The Cracked Podcast

Hollywood never fails to remind us that we only use 10% of our brains. That statistic is bullshit, but it's true that around 90% of the activity in our brains is completely unconscious. We make most of our decisions without even knowing it. Our brains are constantly making decisions for us before we even know it, and it's our conscious mind that fills in the rest of the details, crafting this decision into a narrative. That's how a guy like Dennis Rodman could know where every ball was going to go as soon as it left a player's hand -- it's also how most racism happens, and the reason why "when the judge ate last" is the best predictor of how he'll rule. This week on the podcast, Cracked editors Jack O'Brien and Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) discuss the conscious and unconscious sides of human decision-making, how they're tied together, and the unexpected biases they produce. They'll also talk with writer and improvisational comedian Ali Farahnakian to learn how these theories can be applied to comedy. Listen now to get some solid advice on improvisational humor -- and to learn why your political preferences might be less the result of your own decisions than of how your brain is hardwired.

'Historical fiction' is almost always more of the latter than the former: so much history just doesn't look very interesting onscreen. But our passion for only the screen-friendly bits of the past means we often wind up with a much more boring and less accurate mental image of historic events. Any WWII film set in Germany paints all the people as part of a hive mind set on world domination. But what if we told you the National Socialist Party never won a single election with more than 42% of the vote? The real Nazi party was much smaller than we tend to remember -- but it was also way crazier. From Hitler’s nerdy obsession with fantasy books to Himmler's attempts to resurrect the dead, the Third Reich was much LARP-ier than you've been lead to expect. This week, Jack O'Brien, Soren Bowie, Michael Swaim, Robert Evans and JF Sargent talk about the flip sides to well-known historic moments that Hollywood left out. We'll also talk about 'Little House on the Prairie', the TV show and set of children books about a little family that could out on the American frontier. The one thing Laura Ingalls Wilder left out is that her next door neighbors at the time were a family of crazed cannibal serial killers. Would you like to know more? Throw on your headphones and click play above.

'Historical fiction' is almost always more of the latter than the former: so much history just doesn't look very interesting onscreen. But our passion for only the screen-friendly bits of the past means we often wind up with a much more boring and less accurate mental image of historic events. Any WWII film set in Germany paints all the people as part of a hive mind set on world domination. But what if we told you the National Socialist Party never won a single election with more than 42% of the vote? The real Nazi party was much smaller than we tend to remember -- but it was also way crazier. From Hitler’s nerdy obsession with fantasy books to Himmler's attempts to resurrect the dead, the Third Reich was much LARP-ier than you've been lead to expect. This week, Jack O'Brien, Soren Bowie, Michael Swaim, Robert Evans and JF Sargent talk about the flip sides to well-known historic moments that Hollywood left out. We'll also talk about 'Little House on the Prairie', the TV show and set of children books about a little family that could out on the American frontier. The one thing Laura Ingalls Wilder left out is that her next door neighbors at the time were a family of crazed cannibal serial killers. Would you like to know more? Throw on your headphones and click play above.

We all have addicts in our lives -- that friend or relative who fell prey to alcohol, heroin or some other drug. Nobody pretends those aren't "real" addictions. But when a D-list reality star checks in to rehab for porn addiction or a major study warns of smartphone addiction, we roll our eyes. If an obese person claims they're addicted to eating, we tsk their lack of self-control. Why isn't every addiction created equal in the court of public opinion? Compulsive smartphone use doesn't have the same consequences as smoking crack, but 'Candy Crush' still makes use of the same addictive feedback loop. Whether you're gambling or eating Cheetos, you're trading your time and money in exchange for regular hits of dopamine. This week on the podcast, Cracked editors Jack O'Brien and Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) discuss the science and culture of addiction in the 21st century. They'll look at all the ways giant corporations are exploiting our brains to control our behavior -- and ask if there's any way this addiction train can be stopped.

We all have addicts in our lives -- that friend or relative who fell prey to alcohol, heroin or some other drug. Nobody pretends those aren't "real" addictions. But when a D-list reality star checks in to rehab for porn addiction or a major study warns of smartphone addiction, we roll our eyes. If an obese person claims they're addicted to eating, we tsk their lack of self-control. Why isn't every addiction created equal in the court of public opinion? Compulsive smartphone use doesn't have the same consequences as smoking crack, but 'Candy Crush' still makes use of the same addictive feedback loop. Whether you're gambling or eating Cheetos, you're trading your time and money in exchange for regular hits of dopamine. This week on the podcast, Cracked editors Jack O'Brien and Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) discuss the science and culture of addiction in the 21st century. They'll look at all the ways giant corporations are exploiting our brains to control our behavior -- and ask if there's any way this addiction train can be stopped.

