Stuff You Should Know

Arson investigation has changed a lot over the years. There is actual science available now, but the word still hasn't totally gotten out. Listen in today, and don't play with matches!

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It's common knowledge that famines are usually caused by major droughts: Rain doesn't fall, crops don't grow, and people go hungry. But recent research suggests that while weather may trigger famines, they may actually be more of a human-made catastrophe. Find out more in this classic episode.

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We think of estrogen and testosterone as the female and male sex hormones and they may seem kind of gross (is that just Josh?), but that simple understanding is way off. A magical biochemical dance between the two creates everything from bones to moods.

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Straitjackets aren't really a thing anymore unless you're watching a movie or TV show. Or in prison. That's the sad truth.

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The 70s were the decade of the woman in the US. America finally was coming around to the understanding women and men are equals and the government sponsored a conference to advance women’s rights. The opposition that arose changed the fabric of America.

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When Fort Knox was built in the 1930s to house America’s gold supply, it was billed as an impenetrable, impregnable, don’t-even-think-of-trying vault. But as the world has moved further away from gold, the stockpile’s lost a bit of its luster. Learn all about it in this classic episode.

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One of America’s most important ecosystems takes up more than half the state of Florida. It’s a river of grass, a cactus desert, and a saltwater bay all rolled into one. And there are alligators and crocodiles. And that’s just the beginning.

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What's the deal with knocking on wood? It's an action one takes to ensure good luck. Which doesn't exist. Yet we do it. Humans are funny that way.

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One of the things we rely on is for the companies who make the stuff we need to not stick it to us, the customer. But it’s become painfully clear that’s just what happened during the pandemic and that it’s still happening today. What can we do about it?

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In 2018, there's a man from a lost tribe still living deep in the jungles of Brazil who has been all alone since the mid 1990s. He's referred to as the Man of the Hole, and has had no face-to-face with modern humans. Who is he? We'll answer that question as best we can in this classic episode.

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It doesn't get much bigger than the Pulitzer Prize if you're a journalist. Or a novelist. Or really any kind of writer. They even give them to podcasts now. We're not holding our breath.

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The strange thing about the story of the Ramree Island Crocodile Massacre is that it didn't happen. Yet the story lives on. 

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A man with an unfulfilled vision left a huge gash in the ground near Niagara Falls. Then a chemical company came along and filled it with toxic waste. Then people came along and built homes and an elementary school on top of it. Then things went badly.

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Believe it or not, in 1985 the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb from a helicopter onto a residential building in an African-American neighborhood. The fact that this story isn't more widely known says it all. Listen and learn about MOVE in this classic episode.

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Today is part II of our tribute to one of the most iconic pieces of American culture.

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Ten percent of people – in Japan at least – get the urge to poop when they visit bookstores. But it wasn’t until a courageous woman stepped up and became the voice of the phenomenon now named after her that they realized they were part of a movement.

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Today we pay tribute to one of the most iconic pieces of American culture. Listen in to hear us gush about Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang. 

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For a learning disability that everyone seems to know about, dyslexia is maybe the most commonly misunderstood and controversial cognitive difficulty there is. Some people think it’s a gift, some people think it doesn’t even exist. Learn more in this classic episode.

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It started with New Hampshire couple Betty and Barney Hill, who learned under hypnosis they’d been abducted and examined by aliens in 1962. Since then, possibly millions of people in the US alone came to believe they followed in the Hills’ footsteps. Why?

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