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The BrainFood Show episodes
- The Secretary: Great Expectations
“[T]here would not be I believe, a happier being in the United States… [c]ould I have just enough business to support my expences, so as to relieve me from the mortification of being at my time of life, a burden to my Parents…” -John Quincy Adams (December 14, 1790)
These were the words of the 23 year old John Quincy Adams, tirelessly working in a profession he seemingly didn’t particularly enjoy, but making very little headway in it and dependent upon money from his parents to live.Four years after this, he was now a 27 year old who had not made a ton of outward progress despite an extreme amount of effort in between.As we teased in our last video: The Secretary: Training for Greatness, this period of one of the greatest men in U.S. history’s life was filled with bouts of depression, anxiety, countless sleepless nights, and a whole lot of hopelessness. Trained from birth to become that great man, and with it drilled into him he must become so, after he graduated college, he found achieving this seemingly an impossible task no matter how hard he worked.His aunt Elizabeth Shaw, who John Quincy would live with for a little while during one of his deepest bouts of depression shortly after graduating college, would write of this period of her nephew’s life, “Perhaps, no one, knew better than myself, the strong emotions which tore, & agitated your Mind— I could have sat by your side & counted out Tear, for Tear…”And this was more or less the state of his life from about 20 to 27.Needless to say, his first true steps into one of the greatest men of his era were slightly stumbling. But rather than break under the pressure, John Quincy merely bent for a time, unlike others in his family.On that, as John Quincy Adams' son, Charles Francis Adams, who himself led a rather distinguished life, among many other things including serving as the U.S. Minister to the UK during the American Civil War and being a key figure in keeping Europe mostly out of that war, would sum up,“The history of my family is not a pleasant one to remember. It is one of great triumphs in the world but of deep groans within, one of extraordinary brilliancy and deep corroding mortification—The misery of children falling as much below the ordinary ....Sponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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1 hr 4 min - When is the Optimal School Start Time?
Much like is the case with some adult humans, in the morning our miniature Sapiens often have a preference for expressing themselves in low-pitched, unintelligible grunts, mumbled from within the cavernous darkness of their bedrooms as you try to wake them up. The words might be jumbled, but the meaning is rather clear: ‘It’s too early. I want to sleep. Leave me alone.’
And yet, the adults in charge within the pack have to drag them out of their torpor, stuff their food holes with some semblance of organic nutrition, ensure their body odour is not too pungent so that they aren’t the class smelly kid, and then cart them off to school.From there, their days are filled to the brim with mentally and physically demanding activities, whose timing and frequency are at odds with the kids’ own biology. No surprise then, if they may appear chronically tired, grumpy and irrational.And yet, there is one simple, scientifically proven change that parents, teachers, and society at large could enact to greatly improve their well-being, lower mental health issues, increase their overall physical health metrics, and even help keep more of them alive to reach adulthood- move the time of the start of school slightly later in the morning.Why does this work? What does science specifically say? What are the exact benefits? And what is the optimal school start time according to science?Well, let’s dive into it all shall we?Author: Arnaldo TeodoraniEditor: Daven HiskeyHost: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel Avila0:00 Intro3:38 School Start Times5:00 But Why?6:41 An Epidemic8:30 A Bad Solution10:20 The Best Solution11:36 The Data16:14 A Huge Ancillary Benefit19:16 Graduation Rates20:01 Yet More Data Beating Us Over the Head21:38 Physical Health21:57 Complications?23:08 Automobile Accidents24:39 Mental Health25:54 Seriously, Stop It26:20 Optimal Start Time27:56 Practical Problems?Sponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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34 min - Hitler's Many Women and Their Often Unfortunate Ends
Unsurprisingly to anyone who’s historied, Hitler was a man who promoted a hateful ideology, had millions murdered, crippled a generation, and plunged an entire continent into ruin. What’s maybe slightly less known is that before he did all this, he was a lazy layabout, ultimately squandering his inheritance culminating in him becoming homeless for a few years. To say Hitler avoided anything even remotely resembling work, except for the work he put into not doing any work, or responsibility leading up to his rise would be a gross understatement. On top of that, his first dalliances into love were about as creepy as you can come by, including at one point devising a plan to murder the object of his love because she wasn’t into him. If he couldn’t have her, he simply planned to Romeo and Juliet himself and her. It should also be noted he never actually bothered to talk to her even once in his life before planning this all out, only stalking her from afar for years…
