An Ounce - For Your Consideration

 Social Media, So-called News, Bots, Algorithms, and digital snake-oil salesmen—this episode of An Ounce exposes how misinformation spreads, why outrage sells, and how your clicks keep it alive.

Bots aren’t the villains—they’re the tools. The real players are the agenda-drivers who profit when we stop thinking. In this episode, Jim Fugate pulls back the curtain on the modern confidence game: how a single bot whisper become...

 Queen had two geniuses — and one helped NASA map Pluto.
Everyone knows Freddie Mercury lit up the stage. Few know Brian May earned a PhD in astrophysics, built his own guitar from a fireplace mantle, and helped create NASA’s first 3-D images of Pluto.
This episode of An Ounce tells how curiosity, music, and math collided to show us a whole new dimension of genius.
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 From sewer science to smart pills — how mocked “crazy” scientists changed the world when their absurd ideas turned out right.

Some of history’s most ridiculous notions — handwashing, ulcers, even talking to machines — were once scientific punchlines.
Discover how five people endured ridicule and rewrote reality.
You’ll see how pride delays truth — and why curiosity always wins.

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 Why do we trust people who sound smart—even when they’re not? Discover the psychology behind smooth talk and confident nonsense.

This episode of An Ounce unpacks The Eloquence Illusion—how polished words and perfect delivery can disguise empty thinking. From corporate spin to “quantum detox,” we explore why we fall for what sounds right instead of what is right.

Learn how to recognize verbal sleight-of-hand and k...

 The Piper Alpha oil platform explosion killed 167 men and changed offshore safety forever. This is how a chain of ignored warnings turned the North Sea into a firestorm. And how another disaster, Deep Water Horizon, was foreshadowed by Piper.
On July 6th, 1988, the North Sea lit up like a second sun. The Piper Alpha disaster wasn’t just an accident—it was engineered by complacency, cost-cutting, and a system built to fail.

 There are zombies walking among us — but not the kind you’ve seen in horror films. These monsters don’t eat brains. They drain confidence, independence, and joy. This Halloween episode of An Ounce exposes the terrifying truth: how the “zombie pathogen” infects abusers, how they hunt, what they feed on, and—most importantly—how their prey can break free.
In this episode:
• The hidden origin of these zombies.
• How they ...

 What if the very struggles you avoid—the pain, the awkwardness, the breakdown—were the only path to strength and freedom? In this episode of An Ounce, we explore the lessons of the chick in the egg and the caterpillar in the cocoon. Both teach us a universal truth: without struggle, there is no growth. Without hardship, there is no flight.
If you’ve ever been in your own “caterpillar soup” moment, this is for you.
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 In 1944, the Hartford Circus Fire turned the “Greatest Show on Earth” into one of America’s deadliest disasters. Flames consumed the Big Top in less than 10 minutes. 

This episode of An Ounce takes you inside the Hartford Circus Fire — the spark, the panic, and the aftermath. Why was the tent waterproofed with gasoline and paraffin? Why were families trapped under burning canvas? And what lessons from earlier fires like T...

 What if Joseph Merrick, the so-called “Elephant Man,” had been born beautiful? This episode explores his life, his genius, and what society still struggles to see: elusive humanity.

They called him a monster. History remembers him as the Elephant Man. But Joseph Merrick was far more than his face. This episode explores his real story — his suffering, his dignity, and the haunting “what if” of how different life might have...

 Think you know history? From Marie Antoinette’s fake cake quote to a pope putting a corpse on trial, we debunk 10 myths and reveal the weird truths behind them.
You know the story — or so you thought.
This episode of An Ounce dives into 10 famous “facts” that never happened, plus a few true events so strange you’ll swear we made them up. From Columbus’s wrong math to political window-tossing in Prague, we’re swapping histo...

 In 1835, a New York newspaper convinced the public that intelligent bat-men lived on the moon—and millions believed it. This is the true story of the first viral media hoax in history.

🌓 They Fell for This?! Bat-Men on the Moon and the First Fake News Frenzy
In August of 1835, The New York Sun published a story claiming that a new telescope had revealed intelligent life on the moon—complete with beaver-bat creatures,...

 These famous names weren’t born famous. From Bob Dylan to David Bowie, discover how six stars reinvented themselves—starting with a name change.
What do Bob Dylan, Katy Perry, and David Bowie have in common? None of those were their original names. In this final episode of You Won’t Believe Who These Names Belong To, we explore how six celebrities—and two curveball bonus entries—changed their public identity by changing their ...

 You know the name—or so you think. From Whitey Bulger to Adolf Eichmann, discover six real-life fugitives, impostors, and legends who used fake names to vanish—or to become unforgettable. True stories stranger than fiction.

This episode of An Ounce reveals the hidden lives behind six infamous name changes—mobsters hiding by the beach, war criminals living next door, con men becoming anyone they wanted, and outlaws rewriti...

 In 2013, a runaway train with no crew, no lights, and 72 tank cars of crude oil tore into Lac Mégantic, Quebec — triggering Canada’s deadliest modern rail disaster.
At 1:14 a.m. on July 6th, 2013, a silent, unmanned train derailed on a curve in Lac Mégantic. The resulting firestorm — fueled by six million liters of volatile Bakken crude — leveled the downtown, claimed 47 lives, and left a permanent scar on the town and rail sa...

 A cargo ship fire triggered the largest explosion before the atomic bomb. 2,000 dead. Halifax destroyed. This true story reshaped disaster response—and it all started with a spark on the water.—and you’ve probably never heard of it.
On December 6, 1917, the SS Mont-Blanc collided with another ship in Halifax Harbor. Twenty minutes later, it exploded—flattening neighborhoods, killing 2,000, and rewriting the rules of disaster r...

 Lady Gaga. Drake. Snoop Dogg. Vin Diesel. You know the names—but not the ones they were born with.
In this second episode of You Won’t Believe Who These Names Belong To, we uncover the real names behind the fame and the surprising stories of how some of pop culture’s biggest legends rewrote their identities—and sometimes, their destinies.
🎭 What does it take to go from Peter Hernandez to Bruno Mars? From Mark Sinclair to ...

 Pluto was a planet—until scientists held a vote and kicked it out. What else have we been hilariously wrong about? From medicine to space, here’s why certainty is overrated…

Pluto used to be our ninth planet—until it wasn’t.

In 2006, a group of scientists demoted it to “dwarf planet” status, and suddenly, everything we knew about the solar system got a little weirder.

But Pluto’s not the only thing we’ve...

 What do Muhammad Ali, Marilyn Monroe, and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common? None of them were born with those names. Discover the real stories behind seven iconic identities.
You know their stage names—but what about the names they left behind?
From Muhammad Ali to Marilyn Monroe and Martin Luther King Jr., this episode of An Ounce uncovers the hidden identities behind seven legendary figures.
It’s a fast-paced gu...

 Before Superman soared, there was another Man of Steel—Joe Magarac.
A towering figure born in the steel mills of Pittsburgh, Joe could lift trains, drink molten metal, and work without rest. But was he stronger than Superman—or even real at all?

This episode uncovers the legend of Joe Magarac: part folk hero, part labor myth, and maybe part corporate propaganda. We’ll explore how an imaginary steelworker became a symb...