The Cracked Podcast

In the year 2050, there will be 10 billion people on Earth. Or at least that’s the scientific estimate. Sounds like a giant human milestone, right? Well IT TOTALLY IS…assuming we harvest 50% more food than we are now, to feed those people. Oh and 4.5 billion people will be short on fresh drinking water by 2025, 1.2 billion people are short on electricity right now, and global temperatures are about to rise a degree Fahrenheit or two (or 8.1, turning most of the world into a desert). So…where do we go from here, Earth?

Well on this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with science/history/everything about life on Earth writer Charles C. Mann. They’ll explore the lives of Norman Borlaug & William Vogt, the title “characters” of Mr. Mann’s new book The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. We’ll also uncover photosynthesis’s stupidity, nail down climate change’s branding, and look back on hundreds of years of human self-improvement that suggest we might just make it to 10 billion if we pull it together.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/p4sxHy

If there’s one book the entire planet wants to read right this second, it’s ‘Harry Potter and the Eighth Novel That’s As Good As The First Seven’. So far J.K. Rowling hasn’t given it to us, because she’s been TOO LAZY (and when we say “too lazy”, we mean she’s written a play and a movie franchise and adult novels and good tweets). So what if someone else could replicate her work, and write us more Potter? Also what if that writer was a machine? And what if that machine delivered utterly brilliant scene descriptions like “Ron was going to be spiders. He just was.” that made us realize how funny Harry Potter oughta be?

On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with Jamie Brew, Elle O’Brien, & Mike Frederickson, a team of comedians & tech wizards from Botnik. They’ll dig into how Botnik’s predictive text technology combines with actual living breathing humans, to find fun jokes within the relentless advance of automation. They’ll also discover a digital future that might actually be worth looking forward to. And they’ll even deliver The Cracked Podcast’s first ever dramatic literary reading.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/79Y8wT

If there’s one book the entire planet wants to read right this second, it’s ‘Harry Potter and the Eighth Novel That’s As Good As The First Seven’. So far J.K. Rowling hasn’t given it to us, because she’s been TOO LAZY (and when we say “too lazy”, we mean she’s written a play and a movie franchise and adult novels and good tweets). So what if someone else could replicate her work, and write us more Potter? Also what if that writer was a machine? And what if that machine delivered utterly brilliant scene descriptions like “Ron was going to be spiders. He just was.” that made us realize how funny Harry Potter oughta be?

On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with Jamie Brew, Elle O’Brien, & Mike Frederickson, a team of comedians & tech wizards from Botnik. They’ll dig into how Botnik’s predictive text technology combines with actual living breathing humans, to find fun jokes within the relentless advance of automation. They’ll also discover a digital future that might actually be worth looking forward to. And they’ll even deliver The Cracked Podcast’s first ever dramatic literary reading.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/79Y8wT

You are a human being. Which means "you" are actually one human plus the trillions of microscopic life forms living in you. And "you" are living in a civilization that's only had microscopes since the 1670s, and only begun to understand what microscopes reveal. And "you" are living on a planet that was dominated by microbial life for about half its natural history, with more complex species only showing up in the last quarter, like a Miami Heat fan in between South Beach clubs. Which all begs the question: is this the microbes' world, and we're just living in it? And what does that mean for us as a species?

On this week's episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with science journalist Ed Yong (The Atlantic) for a look at the incredible world of microbes we've been living in this whole time, covered brilliantly in Ed's book I Contain Multitudes. Find out how trillions of tiny bacteria & germs guide everything from your nutrition, to our psychology, to the evolution of life on earth itself.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/FmPZnz

You are a human being. Which means "you" are actually one human plus the trillions of microscopic life forms living in you. And "you" are living in a civilization that's only had microscopes since the 1670s, and only begun to understand what microscopes reveal. And "you" are living on a planet that was dominated by microbial life for about half its natural history, with more complex species only showing up in the last quarter, like a Miami Heat fan in between South Beach clubs. Which all begs the question: is this the microbes' world, and we're just living in it? And what does that mean for us as a species?

On this week's episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with science journalist Ed Yong (The Atlantic) for a look at the incredible world of microbes we've been living in this whole time, covered brilliantly in Ed's book I Contain Multitudes. Find out how trillions of tiny bacteria & germs guide everything from your nutrition, to our psychology, to the evolution of life on earth itself.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/FmPZnz

Bill Murray is an asshole. Or at least his “Ghostbusters” character is, if you consider the environmental ramifications of keeping a box of evil ghosts in America’s densest square mile of humans. That d***less EPA guy was right. Times changed. You know that. But did you know actors from Tom Hanks to Jimmy Stewart ran into that same Murray Problem? And played villains who seem nice, or heroes who seem like garbage people, just because the whole world changed a few decades (or years (or seconds)) after the movie wrapped?

On this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked editor Dan Hopper for a journey into the dark underbelly of almost all your favorite movies. From the Christmas classics you love to the superhero movies you plunk down $17.50 to see, get ready for the history, economics, societal shifts, and scams the President of the United States got away with, that turned your DVD collection into a set of ridiculous movie premises.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/PRxCYE

Bill Murray is an asshole. Or at least his “Ghostbusters” character is, if you consider the environmental ramifications of keeping a box of evil ghosts in America’s densest square mile of humans. That d***less EPA guy was right. Times changed. You know that. But did you know actors from Tom Hanks to Jimmy Stewart ran into that same Murray Problem? And played villains who seem nice, or heroes who seem like garbage people, just because the whole world changed a few decades (or years (or seconds)) after the movie wrapped?

On this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked editor Dan Hopper for a journey into the dark underbelly of almost all your favorite movies. From the Christmas classics you love to the superhero movies you plunk down $17.50 to see, get ready for the history, economics, societal shifts, and scams the President of the United States got away with, that turned your DVD collection into a set of ridiculous movie premises.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/PRxCYE

BEGINNINGS: they are important. So important, we put that first word in all caps. On this week’s episode, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked editors Kristi Harrison and Cyriaque Lamar for a look at the all-time best beginnings of...basically everything. From first lines of books to first shots of movies to historical firsts that everyone oughta know about, this episode’s like a smoothie made of starts, mixed to start your new year just right.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/Xbg2EX

BEGINNINGS: they are important. So important, we put that first word in all caps. On this week’s episode, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked editors Kristi Harrison and Cyriaque Lamar for a look at the all-time best beginnings of...basically everything. From first lines of books to first shots of movies to historical firsts that everyone oughta know about, this episode’s like a smoothie made of starts, mixed to start your new year just right.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/Xbg2EX

As you look back on 2017, maybe you think the forces of evil had a banner year. Maybe you think decency took loss after loss, while cruelty went to the playoffs. Well what if we told you that while that was often true, there were squads of highly-motivated nice people standing up to the Nazis marching in the streets? And what if we also told you they stood up to those Nazis with the funniest, pinkest, fundraising-est pranks imaginable?

On this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedian, Southerner, and friend of the show Billy Wayne Davis, for a happy stroll down recent memory lane. They’ll discover magic t-shirts, “Swiss Coffee”, alien beings, and more fun ways the forces of good are kicking ass, taking names, and playing a little sousaphone along the way.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/TkiQ1g