We love babies, and we’re also horrified by all that they imply. Babies can’t eat on their own or hold their heads up, and they go to the bathroom in their pants like drunken little monsters. But science is beginning to show that there may be a lot more going on in their heads than we had previously thought. Scientists have found that babies are surprisingly good at emotional manipulation. Even more frightening,they’ve found evidence of racism in babies. It gets crazier: the very scent of a baby is a powerful drug with mind-altering effects on their parent’s brains. In a live taping at the LA Podfest, Cracked writers Jack O’Brien, Dan O’Brien, Soren Bowie and Michael Swaim discuss the weird things we don’t know about the psychology and physiology of babies. Did you know babies have extra bones? Or that babies from different countries cry in different languages? Throw on your headphones and click play above to learn all that and much more.

We love babies, and we’re also horrified by all that they imply. Babies can’t eat on their own or hold their heads up, and they go to the bathroom in their pants like drunken little monsters. But science is beginning to show that there may be a lot more going on in their heads than we had previously thought. Scientists have found that babies are surprisingly good at emotional manipulation. Even more frightening,they’ve found evidence of racism in babies. It gets crazier: the very scent of a baby is a powerful drug with mind-altering effects on their parent’s brains. In a live taping at the LA Podfest, Cracked writers Jack O’Brien, Dan O’Brien, Soren Bowie and Michael Swaim discuss the weird things we don’t know about the psychology and physiology of babies. Did you know babies have extra bones? Or that babies from different countries cry in different languages? Throw on your headphones and click play above to learn all that and much more.

You may be the first to admit that your Facebook page is simply a highlight reel of your life -- a carefully collected stream of only the best pictures, moments, and one-liners -- but why is it hard to make that same realization about the lives of everyone else? Why do we assume Japan is a nuthouse of tentacle porn and horrifying game shows, even though all the weird American porn and TV doesn’t make our nation a typhoon of madness? That's sampling bias, homies! The same way the local news only reports the one study that “proves” Aspartame causes cancer but ignores all of the studies that say it doesn't. Our brain does this to us all day. Other people’s brains do it to us, too. If you think Russia is basically ‘Mad Max’ with Snow, 24/7, it’s because your picture of Russia comes from the craziest dash-cam videos a few Russians managed to upload. On today’s podcast, Cracked editors Jack O'Brien, Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), and Alex Schmidt sit down for a podcast about the unexpected sampling errors that populate our life. Throw on your headphones and click play above to hear us explain why the world we think we live in may not exist at all.

You may be the first to admit that your Facebook page is simply a highlight reel of your life -- a carefully collected stream of only the best pictures, moments, and one-liners -- but why is it hard to make that same realization about the lives of everyone else? Why do we assume Japan is a nuthouse of tentacle porn and horrifying game shows, even though all the weird American porn and TV doesn’t make our nation a typhoon of madness? That's sampling bias, homies! The same way the local news only reports the one study that “proves” Aspartame causes cancer but ignores all of the studies that say it doesn't. Our brain does this to us all day. Other people’s brains do it to us, too. If you think Russia is basically ‘Mad Max’ with Snow, 24/7, it’s because your picture of Russia comes from the craziest dash-cam videos a few Russians managed to upload. On today’s podcast, Cracked editors Jack O'Brien, Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), and Alex Schmidt sit down for a podcast about the unexpected sampling errors that populate our life. Throw on your headphones and click play above to hear us explain why the world we think we live in may not exist at all.

Hollywood’s villains are the luckiest people on the damn planet. Let's talk about climactic midpoint of The Dark Knight: The Joker stages an assassination attempt forcing Batman, but not actually Batman, to reveal his true identity just for the purpose of getting caught later, then forcing Batman Batman to choose between Rachel and Harvey Dent, who are rigged to perfectly timed bombs in warehouses somehow 20 minutes away from any police presence. How in the world did he plan all of that by himself and know it would all be timed perfectly!? What are all of the steps that the Joker would have to go through to ensure all of these events happened with Swiss precision? The weirdness goes beyond intelligent villains. How does the asteroid in Armageddon know to target our most famous buildings? In Friday the 13th, Part 2, how the hell did Jason Voorhees track down his victim’s house without a map, or a goddamn car? This week, on a very special LIVE podcast from Zanies in Nashville, Cracked's Jack O'Brien, Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), Michael Swaim, Soren Bowie, and Cody Johnson are joined by the Cinema Sins guys (Jeremy Scott and Chris Atkinson) to discuss some major plot holes from their favorite blockbuster movies.