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The BrainFood Show episodes
- Why Don't Vultures Get Sick?
In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the mind blowing things caterpillars get up to while in the chrysalis. Next up we begin by looking at the fascinating way in which honey bees, which are cold blooded, manage to keep their hives warm and the variety of fascinating things they do with their rather unique heating abilities. We then look at the rather amazing vulture and, among other things, why they don’t get sick when they eat dead things and what integral role this plays in keeping humans alive. Finally we look at the mysterious Kentucky meat shower, which unfortunately has nothing to do with KFC.
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55 min - WTF is Up with the Tea Bag?
Legend says that brewing tea dates back to around 2737 BC, when tea leaves fell into water being boiled for Emperor Shennong of China. There does not appear to be any hard evidence of tea being discovered this way, but evidence we do have suggests that brewing tea did indeed likely start in China, first as part of a medicinal elixir. The first documented reference to this is found during the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC to 1046 BC). By the Qin Dynasty in the third century BC, it had become a relatively popular drink using just the tea (camellia sinensis), rather than mixed with other things as seems to have been common when used medicinally. From the beginning until the early 20th century, very little innovation came about in terms of the common method of brewing tea. This all changed in 1901.
Contrary to popular belief (and what every single tea manufacturer I could find said on their websites, and many-a-tea history book and paper consulted also stated), it was not tea merchant Thomas Sullivan who invented the tea bag in 1908. While he did (probably independently, given his reported design was quite inferior to the original) invent a tea bag that year, he was beat out by about seven years by Roberta C. Lawson and Mary Molaren of Milwaukee, Wisconsin....Author: Sarah StoneEditor: Daven HiskeyHost: Simon WhistlerProducer: Samuel AvilaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 min - Why the Heck Did Goose Die Ejecting in Top Gun, but Maverick Didn't at Mach 10 in Top Gun: Maverick?
During the 1986 beach volleyball film Top Gun, U.S. Navy aviators and ultimate bros Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw are flying dogfight exercises in a Grumman F-14 Tomcat when they accidentally fly into the jet wash of another aircraft, causing both their engines to flame out. The Tomcat immediately snaps into an unrecoverable flat spin and hurtles towards the earth, giving Maverick and Goose no choice but to eject. But while Maverick safely clears the aircraft, Goose slams into the cockpit canopy, killing him. His lifeless body drifts into the water below, where Maverick helplessly embraces him..
But is a death like Goose’s in Top Gun possible given ejection seat designs? And on a related note, using current ejection seat technology, could Maverick have survived an ejection at Mach 10 as depicted in Top Gun Maverick?Or is all of this just another example of melodramatic Hollywood exaggeration? And just who invented these awesome lifesaving contraptions and how do they actually work?Well strap on your “bone dome” and prepare to “punch out” as we explore the fascinating science, incredible engineering, and history of ejection seat technology, and along the way we’ll get into whether Goose would have actually lived when ejecting in Top Gun, and whether Maverick would have actually died ejecting in Top Gun: Maverick. And in the Bonus Top Gun Facts at the end, we’ll also cover just how realistic was it that Maverick could have so easily dominated all the rest of the best of the best in the training scenarios in Top Gun Maverick. As ever, if you’d like to skip the awesome history and fascinating science and engineering and go right to the answers, check out the chapters on this video.Author: Gilles MessierEditor/Host: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
51 min - How Did Edgar Allan Poe Die?
Edgar Allan Poe is probably best known for his raven that squawks “Nevermore,” but he’s also one of the first American short story writers and is often credited with being the “inventor” of detective fiction. He also contributed heavily to the genre of science fiction. Not only that, but he was one of the first American writers to earn a living from his writing alone. What’s not as well-known about the man is that Poe had a somewhat turbulent stint in the military, married his 13 year old cousin, and more. Here now is the real story of Edgar Allen Poe.
Host: Simon WhistlerEditor: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 min - NASA’s Most Hilarious Failure
On April 11, 2026, the Orion spacecraft Integrity splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Koch (cook) safely back to earth after an epic 10-day journey from the earth to the moon - the first such mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. Aside from some minor issues with the spacecraft’s toilet and Microsoft Outlook, which… historically the furthest from Earth Outlook has ever not worked… so far… the Artemis II mission was near-flawless from start to finish, marking a triumphant return to manned space exploration beyond low earth orbit.
These days space travel can seem almost routine, with only the most spectacular missions like Artemis II even making headlines. It can thus be easy to lose sight of an important fact: space travel is hard - and dangerous. The road to the stars is littered with the wreckage of hundreds of failed spacecraft and not a few human corpses. From the crew to Apollo 1 and Soyuz 1 in 1967 to those of Soyuz 11 in 1971, Challenger in 1986, and Columbia in 2002, dozens of astronauts have given their lives in the pursuit of the Final Frontier. But not all spaceflight disasters are so tragic; some are just plain absurd - even funny - and none more so than a largely forgotten incident from the very dawn of the U.S. space program. This is the hilarious story Mercury-Redstone 1, the four inch failure, not to be confused with my college girlfriend’s nickname for me…On October 4, 1957, history forever changed when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit. In response to Sputnik, the United States ramped up ICBM development efforts while simultaneously scrambling to launch its own satellite. These early efforts were…less than successful, with the first attempted American satellite launch, Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957, ending in a fiery and embarrassing explosion on the launch pad. It would not ...Author: Gilles MessierHost/Editor: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
33 min - Can You Actually Tip a Cow?
