The BrainFood Show

In the epsidoe today, we're looking at the twisting, turning, tale of Dr. Pepper and the real story behind it and what's in it. Next up, who invented toast, whether sodium actually raises blood pressure, why cashews are not sold to consumers in their shells and a variety of other interesting food related facts and stories. For the full list, check out the chapter markers below: 0:00 Who Invented Dr. Pepper? 25:31 Who Invented Toast 33:16 Fact or Myth: Sodium Raises Blood Pressure 41:59 Why Cashews are Not Sold to Consumers in Their Shells and Why Pistachios Used to Be Dyed Red 43:13 The Accidental Discovery of Saccharin, and the Truth About Whether Saccharin is Bad for You 50:06 The Origin of Competitive Eating Contests 1:05:11 Why Teachers are Associated with and Traditionally Given Apples 1:10:07 What Makes Peanut Butter Sticky? 1:13:23 The Difference Between Fruits and Vegetables 1:17:13 Why Salt Preserves Meat 1:20:59 Why Buffalo Wings Are Called That 1:25:53 Ketchup or Catsup? 1:30:23 The Difference Between Green and Black Tea 1:32:32 Why is Cottage Cheese Called That? 1:37:37 The Original Uber Eats India’s Amazing Near Century and a Half Old Dabbawala 1:48:16 Why One Bad Apple Spoils a Bunch 1:51:17 Graham Crackers Were Originally Meant to Be Part of a Diet Thought to Curb Sexual Urges 1:56:59 Grape-Nuts Contain Neither Grapes Nor Nuts 2:01:36 Why Seaweed is Sometimes Used in the Making of Ice Cream 2:06:14 The Fruit That Tastes Like Chocolate Pudding 2:12:43 Why Does the Yolk of an Overcooked Hard-Boiled Egg Turn Green? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hermann Göring was second only to Hitler in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Commander of the Luftwaffe, acting Prime Minister of Prussia, President of the Reichstag, and Hitler’s designated successor – Göring’s Nazi resume was almost unparalleled, as were the atrocities he took part in. His brother, Albert, however, could not have been more the opposite- an unsung forgotten hero of the war, saving countless lives through his work to undermine his brother and Hitler. This is the story of Hermann and Albert Göring. Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Editor: Daven Hiskey 0:00 The Devil- Hermann Goring 5:09 The Unsung Hero and Badass that was Albert Goring 9:18 "No" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food in the past could be horrifying. Prior to the introduction of regulations like the United States Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, it was disturbingly common for manufacturers to add all sorts of inedible or even genuinely toxic substances to food to make it last longer, make it look more appetizing, or cut down on expensive ingredients and maximize profits. Boric acid and formaldehyde in milk. Brick dust in cinnamon. Bone meal or plaster of Paris in flour and bread. Lead-based dyes in jelly and jam. At one point, S.E. Massengill Company even added diethylene glycol to a common medicine to help make it taste sweeter and more easy to consume… For the uninitiated, diethylene glycol, commonly used today in antifreeze and as a solvent, is highly poisonous, and was known to be so at the time as well. Yet the substance was nonetheless added to the medicine targeted at children anyway, with about 100 deaths resulting before they recalled the medicine. Although noteworthy even with the recall, didn’t bother to tell the doctors prescribing it that there was any urgency in that, nor the danger their existing stocks of the medicine posed if they didn’t return them, and instead, continued to sell it. The owner of the company, Dr. Samuel Evans Massengill, responded to the outrage over the deaths by simply stating, “My chemists and I deeply regret the fatal results, but there was no error in the manufacture of the product. We have been supplying a legitimate professional demand… I do not feel that there was any responsibility on our part.” Much more on this story and how it finally got the government to step in and start regulating consumable products later in the Bonus Facts, and how this all led to Kinder Surprise Eggs being illegal in the United States. Which, yes, they still are. Watch to the end before commenting I’m wrong, and you’ll save yourself having to edit your comment. But for now, other questionable substances were part of the appeal of the product itself - most infamously the cocaine in Coca-Cola. Paired with caffeine from the Kola nut, this ingredient was originally chosen by the drink’s inventor, pharmacist John Pemberton, as a treatment for morphine addiction and a stimulating alternative to alcohol. Cocaine was not fully eliminated from the official formula until 1929, though the Coca-Cola company continues to use processed coca leaves in the drink’s manufacture, being the largest consumer of that plant outside of the illegal drug trade. But while it is the most famous example, Coca-Cola was not the only classic soft drink to contain psychoactive drugs, with another iconic brew originally including a mood-altering medication still taken by millions of people to this day. This is the weird forgotten history of 7UP. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila 0:00 Intro 2:37 Why People Started Drinking Carbonated Water, and Discovering Lithium 4:55 The Origins of 7Up and Why the Drugs? 