October 28, 2025 • 10 mins
In Iowa, you can't just show up on your neighbor's doorstep with a costume... kids have to work for the treats! Grab your pillowcase, bucket, or plastic pumpkin-shaped pail and join Will, Mango, and Gabe for a very sweet-and-spooky episode to get yourself excited for Halloween
This episode originally aired on October 26, 2017.
Got a question you’d like us to answer? A rabbit hole you think we should explore? Email higeniuses@gmail.com or leave us a message at (302) 405-5925.
Follow us on Instagram @parttimegenius and Bluesky @parttimegenius.bsky.social!
Photo by Beth Teutschmann via Unsplash. Thanks, Beth!
Learn more about your ad choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
What's that? Will?
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I know?
Speaker 3 (00:02):
You know I'm a big candy corn fan. I'm super
excited Halloween's coming up. But did you know that candy
corn used to be.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Called chicken feed? What?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
According to Better Homes and Gardens, the revolutionary tricolor candy
was invented by a company called Wonderly Candy Company.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Isn't that a great name? In Philadelphia?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
This was back in eighteen eighty And do you know
what the original slogan was, No, I don't something worth
crowing for, which, actually, as I'm saying that aloud, do
chickens crow?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I mean they're both birds.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I guess you're right, And it's the perfect slogan for
chicken feed. And it's just the first of nine Halloween
theme facts We've got for you today.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to part time genius Will
Pearson And as always, I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh hot Ticketter and on the other side of the
soundproof glass, dressed up in his homemade costume.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I think he's a dentist. Is that what he was saying?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I think is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. It's
an impressive costume, whatever it is. And back from vacation.
Joining us on the phone is our brilliant researcher, Gabe lucyer.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Hey, they're Gabe.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Hey, guys, nice to be back. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
All right, well let's talk some Halloween facts.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I know I usually let somebody else go first, but
I'm not done talking about candy corns.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
If you don't mind, I'm gonna kick this thing off.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So did you know what actually wasn't started as a
Halloween candy? In fact, as late as nineteen fifty seven,
Brocks was advertising it as this summertime candy. And I
guess it makes sense because corn is kind of a
summertime food. But I do have some really important statistics
to share with you guys. So, according to a study,
forty three percent of people eat it at the narrow
end first, ten percent eat it at the wider end first,
(01:55):
and forty seven percent of people just pop the whole
kernel in their mouths. Who doesn't just pop the whole kernel.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
In their mouths?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I eat it from the narrow end.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you really gave? How do you eat it?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I honestly just try to avoiding it altogether.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
All right, Well, now you at least know the percentages.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Okay, so there's my first fact, Mango, you want to
go next.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So this comes from our friend Stacy Conrad. But she
told me that tricker treaters in Des Moines can't just
say trick or treat and expect they get like candy
shoved into their pillowcases. They actually have to tell jokes
for their truths. And apparently the tradition started in the
thirties when there was this outbreak of Halloween vandalism. The
director of recreation around there decided to encourage more constructive
(02:36):
Halloween activities. So here's actually what you told residents. Quote
Eats should be given only if such a trick as
a song, a poem, a stunt, or a musical number,
either solo or in group participation, is presented. Eighty years later,
the tradition still continues, and while the poems, stunts, and
musical numbers have kind of gone out of style, kids
(02:57):
still tell jokes for their candies.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So this has common all over Des Moines. I guess.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So, oh wow, I'd never heard that before either. That's
a that's a pretty good one, all right, Gabe. So
you're back from vacation, hopefully not too rusty. You got
a fact for us?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Oh yeah, absolutely, And this one actually is in a
you know, it's similar vein to you know, a public
stand against Halloween nusances. So silly string is actually banned
in Hollywood on Halloween night. And this is according to
a Los Angeles Municipal Code ordinance that pass in two
thousand and four. And it's anyone caught selling, or using
(03:30):
or even possessing a silly string between midnight October thirty
first and New November first can be fined up to
one thousand dollars. Oh and the reason for that is
over one hundred thousand people routine only flocked to Hollywood
Boulevard on Halloween night looking for something to do. And
that something often includes, you know, buying shilly string from
street vendors and reading havoc. Not only that, but you know,
(03:54):
there are also environmental concerns. Big clumps of philly string,
as well as the empty cans have a tendency to
claw storm dream and eventually flowed out the sea. Since
LA's dreams empty directly into the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Wow, this is a big issue. I had never heard
this either me either. Good job, that was a good fact.
