The BrainFood Show

In the episode today, Simon discusses who invented the potato chip, nachos, whether the green part of a potato is poisonous, and much, much more in this ode to potato chip episode.

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Host: Simon Whistler

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It is a scene out of countless romance novels and prestige period pieces: an elegantly-dressed Victorian lady, laced too tightly into her corset, is suddenly overcome by a case of “the vapours” and swoons - collapsing into a convenient “fainting couch” designed for just this purpose. Immediately a servant or dashing doctor rushes to her side, uncorks a small bottle of smelling salts, and holds it under her nose. She gasps, springs back to consciousness, and all is well.

Of course, most of this scenario is pure fiction. Contrary to popular depictions, the corsets was not some diabolical, patriarchal torture device that caused women to faint constantly - indeed, working women regularly wore them in the fields and factories - while so-called “fainting couches” were nothing of the sort - merely ordinary day beds for lounging. But smelling salts were a real thing, used for centuries to rouse both men and women from fainting spells; indeed, they remain popular today among many professional athletes. But just what are smelling salts? Who invented them, how do they work, and are they safe to use? Well, lace up your corset, position your couch accordingly, and prepare to be shocked into unconsciousness as we dive into what exactly are smelling salts and how exactly they work.

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Author: Gilles Messier

Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey

Producer: Samuel Avila

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In today’s age of relatively stable international relations, it is hard to imagine the impact of something like the Mongol invasions. Starting in 1206, It was a trying time for those who initially witnessed them: mountains of skulls, burning cities, murder and pillaging on a wide scale. Even if Genghis Khan’

descendants became more urbane and grew closer to their conquered peoples, the initial shock of it all was massive. The conquered people struggled to make sense of the carnage and their new reality. New religious movements that promised a bright future rose to meet the new age. Some of these movements were as apocalyptic as the events recently witnessed. Out of the ashes of the old political order, new states were formed that looked to the Mongols for legitimacy, just as new religious reactions to the carnage looked to instill hope and resistance in the conquered people. A chain of events that could only arise from these conditions led to a very bizarre story of how a Persian king let a leader of a cult take the throne so apocalyptic prophecies could be fulfilled.

Author: Yehia Amen

Host: Simon Whistler

Editor: Daven Hiskey

Producer: Samuel Avila

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Picture, if you will, a desert. Chances are, the picture you now have in your head probably looks a lot like Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia, southwest Africa. Among the oldest deserts in the world, this park features a spectacular erg or sand sea of towering, golden-red sand dunes rolling off as far as the eye can see, one of which, known as Dune 7, is the largest in the world at a whopping 380 metres or 245.25 Ariana Grandes tall. Standing amid this desolate, sunbaked landscape, you would expect to be confronted by a profound silence, broken only by the soft whistling of the wind. But this is no ordinary desert, for every so often, the silence will be shattered by a deep, powerful roaring sound, variously likened to thunder, distant drums, or the drone of a low-flying propeller aircraft. But alas for all you Dune fans out there, this ominous sound does not herald the approach of the giant sandworm Shai-Hulud (shy-huh-lood) bless the Maker and his water), but is instead produced by the sand itself. Such “singing” sands are surprisingly common, appearing in deserts and on beaches around the world from Morocco to Kazakhstan, Scotland, Canada, and Hawaii, and have been the subject of myth and folklore for centuries. Yet despite decades of scientific investigation, to this day no-one is quite sure what causes these sands to sing. This is the story of one of the last great mysteries of the natural world.

Author: Gilles Messier

Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey

Producer: Samuel Avila

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Discover the origins and sinister evolution of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the infamous paramilitary unit of the Nazi Party, and how it grew to become one of the most powerful forces in Germany.

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Finish the following sentence: “I am stuck on Band-Aid…” If you immediately sang: “…cuz Band-Aid’s stuck on me!”, congratulations: you have a 50-year-old ad campaign living rent-free in your head. A staple of every first aid kit, Band-Aids are a quick and convenient solution to all the minor cuts, scrapes, burns and other boo-boos life can dish out. Indeed, so fully have these little sticking-plasters permeated popular culture that the brand lent its name to the 1984 charity supergroup behind the hit song “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” while the term “band-aid solution” has entered the lexicon as a byword for temporary, often slapdash repairs. But while the idea of a gauze pad attached to a strip of adhesive tape might seem so basic that it must have existed forever, as we covered in our previous video Who Invented Duct Tape?, even the simplest inventions have to come from somewhere, and surprisingly the idea of the self-adhesive bandage is only a little over a century old. The story of how this simple idea went from home remedy to household name is one of a klutzy housewife, a devoted husband, tireless innovation, and clever marketing. This is the fascinating story of the Band-Aid.

