
then back to the conference. Yet a funny thing happened on July 26,
1945, the voting populace of the UK, which had turned out in record
numbers of 73%, had decided to collectively say “Thanks for your
service, Winston, but we’ve decided to go in a different direction,” in a
landslide defeat that shocked the world.
While in more modern times you might think some sort of scandalous
affair or offensive comment may have whipped up the mob on the interwebs
precipitating such a massive electoral fall in the span of just a
couple months, there was no such issue here either. So what happened?
How did this wildly successful politician, frequently named among the
top Prime Ministers ever in the nation, at the height of his popularity
no less, and who had just helped successfully guide Britain through one
of its most harrowing periods of its storied history, not just lose, but
lose in a landslide?
And not only this, making the whole thing even more inexplicable, he
lost to a man who one of said man’s own party members, Aneurin Bevan,
stated “seems determined to make a trumpet sound like a tin whistle.” Or
as chairman of the Daily Mirror, Cecil King, would remark in 1940, he
was “of very limited intelligence and no personality. If one heard he
was getting £6 a week in the service of the East Ham Corporation, one
would be surprised he was earning so much.” Or, let’s not stop there, as
famed social reformer Beatrice Webb would remark, “He looked and spoke
like an insignificant elderly clerk, without distinction in the voice,
manner or substance of his discourse. To realize that this little
non-entity is… presumably the future Prime Minister, is pitiable.” Or
how about as Churchill himself would allegedly quip about his opponent,
he is "a modest man, but then, he has so much to be modest about."
The demeaning quotes about the man Churchill lost to go on and on and
on, and his own party before, during, and after the election likewise
tried to oust him as their leader…. Only to see this quiet, oft’
forgotten individual who rapidly rose from a middle class background to
the heights of power, defy them all and go on to become one of the
greatest Prime Ministers in the history of the nation, often even ranked
above Churchill himself, despite only serving in the position for a
handful of years.
As ever, of course, the devil is in the fascinating details, so let’s
dive into it, and what specifically happened to see a titan of history
defeated by a man likely no one outside of the UK even knows the name
of, yet shaped the Britain we have today arguably more significantly
than Churchill ever did.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
26min
March 02, 2026 The Real Color of the Sun, How Many Nuclear Bomb Powered Rockets It Would Take to Stop the Earth Orbiting the Sun and Much, Much More
⁠⁠In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing the clandestine way Niel Armstrong managed to get his application to the astronaut program in despite submitting it past the deadline. We then look at why he got to be first to walk on the moon when precedent should have had it been Buzz Aldrin. Next up we look at the oft’ forgotten second thing Armstrong said when stepping out onto the moon.
Moving swiftly on we do a rapid fire of a variety of space related bonus facts including, but not limited to, the real color of the Sun, how much energy it would take to cause the Earth to stop orbiting the Sun, how old the Sun is in Sun years, how many Sun rises and sunsets astronauts aboard the International Space Station see every day, etc.
And for those curious on Simon and my treatise on the proper order of watching Star Trek series and other such thoughts, ⁠the mentioned forum post is here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
1h 4min
March 01, 2026 The Most Badass U.S. President and His Many Insane Exploits
If you've followed this website, our YouTube channel, or BrainFood Show
podcast very long, you know one of our favorite historic individuals is
Theodore Roosevelt- among countless other reasons to be admired, a man
who enjoys a reputation as one of the most terrifyingly badass
individuals to ever hold the office of leader of a nation, with
countless stories detailing his cartoonishly manly exploits. For just a
small sample to start, at one point while he was living as a rancher,
some thieves stole his boat in the middle of an ice storm. Given the
rather dangerous weather conditions, you might think he'd just let them
go. But this was Teddy Roosevelt and it was the principal of the thing.
He states, "In any wild country where the power of law is little felt or
heeded, and where every one has to rely upon himself for protection,
men soon get to feel that it is in the highest degree unwise to submit
to any wrong…no matter what cost of risk or trouble. To submit tamely
and meekly to theft or to any other injury is to invite almost certain
repetition of the offense, in a place where self-reliant hardihood and
the ability to hold one’s own under all circumstances rank as the first
of virtues."
Thus, he spent the next three days building another boat so he could
track the thieves down and take his original boat back. Once done, it
took him a few days of searching, but using his prodigious skills as a
master tracker, he managed to find and capture the men. However,
ultimately the river became too frozen over to continue to the nearest
town that way, so instead he sent his ranch hand companions home and
marched the thieves on foot, alone for 40 hours straight to town. During
this trek, he did not bind the thieves' in any way as he felt sure
they'd suffer from frostbite if he did so. To keep them from
overpowering him while they trudged along through the frozen wasteland,
he simply kept a gun trained on them and, while they slept during rest
periods, he kept himself awake by reading Tolstoy's then relatively
recently published Anna Karenina.
It's also noteworthy here that because of the weather conditions, the
fact that he was in hostile territory in the middle of nowhere, and
escorting a trio of criminals who would have killed him without
hesitation if he'd given them the chance, he was within his rights to
simply execute them on the spot and go home, something the vast majority
of lawmen of his era would have done. Roosevelt, however, felt they
deserved a trial...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
19min
February 28, 2026 WTF is Up with the McDonald's McRib?
The McRib is a food with both a devout following and many detractors.
But what is the genesis of the world’s most popular fast food chain’s
most mysterious menu item? And why, oh why, is it not available all the
time like the majority of the rest of the McDonald’s menu?
Cooking ribs in the Americas predates the colonial period. But the
earliest records of Europeans cooking foods near what we would call
barbeque were in colonial Virginia. Settlers observed a native way to
cook meat, and they adapted it to their tastes. Later, as slaves were
brought in from Caribbean plantations, the food genre we know as
barbeque developed.
In fact, the word barbeque is a loan word from the Taino language of the
Caribbean. It was originally called barbacoa. It is unclear whether the
name comes from the native islander's method of cutting the meat or the
wooden frame on which the food was smoked. In any case, after it
arrived in the North American colonies, it spread wherever pork was
plentiful.
Important here to the story of the McRib is that barbeque, in the proper
sense, is any meat that is slow-cooked over indirect heat, usually
wood, and not merely meat with barbeque sauce on it. It can take up to
eighteen hours to turn raw meat into barbeque for it to reach
perfection. If brined first, it can take an additional day.
That is part of what makes the McRib a surprise. Rib joints usually
slow-cook. Many places brine it before smoking. Additionally, cooking
with a wood fire is inherently messy. Barbeque meat is also often hand
butchered. None of this lends itself to a fast food chain that in 2011
had to abandon the idea of using celery root in one of its food items
because to offer the item, McDonald's would have had to buy all of the
world’s celery root supply, and there still would not have been enough
celery to meet the projected demand. A frequent problem for the
restaurant chain that annually serves 1/27th of all restaurant food
consumed in the world, and caters to about 1 percent of the world’s
population on any given day.

Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link ⁠https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
19min
February 27, 2026 Are the Odds of Successfully Navigating an Asteroid Field Really Approximately 3,720 to 1?
⁠⁠In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing the real origin of Tang and what that has to do with Pop Rocks and how they work. We then move on to the interesting story behind the invention of Velcro and how it works.
Next up we look at whether NASA really spent many millions of dollars developing the famous “space pen” instead of just using a pencil like the Russians.
Moving on from there we discuss the fascinating reason why only one side of the moon faces the Earth and how this happened and is still happening, with the Earth itself slowing down such that in theory at some point only one side of it will face the moon.
Moving on, we look at what the actual odds of navigating a typical asteroid field in space would be and whether the depictions in movies here are actually accurate.
Finally, we respond to some user feedback, including on initial attempts listeners of the female persuasion have made to pee standing up without peeing all over themselves (which sounds even weirder to write, but is in reference to a previous space episode ;-)), and the interesting phenomenon of people using the show to fall asleep every night and whether we should take that as a good thing or a bad thing…

Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link ⁠https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
1h 4min
February 26, 2026 Why Don't Plane Windows and Seats Line Up?
While airplane manufacturers do design the planes with general row
positioning and pitch (the measurement from one seat to the same exact
point on the seat in front or behind it) in mind, with the windows often
lining up with the seats, the designers' exact recommended arrangement
is rarely, if ever, followed. You see, the final placement of seats is
left up to the individual airlines that purchase the plane.
To make the seating arrangement as flexible as possible for airlines,
there are multiple tracks on the floors that the seats are mounted on.
This allows the seats to easily be moved closer together or farther
apart. The airlines can even switch the aisle arrangement via moving a
line of seats to a completely different track.
For example, on some versions of the Boeing 777, Boeing recommends a
layout of 3+3+3 with a 32 inch (81.2 cm) pitch for economy passengers.
In this layout, you need a passenger density of 67% before a passenger
may be required to sit next to someone else. And if some passengers
choose to sit next to one another, the percentage is even higher before
other passengers must sit next to someone. Boeing recommends this layout
because, in internal studies they've conducted, they claim that one of
the biggest factors in passenger perception of comfort on a flight is
whether there is someone directly next to them or not.
Nevertheless, disregarding the manufacturer recommendation, pitch on
a...

Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link ⁠https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
19min
February 25, 2026 What was It Really Like to Be a Gladiator?
Gladiatorial combat may seem outdated and barbaric, but it is, at its
heart, a combat sport like mixed martial arts, boxing, and even
professional wrestling, with very similar appeal. There were clearly
defined rules, a sense of dramatic flair with costumes, and even
character archetypes. It was indeed bloody, but not as nearly as fatal
as many think today. Not every gladiator died in the arena, and those
who made it past their first handful of matches even less so beyond.
That isn’t to say that gladiator fights didn’t also come with many
deaths. For example, gladiator combat was usually accompanied by other
events such as parades, animal hunts, glorified prisoner executions
dressed up as combat practice for gladiators, and even occasional
audience fatalities. But how did the games get started, what was life
actually like for a typical gladiator, and how did these ubiquitous
games rather suddenly cease to be a thing after so many centuries of
widespread extreme popularity?

Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
21min
February 24, 2026 WTF is Up with Breathable Liquids?
At the end of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater thriller The Abyss, oil
rig diver Bud Brigman, played by Ed Harris, dons an experimental diving
suit in which instead of air he breathes a special oxygenated liquid.
This allows him to avoid the lethal effects of extreme water pressure
and descend to the bottom of a deep ocean trench to defuse a nuclear
warhead. While certainly a memorable plot device, surely such a
technology is pure science fiction, right?
Well, not as much as you might think. The breathing fluid depicted in
the film, oxygenated perfluorocarbon, actually exists, and while scenes
with the diving suit were filmed with Ed Harris holding his breath, an
earlier scene in which a rat is immersed in breathing fluid was filmed
for real. While The Abyss is certainly the most famous depiction of
liquid breathing, the technology has been experimented with for over a
century, and while it might not be quite ready for use in deep-sea
diving, it may have lifesaving applications in the field of medicine.

Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link ⁠https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
13min
February 23, 2026 The U.S. Plan to Nuke the Moon, Why People Thought the Moon was Made of Cheese and Much More
⁠⁠In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing the first space walk in which the cosmonaut in question very nearly got stuck out there and his adventures thereafter. We then move on to discussing how the idea that the moon is made of green cheese got started.
Next up we discuss the late 1950s plan the United States had to nuke the moon, which interesting enough involved a young Carl Sagan. Failing in that endeavor we then look at that time the U.S. accidentally nuked Britain’s first satellite… That time the U.S. dropped four nuclear bombs on Spain accidentally, and then discuss the best thing that happened to Simon in the last year, which it turns out is not (apparently) getting married a couple weeks ago, but rather something else.
Also for reference, ⁠here is a picture of the Russian spacecraft mentioned in the episode⁠ and ⁠here is a link⁠ to the Tom Kirby song.

Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
...more
1h 26min

FAQs about The BrainFood Show:

How many episodes does The BrainFood Show have?

The podcast currently has 215 episodes available.

More shows like The BrainFood Show

Lore by Aaron Mahnke

Lore

45,014 Listeners

Astonishing Legends by Astonishing Legends Productions

Astonishing Legends

9,491 Listeners

Skeptoid by Brian Dunning

Skeptoid

2,666 Listeners

Last Podcast On The Left by The Last Podcast Network

Last Podcast On The Left

51,328 Listeners

Myths and Legends by Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser, Nextpod

Myths and Legends

23,465 Listeners

Our Fake History by PodcastOne

Our Fake History

3,480 Listeners

Revisionist History by Pushkin Industries

Revisionist History

58,942 Listeners

Help Me Be Me by Cloud10

Help Me Be Me

1,817 Listeners

Dark Histories by Ben Cutmore

Dark Histories

1,876 Listeners

MURDERISH by Cloud10

MURDERISH

3,437 Listeners

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum by Dan Carlin

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum

8,326 Listeners

Behind the Bastards by Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts

Behind the Bastards

15,694 Listeners

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities by iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

8,407 Listeners

Enneagram & Coffee by Cloud10

Enneagram & Coffee

1,050 Listeners

Advantage Connors by Cloud10

Advantage Connors

193 Listeners

The Casual Criminalist by Cloud10

The Casual Criminalist

2,742 Listeners

Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast by Cloud10

Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast

2,278 Listeners

Hungry for Conversation with Natalie Puche by Cloud10

Hungry for Conversation with Natalie Puche

1,670 Listeners

Forever Young by Cloud10

Forever Young

53 Listeners

History of Everything by Stakuyi

History of Everything

708 Listeners

The Codependent Podcast by Cloud10

The Codependent Podcast

930 Listeners

Decoding The Unknown by Cloud10

Decoding The Unknown

927 Listeners

Scorched Justice by Cloud10

Scorched Justice

413 Listeners

Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime by Cloud10

Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime

323 Listeners

Raising and Rising by Cloud10

Raising and Rising

20 Listeners

CHRISTORY with Chris Manzo by Cloud10

CHRISTORY with Chris Manzo

96 Listeners

Funny Energy by Cloud10

Funny Energy

73 Listeners

Untangling Toys by Cloud10 and Clamor

Untangling Toys

20 Listeners

Are You There Pod? It's Me, Dad by Cloud10

Are You There Pod? It's Me, Dad

21 Listeners

Fantasy Foes by Cloud10 and The Starting 5

Fantasy Foes

15 Listeners

The Moderns by Cloud10

The Moderns

0 Listeners

The Bad Good Parent by Cloud10

The Bad Good Parent

20 Listeners

The Reality Informant by Cloud10

The Reality Informant

20 Listeners

Warfronts by Cloud10

Warfronts

50 Listeners