Stuff You Should Know
Selects: How Bras Work
Bras are loved and hated, sometimes at the same time. But as difficult and restrictive as they can be, they rescued women from a much cruel contraption: corsets. The question remains, though, do women need bras at all? Listen to this classic episode to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Let's Thank Universal Pictures for Monster Movies!
Basically everything you think of when you think of vampires, mummies, werewolves, and Frankenstein all come from a spate of films made in the 1930s, and every one of them by Universal Pictures. Amazingly, they are still among the best films ever made. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Short Stuff: The Retirement Curse
Is retirement bad for your health? Well it certainly can be if you don't take steps to prevent it. Listen in to learn more about the "retirement curse." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A Good Walk Ruined: The History of Golf
The history of golf is a bit muddled, but once it was truly born in Scotland, it started the beginning of lifelong obsessions for people dumb enough to pick up a club and give it a try. Learn all about the early history of the most frustrating game ever invented. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Selects: Wetlands! Wetlands! Wetlands!
It’s time to get jazzed up for some Earth science of the waterlogged variety. Join Chuck and Josh in this classic episode as they tour some of the most interesting ecosystems on the planet and learn why we need to stop destroying them post haste. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Introducing 3 Putt Bogey
3 Putt Bogey is a golf podcast hosted by Chuck Bryant and Adam Pranica, two mid handicappers who are just good enough to know exactly how bad they still are. The name says it all: one great shot, followed immediately by the kind of self-inflicted disaster only a mid-handicap golfer can produce. That's the whole sport, really, and this show lives in that gap. Every week, Chuck and Adam break down their most recent rounds, dig through the bag, and try to actually get better — which is harder than it sounds when social media serves up an endless, contradictory firehose of tips, drills, and gear you're told you absolutely need. They'll talk about what's actually working, what's total crap, and what happened when they tried it on the course anyway. Expect gear talk, course recaps, golf movies and video games, rules debates, questionable gambling picks, and a healthy amount of self-inflicted misery, all in service of two guys trying to shave a few strokes off their game and laugh about it along the way. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Emily Post: Ettiquette Queen
In today's episode, we detail the life and times of ettiquette queen Emily Post. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Short Stuff: Mabon
Mabon is often called the Pagan Thanksgiving but though it seems like it’s as ancient as Halloween, it’s actually only around 50 years old. But, pagan or not, it’s a great chance to really feel the fall and thank Mother Earth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our Big Fat Dream Episode
No you’re no dreaming – go ahead, pinch yourself – we’ve finally made an episode on dreams! We’ve done episodes on lucid dreaming, night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep paralysis – basically everything but dreams themselves. Well, at long last here it is! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Selects: Fallout Shelters: Probably Useless (Let’s Never Find Out)
The advent of nuclear weapons and the Cold War kicked off a craze in the US for building rec rooms with foot-thick reinforced walls and outfitted with survival rations and board games. Would they work? Probably not. Find out (but not really) in this classic episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: What is Collective Hysteria?
Throughout the history of the world, there have been many cases of what is known as collective hysteria - groups of people, usually young women, who all exhibit the same physical symptoms of non-existent conditions. Is it psychosomatic? Is it group think? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: What was the Philadelphia Experiment?
The Philadelphia Experiment is a bad movie from the 1980s, and also the conspiracy theory that refuses to die, despite virtually zero evidence of its occurrence. Learn all about this strange non-event in today's show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: Mermaids: Not a real thing
Mermaids aren't real. That much we know. But the history and lore of these magical and sometimes menacing creatures of the sea is pretty interesting stuff. Learn all about these half women/half fish today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: Will We Find Evidence of Aliens by Their Engineering Projects?
In 1960 physicist Freeman Dyson suggested that in the hunt for alien life, we should search for evidence of massive engineering projects that encapsulate stars with solar arrays to harness their energy. Could we humans ever make one ourselves? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: The Mystery of the Mary Celeste
When the Mary Celeste was discovered floating and abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean one day in 1872, the legend of the ghost ship was born. Why did the Mary Celeste’s crew disappear? Was it pirates? Mutiny? UFOs? Well, probably not that last one. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Notes from the Edge
The Shawn Ryan Show
The Ezra Klein Show
This American Life
Happy Hour with Ina Garten