When you combine all that with his silly moustache, you’d think Hitler wouldn’t exactly be the kind of guy who could pull in the ladies… And, actually, that was very true for most of his life.But after his rise to power… Well, Hitler didn’t change, but many women’s attraction to him seemingly did right quick. Despite his extreme mood swings, narcissistic tendencies, odd behavior, propensity to run the women down mentally, control them in every possible way, and the mein furry he kept under his nose, the Fuhrer of the III Reich could, and did, seem to have a rather long string of female conquests. Many of which mysteriously decided to stop living, or otherwise suffered from extreme depression, after their time with the so-called German Messiah.But who were these women, did he actually have any of them killed as some say? And in all of it, were there ever any little baby Fuhrer’s?Well, slip on your lederhosen, and let’s dive into it all shall we?Author: Arnaldo Teodorani, Teri Zambigli, and Daven HiskeyEditor: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaHost: Simon WhistlerSponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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1 hr 8 min - The Secretary- Training for Greatness
“What are the Qualifications of a Secretary of State? He ought to be a Man of universal Reading in Laws, Governments, History. Our whole terrestrial Universe ought to be summarily comprehended in his Mind.” -John Adams July 5, 1811
The speed at which the United States’ rose from birth to prominence on the world stage has rarely been matched in history. From first casting off a king and parliament that no longer served them to unequivocally telling the rest of the world that the new nation would no longer allow any state from the Old World to continue directly interfering with budding nations on the American side of the pond took only 47 years.In all this, some of the most significant advancements in modern international politics, and the United States’ role in it, came in part thanks to one man and the eight years he spent as the U.S. Secretary of State. Trained from birth to serve his nation, you’d be hard pressed to find any individual in U.S. History more well prepared for the role he was eventually chosen for.And the results, well, they showed.This future President of the United States and, as noted by one time governor of Virginia Henry Wise, “the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of Southern slavery that ever existed”, is still today generally considered the greatest Secretary of State in United States history. For instance, in one pole conducted by Dr. David L Porter of William Penn College asking 50 of the leading diplomatic historians in the United States who they felt the best Secretary of States were, a whopping 80% of them chose as number one our man of the hour- John Quincy Adams, with a distant second place going to William H. Seward, Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.So, without further ado, here now is the remarkable story of John Quincy Adam’s rise to one of the most powerful offices’ in the nation, and how he irrevocably changed world history in countless ways, leveraging all the training his life, and parents, had provided him to do it.Author: Daven HiskeyHost: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaSponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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47 min - That Time the USA Tried to Make Hippo Farming a Thing
If you were to travel down the Rio Magdalena just north of the Columbian capital of Bogotá, you might just come across some rather out-of-place wildlife: a herd of African Hippopotamuses. The herd, which now numbers nearly 100, is descended from four individuals imported in the 1980s by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, and kept in a private zoo on his estate in Puerto Triunfo. When Escobar was killed in 1993, the hippos escaped into the surrounding rivers and multiplied…and multiplied, and multiplied. The enormous invasive species then proceeded to wreak havoc on the local ecosystem, destroying local plant life, disrupting the habitat of native animals like crocodiles and manatees, and killing fish with copious amounts of noxious faeces. If left unchecked, biologists fear the population could reach 1,000 by 2035, causing untold environmental damage. But as bizarre as this environmental crisis might seem, the exact same scenario might very well have played out in the United States more than 100 years ago, thanks to one of the strangest bills in U.S. congressional history. This is the wild and unlikely story of how the U.S. government tried to introduce hippo ranching to America.
Host: Simon WhistlerAuthor: Gilles MessierEditor: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaSponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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23 min - The Fascinating Saga of History’s Largest Diamond
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” So wrote Samuel Johnson, the famed 18th Century polymath and founder of the modern English dictionary. And indeed, London offers many delights for the discerning traveller, from the iconic Houses of Parliament and St. Paul’s Cathedral to the theatres of the West End, the fashionable shops of Soho, and the countless world-class museums covering every subject imaginable. But no sojourn to the UK capital is complete without a visit to the Tower of London, the 11th century fortress and palace that has served many functions over the centuries, most infamously as a prison for some of British history’s greatest villains. It is also famously the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Among the centrepieces of this storied collection are the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign’s Sceptre With Cross, worn by British sovereigns during coronations and state openings of parliament. But in addition to their historic symbolic importance and sublime craftsmanship, these pieces have another claim to fame: they are both set with stones cut from the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered: the Cullinan, unearthed in South Africa in 1905. The story of how this massive stone came to reside among the Crown Jewels is a fascinating one, a tale of luck, subterfuge, and Colonial politics at the turn of the 20th Century.