In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather fascinating fact about dogs and cats that you probably didn’t know. Next up we begin by debunking a variety of common whale related myths, most notably frequently depicted in movies the world over. Among other things, we then look at what exactly the uvula does (that dangly thing in the back of your throat), whether cats and dogs can actually see color, whether it’s physically possible for a human to tip a cow as is the common drunken game, and why you’d never, ever want to mess with an ostrich.
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55 min - The U.S.'s Biological Warfare Against Its Own Citizens, the Nazi Breeding Program and Much More
In the "Forgotten History" compilation video today, we're looking at the United States' biological warfare program tested on its own citizens, the women who were used for breeding by the Nazis, the amazonian arrow poison that revolutionized medicine, the only axi prisoner to escape from Canada and make it back to Germany, the forgotten and extremely tragic valcartier grenade incident, and much, much more.
00:00 That Time the United States Tested Biological Warfare on its Own Citizens18:38 The Women Who were Used for Breeding by the Nazis36:07 The Amazonian Arrow Poison that Revolutionized Medicine56:31 The Red Devil: The Only Axis Prisoner to Escape from Canada And Make It Back to Germany1:10:18 Intentionally Swept Under the Rug- The Forgotten and Extremely Tragic Valcartier Grenade Incident1:24:37 The Insane Story the Kamikaze Scandal that Rocked Japan1:42:33 The Forgotten Carnival Sideshow That Saved Countless Babies’ Lives1:54:15 That Time Disney Helped Give the World a Weapon of Mass Destruction2:09:01 Forgotten History- That Time Hitler had His Agents Secretly Attack Germany in Order to Justify Starting WWII2:19:16 Forgotten History- The U.S. Military’s Obsessive WWII Ice Cream Crusade2:29:05 Glowing in the Dark, The “Radium Girls”2:44:52 Julius Caesar and His Pirate AdventureLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2 hr 56 min - The Forgotten American Civil War Death Camp
On November 10, 1865, Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville prison in Georgia (a.k.a. Camp Sumter), was executed for his actions during the Civil War. A Swiss immigrant, Wirz was the only Confederate officer convicted and put to death for war crimes. (Even Confederate President Jefferson Davis ultimately got off more or less scot free.)
Built in 1864, Andersonville, or Camp Sumter, was the largest Confederate military prison. The original plan was to move the prisoners out of Richmond, Virginia to an area of greater security and a better food supply. The camp was operational for only a little over a year, but during that time over 45,000 Union soldiers were incarcerated there. Out of those, a full 13,000 perished from disease, starvation, exposure, and the general horrible conditions at the camp.The first prisoners came to Andersonville in early 1864. Over the next few months, around 400 more arrived each day. At its peak, 33,000 prisoners were held in an area originally built to hold about 10,000.Editor: Daven HiskeyHost: Simon WhistlerProducer: Samuel AvilaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 min - How Close are We to Creating a Handheld Laser Gun?
Laser guns are a staple of science fiction. Engineers are very good at making science fiction, science fact, with a lot of money and awesome science and engineering. So how close are we to creating a handheld sci-fi laser gun?
“Ancient weapons and hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”In this memorable line from 1977’s Star Wars, loveable smuggler and rogue Han Solo neatly summarizes the enduring appeal of the sci-fi hero’s classic sidearm. From the Martian heat rays in The War of the Worlds to the ray guns of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, the phasers and disruptors of Star Trek and the blasters of Star Wars, energy-beam weapons have been a staple of science fiction for over a century. As handy as a regular handgun but far deadlier, versatile, and boasting a near-infinite magazine capacity, they are the perfect way to tell your audience that your fictional universe is far more advanced - and way cooler - than our own. Of course, given how well punches and hand held weapons and the like pretty much always worked against the Borg, we are still left wondering why standard protocol wasn’t to ditch the phasers and replicate an AK-47 for everyone, similar to what Picard did in the second greatest movie of all time- Star Trek: First Contact.Of course, science fiction has a long history of becoming science fact - with, for example, the concept of a War of the Worlds death ray helped inspire the invention of radar in the 1930s. So, has anyone actually succeeded in creating a handheld sci-fi blaster, or is it really even possible at all? Well let’s dive into it, shall we?Author: Gilles MessierHost/Editor: Daven HiskeyProducer: Caden NielsenLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
36 min - The Real Story of Amelia Earhart
In the field of aviation, few figures loom larger in the popular imagination than Amelia Earhart. Over her relatively brief 10-year career, the legendary aviatrix became an icon and inspiration for women everywhere, becoming the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo and setting dozens of long-distance flight records. Her mysterious disappearance during an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937 continues to fuel speculation to this day, ensuring her legacy will live on for years to come. But before she was a world-famous superstar, Amelia Earhart was a struggling social worker and pilot living in Massachusetts whose earliest flights were instrumental in the establishment of Dennison Field, among the first commercial airports in the United States.
Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, the eldest of two daughters born to Amy Otis and Edwin Earhart, a lawyer. From an early age Amelia displayed a love of adventure and the outdoors, spending long days with her younger sister Muriel exploring the neighbourhood, collecting insects, and engaging in all sorts of rough-and-tumble play - including building a roller-coaster-like ramp that provided Amelia with her first taste of flight. But aside from a few idyllic years spent in Atchison, much of Amelia’s childhood was characterized by hardship and constant movement:“There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls. Because I selected a father who was a railroad man it has been my fortune to roll.”When Edwin Earhart’s law practice failed in 1905, he took a job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad and moved the family to Des Moines, Iowa. At first all seemed well for the family, with Edwin quickly earning a promotion. But he...Author: Gilles MessierHost: Simon WhistlerEditor: Daven HiskeyProducer: Samuel AvilaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
22 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.