Stuff You Should Know
Short Stuff: Tick tock goes the Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock is closer too midnight than it's ever been, which is not awesome. But what does this metaphorical clock even indicate? See omnystu...
Kim Philby: Greatest Liar of All Time?
British MI6 agent Kim Philby was a spy for the Soviet Union and one of the great liars in human history, right up until his retirement in Moscow where...
Selects: Cake: So Great. So, So Great
Cake has been around for a long time, but mostly less than great forms. It took the Industrial Revolution, the advent of plentiful sugar, and some goo...
Behavioral Priming: Buy, Robot Human!
In the late 90s, a large chunk of the field of social psychology started dedicating itself to figuring out ways to subtly persuade and influence peopl...
Short Stuff: Colorful Noises
We’ve all heard of white noise, that static sound the TV makes when poltergeists arrive. There are other colored noise too that mimic natural sounds l...
Editorial Cartoons: Art as Satire
Editorial, or political cartoons, have a rich history in the United States and abroad. And though the Golden Age may have passed, the use of images to...
Selects: Agatha Christie: Queen of the Murder Mystery
Agatha Christie was a great writer of murder mystery novels and is probably the best selling author of all time. Listen in this classic episode to lea...
The Pinkerton Detective Agency
The Pinkertons became the most famous detective company in the U.S. But were they noble or notorious? We get to the bottom of it all in today's episod...
Short Stuff: Tulipmania
The world experienced its first economic bubble when the Dutch went bonkers for tulips in the 1630s. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...
How Climate Migration Works
We move for all sorts of reasons – new job, new grandkid – but moving because it’s just too darn hot? That’s a new one. But it’s going to pick up in t...