Author: Gilles MessierHost: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaSponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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32 min - ENOUGH! The First Astronaut Strike In Space... Allegedly
People being unhappy with their job is not a rare occurrence. It is almost a given that, assuming you don’t work for me, there are many people in your office who want an exit as soon as possible, maybe even you. At some point, maybe you’ve even snapped and rebelled against your company overlords in some fashion. But as cool as you might have felt passive aggressively sending that urgent email three days late on purpose, you will never be as cool as those men who thumbed their noses at the $4 million (about $25.2 million today) being spent per day on their mission and said “not my problem” while in lower orbit…. Allegedly…
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34 min - The Incredible Real Life Cold War Bond Villain Ice Lair
Ah, the ice lair! From Superman’s Fortress of Solitude to Ozymandias’s Antarctic headquarters in Watchmen to the Rebel Alliance’s Echo Base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, nothing quite exudes sophistication, rugged determination, or - pun intended - sheer cool than a hideout carved out of cold, hard snow and ice. But while certainly stylish and awesome, such sub-zero digs are surely the exclusive preserve of comic book heroes and villains, being too impractical to build in real life, right? Well, actually no! In the late 1950s, the United States Army actually attempted to build a supervillain ice lair of its own, carving an elaborate nuclear-powered base directly into the Greenland ice cap. While sold to the public as a peaceful research outpost, the facility actually had a far more sinister, secret purpose, which had it been completed would have further ratcheted up already high Cold War tensions. This is the forgotten and fascinating story of Project Iceworm.
Author: Gilles MessierEditor: Daven HiskeyHost: Simon WhistlerProducer: Samuel AvilaSponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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29 min - 32 Seconds from Detonation- That Time the U.S. Almost Accidentally Nuked North Carolina... 3 Times
The Cold War, lasting from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was one of the most dangerous periods in human history. For nearly five decades, the communist East and capitalist West eyed each other suspiciously across the Iron Curtain, precariously balanced on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. Numerous intercontinental ballistic missiles sat ready in their silos, nuke equipped submarines prowled the oceans, while nuclear-armed strategic bombers patrolled the skies, all ready at a moment’s notice to unleash their apocalyptic payloads. With so much nuclear ordnance flying about, accidents could - and did - happen. Many of these near-misses have already been covered in previous videos such as That Time the Moon Nearly Started World War 3 (and Other Silly Cold War Shenanigans), Fire, Ice, and Plutonium, That Time the U.S. Air Force Lost a Nuke in the Mediterranean, and When Dropping a Wrench Almost Caused Armageddon; as well as Did a Scientific Experiment Really Nearly Start WWII in 1995? But none of these close calls were as horrifyingly close as a 1961 accident that nearly turned the entire U.S. state of North Carolina into a radioactive wasteland and the massive loss of life that would have come with that - and was only prevented from doing so by a single, shockingly crude electrical component. This is the disturbing story of the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash.
Author: Gilles MessierEditor: Daven HiskeyHost: Daven HiskeyProducer: Daven HiskeySponsor note: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow.
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52 min - Nikola Tesla's Rather Peculiar Childhood and Oddities (Daven & Gilles)
In today's episode, Gilles Messier and Daven Hiskey do a deep dive into Nikola Tesla's childhood and many of his rather peculiar oddities.
In the mid-19th century, the Austrian Empire, which stretched for over a thousand miles (1600 km) from Italy to Ukraine, was a place of contradictions. The ruling patriarch, Minister of the Interior Baron Alexander von Bach, was on the one hand something of a despot, abolishing public trials, reducing the freedom of the press and imprisoning political opponents. Conversely, his rule also saw the relaxing of economic laws, the demise of internal custom duties and peasants freed from their feudal obligations.It was during this time, in the small village of Smiljan, situated within the Empire’s military frontier (now modern-day Croatia) that Nikola Tesla was born on July 9th or 10th (with the confusion owing to the time at around midnight), 1856, the fourth of five children. Tesla’s father, Milutin, was a priest, and the family soon moved to nearby Gospić, where his parish was located.From the beginning, Tesla was seemingly a rather brilliant child, though Tesla claims his father discouraged scientific academic pursuit, hoping Tesla would become a priest himself someday and doggedly stuck to this point. Even, according to Tesla, restricting his study, with Tesla partially attributing this to the death of his apparently brilliant older brother Dane, back when Tesla was 5 years old....Author: Daven HiskeyHosts: Gilles Messier and Daven HiskeyProducer: Caden NielsenLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 15 min
About The BrainFood Show
From the publisher's feed
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.