16:22 What Does Lithium Actually Do to You? 18:55 The Elixir Sulfanilamide Incident and Why Kinder Surprise Eggs are Still Illegal in the United States Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the video today, we're looking at a variety of food facts including- How Two Guys are the Reason We Eat What We Eat for Breakfast, How are Baby Carrots Made, Is Pet Food Safe for Humans to Eat, The Bizarre Story of the Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb Triangle, That Time Quaker Oats Fed Orphans Radioactive Oatmeal for Reasons…, How To Make a Proper Cup of Tea According to Famed English Author George Orwell, Why are Potatoes Called “Spuds”, Peeling Back the Foil: The Origin of the TV Dinner, The History of Spoons, Forks, and Knives, and the The Surprisingly Short History of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Caden Nielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He is one of the most famous serial killers of all time, but who actually was Jack the Ripper and what actually happened during his reign of terror. Just before 4 am on August 31, 1888, on London’s seedy Buck’s Row, a cart driver named Charles Cross saw the body of a woman lying on the ground. In the early morning gloom, it was initially impossible to tell if she was drunk or dead. Cross was soon joined by another carter, Robert Paul. The two men saw the woman’s skirts were pulled above her waist. They smoothed them back over her knees and went searching for a policeman. What the two carters didn’t notice in the shifting shadows was the woman’s throat had been cut so brutally that her head had almost been decapitated. Beat officer John Neil discovered that gruesome fact on closer inspection of the body. (He later testified at the inquest that when he had passed that way just 30 minutes earlier, “there was not a soul about.”) P.C. Neil sent another colleague to fetch a local medic and soon Dr. Rees Ralph Llewellyn arrived on the scene. He quickly examined the body and found that the arms and legs were still warm. Llewellyn believed the woman had been dead for less than 30 minutes. Her killer may have still been lurking nearby when Cross and Paul came upon the body.... Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did Alexander Graham Bell actually invent the telephone? How about Elisha Gray? Or what about Antonio Meucci who both Italy and even U.S. Congress at one point acknowledged as the true inventor of the telephone... But is there any actual truth to his story, or was it a major flub by Congress? And what about the oft' forgotten Johann Philip Reis who there was even a bonafide conspiracy to suppress his part. Well sit back and relax as we dive into sorting through this mess and determine who actually invented the telephone. “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Along with “What Hath God Wrought?”, the first U.S. telegraph message sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844; and the letter S, the first transatlantic radio signal sent by Guglielmo Marconi on December 12, 1901, these are perhaps the most consequential words in the history of modern communications. Spoken by Scottish-American inventor Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876, they are widely believed to constitute history’s first ever telephone call. Bell had patented his “speaking telegraph” just three days prior, and, following this historic demonstration, events moved quickly. On June 25 of that same year, Bell demonstrated the telephone before stunned crowds at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, while on October 9 he and Watson succeeded in holding a conversation over a two mile telephone line strung between Boston and Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. In 1877, Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company - today AT&T - while in 1878 the first commercial telephone exchange was installed in New Haven, Connecticut. The new technology quickly spread around the world, shrinking the globe, making Bell and Watson, very wealthy men, and cementing their place in history as the fathers of modern telecommunications. …at least, that’s the version of events we’re all taught in school. But like with basically every invention ever made by humans, Bell and Watson were far from alone in their pursuit of telephony, with many of their rivals being hot on their heels. So hot, in fact, that some have argued that the dynamic duo were not, in fact, the true inventors of the telephone, and that their place in history was the result not of superior brains and grit or even sheer dumb luck, but rather underhanded legal and political chicanery - a conspiracy that has lain forgotten in the annals of history for 150 years. But is any of it actually true? Here now is the true story of the invention of the telephone. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 26, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy stood on the steps of the Rathaus Schöneburg in West Berlin and delivered one of the most famous - and infamous - speeches of his presidency. Before a gathered crowd of 450,000 people, Kennedy railed against East Germany’s construction of the Berlin Wall two months before, extolled the virtues of democracy and self-government, and pledged his unwavering support for the people of West Berlin: “I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin… Lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main…Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.” Then, in a final, powerful statement of solidarity, he closed his speech with the iconic words: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner”. If you have ever heard of this speech, then you probably know what happened next: instead of cheering, the crowd broke into mocking laughter. Thanks to an unfortunate combination of bad grammar and cultural ignorance, the President had just declared himself to be not a fellow resident of Berlin but rather a “Berliner”, a type of jelly-filled doughnut. Whoopsy doodle. …only no, he didn’t. While this story has been repeated countless times over the past six decades and become a popular and quirky bit of JFK lore, there is little evidence that any German listening to Kennedy’s speech that day would have understood his final words as meaning “I am a jelly doughnut.” So how, then, did this amusing - if ultimately false - urban legend get started? It all has to do with the intricacies of German grammar, lazy journalism, and our age-old tendency to not let the truth get in the way of a good story. This is the story of one of the most misunderstood speeches of the Cold War.... Author: Gilles Messier Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever Wonder How Iron Man of all Marvel characters was chosen to be the one to launch the Marvel universe? Well, wonder no more, as we do a deep dive into how the Iron Man Movies were made. At the time of writing this script the Marvel Cinematic Universe, henceforth shortened to the MCU, has made about $31 billion at the box office, the most of any film series in history. To put this amount into perspective, that's over 3 times more than Star Wars has made in almost half a century ($10.3 billion), over 4 times the total gross of the entire live-action output of their rival DC ($7.1 billion) and almost 8 times what the Shrek franchise has made since its inception ($4.1 billion)... Really? Shrek? Alrighty then… Going back to Marvel, just the Avengers series on its own, a collection of 4 movies, is considered the 6th most successful film series of all time in terms of box office, grossing in excess of $7 billion. Which eagle-eared fans listening along at home may notice is more than literally every recent DC live-action movie combined. As an aside, because this is really funny, if you go by the numbers, the DC extended universe’s closest box office rival isn’t Marvel, but the Fast & Furious franchise, with the 11 movies featuring Dominic Toretto and his super friends grossing about a $100 million more than the 15 made by DC at the time of writing this. That’s the power of Family. In any event, all of this success began with one movie- Iron Man, a film it can be argued is one of the most important made in recent history with its success and the glut of sequels released in the decades since having, for better or worse, quite literally changed the way movies are made and developed. And, just saying we get that it made Marvel a ton of money, but Hollywood, not every movie or series needs to be a cinematic universe. Sometimes a story can have a satisfying ending and you can then move on to brand new stories. Mmmmkay? However, the success of the initial live-action outing of the Iron Avenger belies how much of a huge pain in the butt this movie, and by extension the entire MCU, was to get off the ground. So let’s now dive into the fascinating story of how the Invincible Iron Man made his way to the big screen. To begin with, something... Author: Karl Smallwood Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the mind blowing things caterpillars get up to while in the chrysalis. Next up we begin by looking at the fascinating way in which honey bees, which are cold blooded, manage to keep their hives warm and the variety of fascinating things they do with their rather unique heating abilities. We then look at the rather amazing vulture and, among other things, why they don’t get sick when they eat dead things and what integral role this plays in keeping humans alive. Finally we look at the mysterious Kentucky meat shower, which unfortunately has nothing to do with KFC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legend says that brewing tea dates back to around 2737 BC, when tea leaves fell into water being boiled for Emperor Shennong of China. There does not appear to be any hard evidence of tea being discovered this way, but evidence we do have suggests that brewing tea did indeed likely start in China, first as part of a medicinal elixir. The first documented reference to this is found during the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC to 1046 BC). By the Qin Dynasty in the third century BC, it had become a relatively popular drink using just the tea (camellia sinensis), rather than mixed with other things as seems to have been common when used medicinally. From the beginning until the early 20th century, very little innovation came about in terms of the common method of brewing tea. This all changed in 1901. Contrary to popular belief (and what every single tea manufacturer I could find said on their websites, and