All right, let me see what I have next here.
I've got a really important fact about Halloween Eve. So
I actually didn't realize how many people around the world
have a name for Halloween Eve. There was a poll
by the Cambridge Online Survey and they were looking at
if people had a name for it. So seventy five
percent of people don't call Halloween Eve anything, but twenty
(04:29):
five percent of people have names. So it was kind
of fun to look at the list. So there's some
that we've heard of before. There's beggars Night, Mischief Night,
Devil's Night, Gate Night, trick Night. But two that I
have never heard before. In New England many people call
it cabbage Night, and in parts of New Jersey they
call it Goosey Night.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You ever heard that goosey Knight? Now, all right, manga
we have next.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So this is about a Halloween mess. And in nineteen
ninety six, Spirit Halloween, which is a change, started keeping
track of their political mass sales and they've picked up
on this odd trend. They realized that whichever candidate's mass
sold more, the candidate would win the election. And since
nineteen ninety six, all six elections have gone in the
direction of the more popular mask, and Trump sold fifty
(05:15):
five percent of the mask to Hillary's forty five percent.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Wow, I'm actually kind.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Of surprised he didn't outsell her in even more, you know. Yeah,
But anyway, that's uh, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
All right, Gabe, what do you have next?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Okay, So this is the fact that I was really
surprised to learn. Apparently they're not one, but two cities
in the United States that both claim to be the
Halloween Capital of the world. And the first is Salem, Massachusetts,
and you know, that makes sense. It's the home of
the famous Salem witch trial, so it definitely has some
creepy cred in its favor. But the other is Anoka, Minnesota,
(05:51):
And strangely enough, but Anoka claims to be the capital
because it was the first city in the US to
throw a Halloween celebration in order to stop kids from
you know, sewing mystic around the town, like soaking up
people's windows and tipping over outhouses. So in nineteen twenty,
the Anoka Commercial Club and the Yenoka Kiwanis Club through
(06:11):
a big celebration that included a parade, a bonfire, foods, drinks,
and you know, of course candy and then later expanded
the events to include other things like pillow fights, costume contests,
and even a fireworks display. And the event is actually
still being held in Anoka, and it has been every
year since, with the exception of a prepliinatus during World
(06:33):
War Two when citizens had, you know, bigger thing to
storry about, the zeedding their houses.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
The Halloween capitals are the competing Halloween capitals of the US.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
That's very interesting. I'd never heard that.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
All Right, we've each got one fact left, and I've
saved what I think maybe my best for last. Even
though it's not about candy corn, it's about Houdini, who appropriately.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Died on Halloween. I don't know if you guys knew this.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So he was rushed to the hospital a week before
October thirty first, but then he ended up dying on
October thirty first. Now, his death was the result of
a ruptured appendix, and doctors were able to remove the appendix,
but the damage had already been done. And you know,
there's some speculation that the rupture was due in part
to a man that was punching him in the stomach
repeatedly to see if he could live up to the
(07:17):
rumors that he could withstand hard punches to the abdomen. Now,
Houdini's wife would hold seances every year on October thirty
first to remember him. This happened for about ten years
after his death. All right, Mango, one last fact from you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So this isn't a Halloween fact per se, but it
is one about candy and maybe also a cautionary tale.
