The Cracked Podcast

The news: if you’ve read it since the fall of 2015, it’s been nothing but Donald Trump stories, and Opponent Of Donald Trump stories, and the sports section (which is also kind of Trump news). That’s insane, right? Isn’t there an entire rest of the world out there, full of local governments legislating, scientists discovering, rich people hiding money on tropical islands, and woolly mammoths dying in slapstick ways? Ya know, the fun stuff?

On this week's episode of The Cracked Podcast, we're LIVE from UCB Sunset in Los Angeles, with guests Cody Johnston, Katie Goldin, Rivers Langley, and Siobhan Thompson. And we're bringing you all the amazing, terrifying, and strange news the media hasn't had the bandwidth to tell you about.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/ou72Xm

Top 40 radio: it’s like if a robot became obsessed with our collective subconscious. And it’s always been dominated by fun, sunshine-y pop songs. Stuff like “Respect” (Aretha Franklin) and “Hey Ya!” (OutKast) and “Maniac” (that dancing movie). But are those songs all that they seem to be? Or do they have hidden, fascinating meanings that nobody ever stops and thinks about?

On this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Howard Kremer and Kulap Vilaysack, the hosts of Earwolf’s “Who Charted”, to ask the questions nobody’s asking about the biggest hit songs of all time. Get ready for a whole new perspective on all your favorite artists, from Van Halen to Marvin Gaye to Francis Scott Key.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/5sPe7A

Top 40 radio: it’s like if a robot became obsessed with our collective subconscious. And it’s always been dominated by fun, sunshine-y pop songs. Stuff like “Respect” (Aretha Franklin) and “Hey Ya!” (OutKast) and “Maniac” (that dancing movie). But are those songs all that they seem to be? Or do they have hidden, fascinating meanings that nobody ever stops and thinks about?

On this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Howard Kremer and Kulap Vilaysack, the hosts of Earwolf’s “Who Charted”, to ask the questions nobody’s asking about the biggest hit songs of all time. Get ready for a whole new perspective on all your favorite artists, from Van Halen to Marvin Gaye to Francis Scott Key.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/5sPe7A

Remember the LOST pilot? It was basically an incredible JJ Abrams movie with plane crashes, polar bears, and dreamy Matthew Fox. If only that first episode aired-- it would've been a cult phenomenon-- an all-time pop-culture "what-if?" But instead we got LOST-- the time-traveling, island-hopping sci-fi adventure of diminishing returns.

On this week's podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Carmen Angelica and Brett Rader, the two hosts of Cracked's newest podcast series Best Episode Ever, to talk about 10 innovative TV pilots that almost made it to series but will forever be "what-ifs."

And make sure to subscribe to Cracked's newest podcast Best Episode Ever, where Carmen and Brett will dissect your favorite TV series and try to find each show's best episode ever. Tomorrow they'll discuss Friends with Cracked favorite Katie Willert. Search for "Best Episode Ever" in your podcast app of choice or click on the footnotes below to find links to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/G8GfYZ​

Remember the LOST pilot? It was basically an incredible JJ Abrams movie with plane crashes, polar bears, and dreamy Matthew Fox. If only that first episode aired-- it would've been a cult phenomenon-- an all-time pop-culture "what-if?" But instead we got LOST-- the time-traveling, island-hopping sci-fi adventure of diminishing returns.

On this week's podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Carmen Angelica and Brett Rader, the two hosts of Cracked's newest podcast series Best Episode Ever, to talk about 10 innovative TV pilots that almost made it to series but will forever be "what-ifs."

And make sure to subscribe to Cracked's newest podcast Best Episode Ever, where Carmen and Brett will dissect your favorite TV series and try to find each show's best episode ever. Tomorrow they'll discuss Friends with Cracked favorite Katie Willert. Search for "Best Episode Ever" in your podcast app of choice or click on the footnotes below to find links to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/G8GfYZ​

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a charismatic populist leader rises to power by warning of immigrants who are are "filthy" and "bring disease." It's no coincidence the greatest deplorable leaders through the ages use the same coded language to talk about people who are "other."

It's psychology. Quite understandably, it's human nature to fear disease. It's why rats are icky to us and I ceremonially burn my clothes after I go to Disneyland. But if you know what you're looking for, you'll see how diseases are are framed as exotic and foreign as an excuse to gang up on different nationalities: SARS, ban Chinese people; Ebola, ban everybody from Africa; sickness in general, build that wall.

On this week's podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked executive editor Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) to talk about how this weird germ theory controls how you think about everything.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/zSd56T

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a charismatic populist leader rises to power by warning of immigrants who are are "filthy" and "bring disease." It's no coincidence the greatest deplorable leaders through the ages use the same coded language to talk about people who are "other."

It's psychology. Quite understandably, it's human nature to fear disease. It's why rats are icky to us and I ceremonially burn my clothes after I go to Disneyland. But if you know what you're looking for, you'll see how diseases are are framed as exotic and foreign as an excuse to gang up on different nationalities: SARS, ban Chinese people; Ebola, ban everybody from Africa; sickness in general, build that wall.

On this week's podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked executive editor Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) to talk about how this weird germ theory controls how you think about everything.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/zSd56T

Whether it's ghosts or the afterlife or god, most humans tend to lean towards thinking something funky and unknowable is out there, even if they can't pinpoint what it is or prove that it exists. 

With ghosts, this seems to be especially true. In some states, real estate listings must disclose if people have died at the property, you know, in case ghosts, and even the most fervent atheists will admit, "yeah there's something weird opening doors in my house, it's definitely a ghost."

On this week's episode, Alex Schmidt is joined by Dana Gould, creator of IFC's Stan Against Evil for a wide-ranging conversation about why humanity is obsessed with the supernatural and some of the scientific reasons our bodies trick us into believing that ghosts are real. 

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/vfMFwp

Whether it's ghosts or the afterlife or god, most humans tend to lean towards thinking something funky and unknowable is out there, even if they can't pinpoint what it is or prove that it exists. 

With ghosts, this seems to be especially true. In some states, real estate listings must disclose if people have died at the property, you know, in case ghosts, and even the most fervent atheists will admit, "yeah there's something weird opening doors in my house, it's definitely a ghost."

On this week's episode, Alex Schmidt is joined by Dana Gould, creator of IFC's Stan Against Evil for a wide-ranging conversation about why humanity is obsessed with the supernatural and some of the scientific reasons our bodies trick us into believing that ghosts are real. 

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/vfMFwp

Aside from a couple original standouts, horror movies seem to trot out the same 5 or 6 monsters/killers/haunted board games each year. It's The Fourth Life-Partner of Chucky (they're not putting labels on things). Saw 3.14: Circular Saw! Oui-3: Revenge of the Ouija!

The 'Saw' joke isn't even a joke. The 8th 'Saw' movie is coming out this year. There are no remaining Hollywood actors who haven't been murdered by the Jigsaw killer.

To end the stale repetition put forth by the horror industrial complex, Alex Schmidt is joined by a panel of Cracked's David Christopher Bell and Brett Rader, as well as comics Hallie Cantor, Greg Edwards and Danielle Radford to talk about 15 real life urban legends and folk monsters that deserve their own horror franchise that runs about four films too long.

Footnotes: https://goo.gl/Ra9XKN