The Cracked Podcast

Alex Schmidt rings in “the new year” with comedians/podcasters Billy Wayne Davis and Danielle Radford. It's a special double-topic show, beginning with the strange history and complex present day of the “normal” calendar. Then they’ll explore the most obscure, bizarre, and theoretical calendars from world history, many of them invented to fix that pope-y "Gregorian" dating system you might've planned a New Year's party around.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/6-brain-stretching-calendar-systems-you-never-knew-existed/

Alex Schmidt and his special guest Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) are taking a Christmas-sparked look at the overall, global, all-encompassing meaningfulness of holidays. Why does your culture, no matter who you are, spend time and resources and energy on a set of traditions? What are we missing if we become Too Modern to value a break from everyday life? And how can anyone generate a holiday feeling in their own heart, any time of the year?

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-holidays-are-secretly-crucial-to-our-survival

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writers Ben Joseph and Chase Mitchell for a look at world-famous villains and monsters created to insult real people. From Godzilla to Goldfinger to the funniest galactic adventure ever written, get ready to learn how Pent-Up Writer Anger generated some of the all-time best evil characters.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/14-villains-monsters-created-to-insult-real-people/

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians & satirists Zack Bornstein (The New Yorker, ‘Alternatino’) and Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion podcast network) for forgotten stories of dumb and embarrassing American elections. They’ll share tales of corruption, lies, fraud, sex stuff, and other crimes dominating 200+ years of Presidential politics. It turns out the gross U.S. elections you do know about (2000, 2016, and maaaaaybe 1876) are the historical norm -- and boy will that wisdom do wonders for your 2020 mental health.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-dumb-embarrassing-american-elections-nobody-talks-about/

Alex Schmidt is joined by Nick Turner and Nick Vatterott (the hosts of ‘Get Rich Nick’) for a look at bizarrely elaborate ways real people tried to make money. They’ll discover the luckiest people from the early Internet’s gold rush, dig into ways actors and directors scammed their own movies, and take a hard look at “easy” ways to make a buck by skirting the law. Also stick around for the ultimate fate of websites from that funny Facebook greeting card repository to that gross shock site you thought you’d never look at again.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-bizarrely-elaborate-ways-real-people-tried-to-make-money

Alex Schmidt is joined by Dan Hopper (Cracked, The New Yorker) and David Roth (Deadspin, The Best American Sportswriting) for a deep dive into the deeply ridiculous current scandals in each major American sport. They’ll look at the ways the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL revealed major truths about our society by majorly shooting themselves in the foot. Also listen for a uniquely insane announcer who somehow isn’t American, a baseball team so vile it makes the Yankees kind of likable, and the perfect approach to watching sports without being taken advantage of by them.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/4-sports-leagues-whose-new-scandals-explain-modern-america/

Alex Schmidt sits down with comedians/podcasters Caitlin Durante and Andy Wood for a rollicking trip through shocking new discoveries about the human body. Throw on your headphones for an amazing journey through the muscles you might be missing, the light your body is emitting, and the festival of surprises everywhere from your bellybutton to your skull.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-bizarre-new-discoveries-about-human-body/