So you know, in the movie Charlie in the Chocolate Factory,
there's that character Violet Beauregard who's always chewing gum. So,
according to the UK paper, they expressed sugarlest gum didn't
produce the right bubbles, so she spent nine weeks on
set chewing regular gum, which resulted in thirteen cavities after filming.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Wow, all right, you closed pretty strong with that one,
I think, So, Gabe, do you want to bring it home?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah? And I actually I do want to end on
a creepy one. This is one of the creepiest things
I came across, actually, and that's that The candy industry
influenced daylight Saving time. You know, the actual dates when
Daylight Saving Time occurred, right, And this is according to
Michael Downing, the author of spring Forward the Annual Madness
of Daylight Saving Time. It's the great title, by the way,
(08:24):
but the candy industry is actually the reason that DFP
was extended by four weeks beginning in two thousand and seven.
He told MPR, quote, for twenty five years, candy makers
that wanted to get trick or treat covered by daylight
saving figuring that if children have an extra hour of daylight,
they'll collect more candy. In fact, they went so far
(08:45):
during the nineteen eighty five hearings on daylight saving has
to put candy pumpkins on the seat of every senator,
hoping to win a little favor. And the creepiest part
about this is that have worked. The candy industry eventually
got their way. Two thousand and five, President Bush signed
a bill into law that extended daylight Saving Time to
include Halloween. And you know, supposedly the Gulf and barbecue
(09:09):
industries are also said to have been in on this.
On this push for extending.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It, I mean, it is pretty smart, and I do
like those candy pumpkins.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
They're pretty good.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Too.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah, taste kind of like candy corn, but totally different shapes.
All right, Gabe, you know, Mango and I are always
deciding who the winner is, but you've done this with
us a few times now, so I'm going to let
you decide who takes the crown today.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Oh man, that's that's a lot of pressure. And you know,
I don't want to shoot my own horn or anything,
but that that was pretty creepy. And this there is
a Halloween episode, so.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I like his confidence, so well, we'll agree to that.
We'll give it to you, Gabe. Congratulations, Guy's good. Thank
you guys for listening today. We'll be back with a
full length episode tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Aly
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
What's that? Will?
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I know?
Speaker 3 (00:02):
You know I'm a big candy corn fan. I'm super
excited Halloween's coming up. But did you know that candy
corn used to be.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Called chicken feed? What?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
According to Better Homes and Gardens, the revolutionary tricolor candy
was invented by a company called Wonderly Candy Company.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Isn't that a great name? In Philadelphia?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
This was back in eighteen eighty And do you know
what the original slogan was, No, I don't something worth
crowing for, which, actually, as I'm saying that aloud, do
chickens crow?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I mean they're both birds.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I guess you're right, And it's the perfect slogan for
chicken feed. And it's just the first of nine Halloween
theme facts We've got for you today.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to part time genius Will
Pearson And as always, I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh hot Ticketter and on the other side of the
soundproof glass, dressed up in his homemade costume.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I think he's a dentist. Is that what he was saying?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I think is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. It's
an impressive costume, whatever it is. And back from vacation.
