The Cracked Podcast

Anything can happen in a fictional world. Stories take us to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, or the fantasy-est realms ever conceived, or the grittiest most realistic representations of everyday life. But if all that is true, why do writers and creators lean on the same tropes over and over again? And why are the weakest tropes in a piece of fiction often strange takes on women’s bodies, minds, and lives?

On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with comedy writer Hallie Cantor and comedian/actor/writer Tiff Stevenson for a look at fascinatingly dumb pop culture tropes about women. From movies to TV shows to video games, they’ll reveal common entertainment myths from “water breaks like a flood” to “women are the hardest thing to draw” to “your number of boobs indicates your morality.” They’ll also run through real-life casting calls with bizarre expectations about who exists in the world, look at how pop cultural sexism and real global sexism feed into each other, and mull how Listeners Like You can push all this in a better direction.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-stupid-pop-culture-tropes-you-always-see-about-women/

Cowboys might be the most iconic type of American. The hat! The pistols! The white man! THESE are the markers of a true cowboy, in our minds. But what if that’s one prominent myth about the Old West? And what if it's one member of a rogues' gallery of bullshit you’ve been told about life in the late 1800s west of the Mississippi River? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, outlaw podcaster Alex Schmidt forms a posse with incredible comedy writers Jenny Jaffe and Elliott Kalan. They’ll gun down myth after Old West myth, drawing on everything from historical records to Jenny & Elliott’s experiences creating an animated TV comedy set in cowboy times. They’ll also explore weird myths about our cultural myths, figure out which modern celebrity has the best outlaw name, and re-imagine what a great Western story can be.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-ridiculous-myths-everyone-believes-about-old-west

The Indiana Jones movies are true to life. Not about that specific guy being real, or about certain magical canon being real, or about the archaeological profession being a parade of sex ’n Nazis. Still, here’s what ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and its ilk get right: archaeologists dig up crazy nightmare horrors OFTEN. So on this spooktacular episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt joins Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) for a trip through the astonishing horrors found by actual real-life archaeologists, because that stuff is much scarier and more fascinating than any horror movie. Listen for the terrifying Aztec death whistle! Discover the ancient cave that devoured a guy! And gain a stronger sense of how pants-crappingly awful the past was (and how lucky we are to be in the present).

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/15-archaeological-discoveries-scarier-than-any-horror-movie/

Wealth. Power. Enormous boats. These are just some of the markers of “elite” status in America. Populist candidates win race after race by running against Those Darn Elites. But what if that’s a fake difference? What if the “elites” are merely people who like information? And what if the “populists” are even richer and more affluent than the democracy nerds they keep running against? Most importantly: what if misunderstanding "elitism" in 2020, just like we all misunderstood it in 2016, could continue to screw the whole world up?

On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by journalist/comedy writer/author Joel Stein. They’ll explore the facts, figures, and freaky rural Texan crafts businesses from Joel’s new book ‘In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You're Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book’. Find out why Trump voters can’t be defined as “poor and uneducated”. Find out how the creator of ‘Dilbert’ and the leaders of the #Resistance both went a little bit insane. And most of all, discover the actual political divide that decided the 2016 election (and may decide it again in 2020).

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/the-surprising-elite-truth-behind-americaE28099s-political-divide/

Have you ever wondered what happens in the world's most exclusive clubs, parties, and airline lounges? Well wonder no longer, because a writer/podcaster/famous minor television personality explored them on your behalf, and captured them like no one else can. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by the one and only John Hodgman, author of ‘Medallion Status: True Stories From Secret Rooms’. Thanks to John you’ll experience the elegant ridiculousness of Yale’s secret society tombs, learn the true name of Mar-a-Lago, and discover the Delta Airlines status so elevated it feels like the sweet release of death. Also stick around for advice on how any of us can feel the hidden magic of being Gold Status without ever flying a mile.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/a-tour-through-worldE28099s-secret-rooms-with-john-hodgman/

“The empire on which the sun never sets.” That’s how the British Empire self-identified. In the 1910s, Britain ruled a quarter of the world’s people, living on a quarter of the world’s land. Do you know how Britain colonized places from India to Australia to most-of-Africa? Did you know the Empire ended within a few decades of its territorial peak? And did you know Alex Schmidt went to the U.K. recently, creating a perfect opportunity to dig into its fascinating history???

On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt went through customs to tape in-studio in London. He’s joined by Cracked writer/editor Adam Wears, historian Dr. Charlotte Lydia Riley, and historian Dr. Kim Wagner for a journey through the British Empire’s bizarre, brutal, accidentally-on-purpose rise and fall. They’ll also dig into the United States’ outlier status in that history, explore ways the British Empire never stopped colonizing the world, and consider how Being The Most Important Empire Of All Time (According To Britain) might’ve driven Britain insane.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/how-britain-accidentally-on-purpose-colonized-world/

Science: it’s often remembered as a story of remarkable linear progress. It’s also a truer, cooler, more incredible story if you stop and smell the roses...and in this metaphor, “the roses” are little-known bizarre stories from the lives of great scientists. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians Robin Ince and Olga Koch for a special LIVE show at The London Podcast Festival. They’ll explore the weirdest things you never knew about scientific luminaries from Newton to Darwin to Pythagoras. They’ll welcome further tales of that stuff from our brilliant British audience members. And stick around after the live conversation for a tale of perseverance through military occupation, heinous sexism, and more common historical obstacles, illuminating more things worth remembering as we examine odd men of the past.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/14-funny-strange-stories-from-lives-great-scientists/

Many science fiction stories go to the past, not the future. Which makes sense, right? Why be a Connecticut Yankee in some random Jetsons city when you can be a Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, A Place That’s Part Of Your Own Era's Roots, Which Makes Visiting It Meaningful? We all long to vacation in the past, touring its wonders before the germs & backwardness bother us. But here’s one way being alive is more interesting than people think it is: there are a shocking number of artifacts that let you experience that past *today*, because they still exist in spite of all logic.

On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with comedic character genius Andy Daly to bring the past to life. They’ll explore old curiosities that anyone can hear, see, experience, or eat, even though there is no way any of that should be possible. Join Alex and Andy for comedy records from 1899, pickles from before the Civil War, a surprisingly modern warning about a surprisingly ancient dog, and more.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/12-incredible-historical-artifacts-that-somehow-still-exist

Sidney Gottlieb is a name you do not know. If you did, you’d know about decades of CIA projects ruining countless minds with drugs and torture. You’d also know about the CIA’s secret San Francisco bordello, collaboration with Axis Powers war criminals, and borderline wacky fixation on turning drugs into brain-controlling weapons. On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt sits down with scholar, journalist and author Stephen Kinzer, diving into astonishing stories from Stephen's new book ‘Poisoner In Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control’. Discover the most important and powerful government agent you’ve never heard of, and how he pioneered everything from global “black sites” to 1960s counterculture, all with zero oversight and a hell of a lot of LSD.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/how-cia-quest-mind-control-drove-world-insane/

Streaming services revolutionized the TV-watching experience. There’s no denying it! Everything’s different now that we have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and the three new companies that launched while you were reading this sentence. There are now lots of ways to watch lots of great shows...but what if that system is unsustainable, counterintuitive, and worse than plain old cable in sneaky surprising ways? And what if there are other new amazing TV technologies that are comically weird and stupid? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedian and podcasting titan Jimmy Pardo (Never Not Funny) for a dive into the bizarre business decisions and technological missteps that make modern TV frustrating to watch in hilariously odd ways. And stick around for what Viewers Like You can do to have the best possible TV-watching experience.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/12-amazing-advances-in-tv-technology-that-make-tv-worse/