Author: Gilles Messier

Editor: Daven Hiskey

Host: Daven Hiskey

Producer: Caden Nielsen

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The eyes, they say, are the windows to the soul. More practically, they are our windows to the world, humans being one of many visually-dependent species on the planet. But they are also fragile windows, susceptible to all sorts of injuries, diseases, and disorders. Worldwide, over 2 billion people - nearly a third of the world’s population - suffer from some sort of visual impairment, ranging from mild glaucoma and cataracts to complete blindness. Of these, 88.4 million suffer from mild, easily correctable refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. For much of history, the only solution to such impairments was corrective lenses, but more recent years have seen the rise of advanced surgical corrective technology such as LASIK. Thanks to such safe, quick, and relatively painless and inexpensive procedures, thousands of people are able to enjoy perfect vision without the hassle of glasses or contact lenses. But no technology appears fully-formed overnight, and LASIK and its relatives owe their existence to a bizarre procedure developed in 1970s Soviet Russia which involved an assembly-line team of surgeons, diamond scalpels, and a rotating operating table that looked more like a carnival ride than a piece of medical equipment. This is the story of Radial Keratotomy, the world’s first successful corrective eye surgery.

Author: Gilles Messier

Editor: Daven Hiskey

Host: Simon Whistler

Producer: Samuel Avila

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In 1993, legendary director Steven Spielberg released two groundbreaking films, which could not have been more different from one another. The first was Jurassic Park, a thrilling summer blockbuster and special effects landmark about bringing dinosaurs back from extinction. The other…was Schindler’s List. Widely considered one of the most heart wrenching films ever made, Schindler’s List tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who, through his enamelware and ammunition factories in occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia, succeeded in saving over a thousand Jewish workers’s lives. Thanks to Spielberg’s film, Schindler is today perhaps the best known of the so-called “Righteous Among the Nations” - individuals recognized by the Yad Vashem memorial institution for assisting Jews and other victims of the Holocaust. But Schindler was far from alone, and his story bears a striking resemblance to that of another, more obscure figure: a fellow German businessman named Otto Weidt. While Weidt only managed to save the lives of around 30 employees, the sheer heroic lengths he went to to ensure their survival and defy the Nazi authorities makes his a story one well worth telling. This is the story of Nazi Germany’s forgotten “other” Oskar Schindler.

Author: Gilles Messier

Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey

Producer: Samuel Avila

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Among the many box office bombs of the 2024 movie season was The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Starring Superman himself - Henry Cavill - and directed by Guy Ritchie of Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels fame, the film tells the story of a ragtag team of saboteurs tasked with raiding a Nazi naval base off the African coast during the Second World War. Though highly fictionalized and over-the-top as only a Guy Ritchie film can be, the story is very loosely based on a real, daring raid that took place on January 14, 1942, which helped establish the reputation of one of the most infamous clandestine organizations in the war. This is the incredible forgotten story of Operation Postmaster.

Author: Gilles Messier

Editor: Daven Hiskey

Host: Simon Whistler

Producer: Samuel Avila

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On July 6, 2022 around 4 AM, a loud explosion rocked a remote corner of Elbert County, Georgia. Later that morning, the sun rose to reveal the shattered remains of America’s most mysterious and controversial public monument: the Georgia Guidestones. From the moment they were unveiled in 1980, these six massive granite slabs covered in inscriptions became a magnet for criticism and conspiracy theories, with many detractors accusing the monument of promoting satanism. As a result, the Georgia Guidestones became a target for numerous vandals, culminating in its bombing and demolition 42 years later. But what were the Georgia Guidestones, really? Who designed them, what was their purpose, and why did they attract so much fear and hate? Let’s find out as we dive into the fascinating and controversial history of “America’s Stonehenge.”

Author: Gilles Messier

Editor / Host: Daven Hiskey

Producer: Samuel Avila

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