Joining us on the phone is our brilliant researcher, Gabe lucyer.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Hey, they're Gabe.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Hey, guys, nice to be back. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
All right, well let's talk some Halloween facts.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I know I usually let somebody else go first, but
I'm not done talking about candy corns.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
If you don't mind, I'm gonna kick this thing off.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So did you know what actually wasn't started as a
Halloween candy? In fact, as late as nineteen fifty seven,
Brocks was advertising it as this summertime candy. And I
guess it makes sense because corn is kind of a
summertime food. But I do have some really important statistics
to share with you guys. So, according to a study,
forty three percent of people eat it at the narrow
end first, ten percent eat it at the wider end first,
(01:55):
and forty seven percent of people just pop the whole
kernel in their mouths. Who doesn't just pop the whole kernel.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
In their mouths?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I eat it from the narrow end.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you really gave? How do you eat it?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I honestly just try to avoiding it altogether.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
All right, Well, now you at least know the percentages.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Okay, so there's my first fact, Mango, you want to
go next.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So this comes from our friend Stacy Conrad. But she
told me that tricker treaters in Des Moines can't just
say trick or treat and expect they get like candy
shoved into their pillowcases. They actually have to tell jokes
for their truths. And apparently the tradition started in the
thirties when there was this outbreak of Halloween vandalism. The
director of recreation around there decided to encourage more constructive
(02:36):
Halloween activities. So here's actually what you told residents. Quote
Eats should be given only if such a trick as
a song, a poem, a stunt, or a musical number,
either solo or in group participation, is presented. Eighty years later,
the tradition still continues, and while the poems, stunts, and
musical numbers have kind of gone out of style, kids
(02:57):
still tell jokes for their candies.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So this has common all over Des Moines. I guess.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So, oh wow, I'd never heard that before either. That's
a that's a pretty good one, all right, Gabe. So
you're back from vacation, hopefully not too rusty. You got
a fact for us?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Oh yeah, absolutely, And this one actually is in a
you know, it's similar vein to you know, a public
stand against Halloween nusances. So silly string is actually banned
in Hollywood on Halloween night. And this is according to
a Los Angeles Municipal Code ordinance that pass in two
thousand and four. And it's anyone caught selling, or using
(03:30):
or even possessing a silly string between midnight October thirty
first and New November first can be fined up to
one thousand dollars. Oh and the reason for that is
over one hundred thousand people routine only flocked to Hollywood
Boulevard on Halloween night looking for something to do. And
that something often includes, you know, buying shilly string from
street vendors and reading havoc. Not only that, but you know,
(03:54):
there are also environmental concerns. Big clumps of philly string,
as well as the empty cans have a tendency to
claw storm dream and eventually flowed out the sea. Since
LA's dreams empty directly into the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Wow, this is a big issue. I had never heard
this either me either. Good job, that was a good fact.
All right, let me see what I have next here.
I've got a really important fact about Halloween Eve. So
I actually didn't realize how many people around the world
have a name for Halloween Eve. There was a poll
by the Cambridge Online Survey and they were looking at
if people had a name for it. So seventy five
percent of people don't call Halloween Eve anything, but twenty
(04:29):
five percent of people have names. So it was kind
of fun to look at the list. So there's some
that we've heard of before. There's beggars Night, Mischief Night,
Devil's Night, Gate Night, trick Night. But two that I
have never heard before. In New England many people call
it cabbage Night, and in parts of New Jersey they
call it Goosey Night.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You ever heard that goosey Knight? Now, all right, manga
we have next.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So this is about a Halloween mess. And in nineteen
ninety six, Spirit Halloween, which is a change, started keeping
track of their political mass sales and they've picked up
on this odd trend. They realized that whichever candidate's mass
sold more, the candidate would win the election. And since
nineteen ninety six, all six elections have gone in the
direction of the more popular mask, and Trump sold fifty
(05:15):
five percent of the mask to Hillary's forty five percent.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Wow, I'm actually kind.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Of surprised he didn't outsell her in even more, you know. Yeah,
But anyway, that's uh, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
All right, Gabe, what do you have next?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Okay, So this is the fact that I was really
surprised to learn. Apparently they're not one, but two cities
in the United States that both claim to be the
Halloween Capital of the world. And the first is Salem, Massachusetts,
and you know, that makes sense. It's the home of
the famous Salem witch trial, so it definitely has some
creepy cred in its favor. But the other is Anoka, Minnesota,
(05:51):
And strangely enough, but Anoka claims to be the capital
because it was the first city in the US to
throw a Halloween celebration in order to stop kids from
you know, sewing mystic around the town, like soaking up
people's windows and tipping over outhouses. So in nineteen twenty,
the Anoka Commercial Club and the Yenoka Kiwanis Club through
(06:11):
a big celebration that included a parade, a bonfire, foods, drinks,
and you know, of course candy and then later expanded
the events to include other things like pillow fights, costume contests,
and even a fireworks display. And the event is actually
still being held in Anoka, and it has been every
year since, with the exception of a prepliinatus during World
(06:33):
War Two when citizens had, you know, bigger thing to
storry about, the zeedding their houses.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
The Halloween capitals are the competing Halloween capitals of the US.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
That's very interesting. I'd never heard that.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
All Right, we've each got one fact left, and I've
saved what I think maybe my best for last. Even
though it's not about candy corn, it's about Houdini, who appropriately.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Died on Halloween. I don't know if you guys knew this.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So he was rushed to the hospital a week before
October thirty first, but then he ended up dying on
October thirty first. Now, his death was the result of
a ruptured appendix, and doctors were able to remove the appendix,
but the damage had already been done. And you know,
there's some speculation that the rupture was due in part
to a man that was punching him in the stomach
repeatedly to see if he could live up to the
(07:17):
rumors that he could withstand hard punches to the abdomen. Now,
Houdini's wife would hold seances every year on October thirty
first to remember him. This happened for about ten years
after his death. All right, Mango, one last fact from you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So this isn't a Halloween fact per se, but it
is one about candy and maybe also a cautionary tale.
So you know, in the movie Charlie in the Chocolate Factory,
there's that character Violet Beauregard who's always chewing gum. So,
according to the UK paper, they expressed sugarlest gum didn't
produce the right bubbles, so she spent nine weeks on
set chewing regular gum, which resulted in thirteen cavities after filming.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Wow, all right, you closed pretty strong with that one,
I think, So, Gabe, do you want to bring it home?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah? And I actually I do want to end on
a creepy one. This is one of the creepiest things
I came across, actually, and that's that The candy industry
influenced daylight Saving time. You know, the actual dates when
Daylight Saving Time occurred, right, And this is according to
Michael Downing, the author of spring Forward the Annual Madness
of Daylight Saving Time. It's the great title, by the way,
(08:24):
but the candy industry is actually the reason that DFP
was extended by four weeks beginning in two thousand and seven.
He told MPR, quote, for twenty five years, candy makers
that wanted to get trick or treat covered by daylight
saving figuring that if children have an extra hour of daylight,
they'll collect more candy. In fact, they went so far
(08:45):
during the nineteen eighty five hearings on daylight saving has
to put candy pumpkins on the seat of every senator,
hoping to win a little favor. And the creepiest part
about this is that have worked. The candy industry eventually
got their way. Two thousand and five, President Bush signed
a bill into law that extended daylight Saving Time to
include Halloween. And you know, supposedly the Gulf and barbecue
(09:09):
industries are also said to have been in on this.
On this push for extending.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It, I mean, it is pretty smart, and I do
like those candy pumpkins.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
They're pretty good.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Too.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah, taste kind of like candy corn, but totally different shapes.
All right, Gabe, you know, Mango and I are always
deciding who the winner is, but you've done this with
us a few times now, so I'm going to let
you decide who takes the crown today.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Oh man, that's that's a lot of pressure. And you know,
I don't want to shoot my own horn or anything,
but that that was pretty creepy. And this there is
a Halloween episode, so.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I like his confidence, so well, we'll agree to that.
We'll give it to you, Gabe. Congratulations, Guy's good. Thank
you guys for listening today. We'll be back with a
full length episode tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Aly
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage
Rewarded for bravery that goes above and beyond the call of duty, the Medal of Honor is the United States’ top military decoration. The stories we tell are about the heroes who have distinguished themselves by acts of heroism and courage that have saved lives. From Judith Resnik, the second woman in space, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice, these are stories about those who have done the improbable and unexpected, who have sacrificed something in the name of something much bigger than themselves. Every Wednesday on Medal of Honor, uncover what their experiences tell us about the nature of sacrifice, why people put their lives in danger for others, and what happens after you’ve become a hero. Special thanks to series creator Dan McGinn, to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and Adam Plumpton. Medal of Honor begins on May 28. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear ad-free episodes one week early. Find Pushkin+ on the Medal of Honor show page in Apple or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com