many-a-tea history book and paper consulted also stated), it was not tea merchant Thomas Sullivan who invented the tea bag in 1908. While he did (probably independently, given his reported design was quite inferior to the original) invent a tea bag that year, he was beat out by about seven years by Roberta C. Lawson and Mary Molaren of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.... Author: Sarah Stone Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the 1986 beach volleyball film Top Gun, U.S. Navy aviators and ultimate bros Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw are flying dogfight exercises in a Grumman F-14 Tomcat when they accidentally fly into the jet wash of another aircraft, causing both their engines to flame out. The Tomcat immediately snaps into an unrecoverable flat spin and hurtles towards the earth, giving Maverick and Goose no choice but to eject. But while Maverick safely clears the aircraft, Goose slams into the cockpit canopy, killing him. His lifeless body drifts into the water below, where Maverick helplessly embraces him.. But is a death like Goose’s in Top Gun possible given ejection seat designs? And on a related note, using current ejection seat technology, could Maverick have survived an ejection at Mach 10 as depicted in Top Gun Maverick? Or is all of this just another example of melodramatic Hollywood exaggeration? And just who invented these awesome lifesaving contraptions and how do they actually work? Well strap on your “bone dome” and prepare to “punch out” as we explore the fascinating science, incredible engineering, and history of ejection seat technology, and along the way we’ll get into whether Goose would have actually lived when ejecting in Top Gun, and whether Maverick would have actually died ejecting in Top Gun: Maverick. And in the Bonus Top Gun Facts at the end, we’ll also cover just how realistic was it that Maverick could have so easily dominated all the rest of the best of the best in the training scenarios in Top Gun Maverick. As ever, if you’d like to skip the awesome history and fascinating science and engineering and go right to the answers, check out the chapters on this video. Author: Gilles Messier Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edgar Allan Poe is probably best known for his raven that squawks “Nevermore,” but he’s also one of the first American short story writers and is often credited with being the “inventor” of detective fiction. He also contributed heavily to the genre of science fiction. Not only that, but he was one of the first American writers to earn a living from his writing alone. What’s not as well-known about the man is that Poe had a somewhat turbulent stint in the military, married his 13 year old cousin, and more. Here now is the real story of Edgar Allen Poe. Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 11, 2026, the Orion spacecraft Integrity splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Koch (cook) safely back to earth after an epic 10-day journey from the earth to the moon - the first such mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. Aside from some minor issues with the spacecraft’s toilet and Microsoft Outlook, which… historically the furthest from Earth Outlook has ever not worked… so far… the Artemis II mission was near-flawless from start to finish, marking a triumphant return to manned space exploration beyond low earth orbit. These days space travel can seem almost routine, with only the most spectacular missions like Artemis II even making headlines. It can thus be easy to lose sight of an important fact: space travel is hard - and dangerous. The road to the stars is littered with the wreckage of hundreds of failed spacecraft and not a few human corpses. From the crew to Apollo 1 and Soyuz 1 in 1967 to those of Soyuz 11 in 1971, Challenger in 1986, and Columbia in 2002, dozens of astronauts have given their lives in the pursuit of the Final Frontier. But not all spaceflight disasters are so tragic; some are just plain absurd - even funny - and none more so than a largely forgotten incident from the very dawn of the U.S. space program. This is the hilarious story Mercury-Redstone 1, the four inch failure, not to be confused with my college girlfriend’s nickname for me… On October 4, 1957, history forever changed when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit. In response to Sputnik, the United States ramped up ICBM development efforts while simultaneously scrambling to launch its own satellite. These early efforts were…less than successful, with the first attempted American satellite launch, Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957, ending in a fiery and embarrassing explosion on the launch pad. It would not ... Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather fascinating fact about dogs and cats that you probably didn’t know. Next up we begin by debunking a variety of common whale related myths, most notably frequently depicted in movies the world over.  Among other things, we then look at what exactly the uvula does (that dangly thing in the back of your throat), whether cats and dogs can actually see color, whether it’s physically possible for a human to tip a cow as is the common drunken game, and why you’d never, ever want to mess with an ostrich. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the "Forgotten History" compilation video today, we're looking at the United States' biological warfare program tested on its own citizens, the women who were used for breeding by the Nazis, the amazonian arrow poison that revolutionized medicine, the only axi prisoner to escape from Canada and make it back to Germany, the forgotten and extremely tragic valcartier grenade incident, and much, much more. 00:00 That Time the United States Tested Biological Warfare on its Own Citizens 18:38 The Women Who were Used for Breeding by the Nazis 36:07 The Amazonian Arrow Poison that Revolutionized Medicine 56:31 The Red Devil: The Only Axis Prisoner to Escape from Canada And Make It Back to Germany 1:10:18 Intentionally Swept Under the Rug- The Forgotten and Extremely Tragic Valcartier Grenade Incident 1:24:37 The Insane Story the Kamikaze Scandal that Rocked Japan 1:42:33 The Forgotten Carnival Sideshow That Saved Countless Babies’ Lives 1:54:15 That Time Disney Helped Give the World a Weapon of Mass Destruction 2:09:01 Forgotten History- That Time Hitler had His Agents Secretly Attack Germany in Order to Justify Starting WWII 2:19:16 Forgotten History- The U.S. Military’s Obsessive WWII Ice Cream Crusade 2:29:05 Glowing in the Dark, The “Radium Girls” 2:44:52 Julius Caesar and His Pirate Adventure Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On November 10, 1865, Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville prison in Georgia (a.k.a. Camp Sumter), was executed for his actions during the Civil War. A Swiss immigrant, Wirz was the only Confederate officer convicted and put to death for war crimes. (Even Confederate President Jefferson Davis ultimately got off more or less scot free.) Built in 1864, Andersonville, or Camp Sumter, was the largest Confederate military prison. The original plan was to move the prisoners out of Richmond, Virginia to an area of greater security and a better food supply. The camp was operational for only a little over a year, but during that time over 45,000 Union soldiers were incarcerated there. Out of those, a full 13,000 perished from disease, starvation, exposure, and the general horrible conditions at the camp. The first prisoners came to Andersonville in early 1864. Over the next few months, around 400 more arrived each day. At its peak, 33,000 prisoners were held in an area originally built to hold about 10,000. Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laser guns are a staple of science fiction. Engineers are very good at making science fiction, science fact, with a lot of money and awesome science and engineering. So how close are we to creating a handheld sci-fi laser gun? “Ancient weapons and hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” In this memorable line from 1977’s Star Wars, loveable smuggler and rogue Han Solo neatly summarizes the enduring appeal of the sci-fi hero’s classic sidearm. From the Martian heat rays in The War of the Worlds to the ray guns of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, the phasers and disruptors of Star Trek and the blasters of Star Wars, energy-beam weapons have been a staple of science fiction for over a century. As handy as a regular handgun but far deadlier, versatile, and boasting a near-infinite magazine capacity, they are the perfect way to tell your audience that your fictional universe is far more advanced - and way cooler - than our own. Of course, given how well punches and hand held weapons and the like pretty much always worked against the Borg, we are still left wondering why standard protocol wasn’t to ditch the phasers and replicate an AK-47 for everyone, similar to what Picard did in the second greatest movie of all time- Star Trek: First Contact. Of course, science fiction has a long history of becoming science fact - with, for example, the concept of a War of the Worlds death ray helped inspire the invention of radar in the 1930s. So, has anyone actually succeeded in creating a handheld sci-fi blaster, or is it really even possible at all? Well let’s dive into it, shall we? Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the field of aviation, few figures loom larger in the popular imagination than Amelia Earhart. Over her relatively brief 10-year career, the legendary aviatrix became an icon and inspiration for women everywhere, becoming the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo and setting dozens of long-distance flight records. Her mysterious disappearance during an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937 continues to fuel speculation to this day, ensuring her legacy will live on for years to come. But before she was a world-famous superstar, Amelia Earhart was a struggling social worker and pilot living in Massachusetts whose earliest flights were instrumental in the establishment of Dennison Field, among the first commercial airports in the United States. Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, the eldest of two daughters born to Amy Otis and Edwin Earhart, a lawyer. From an early age Amelia displayed a love of adventure and the outdoors, spending long days with her younger sister Muriel exploring the neighbourhood, collecting insects, and engaging in all sorts of rough-and-tumble play - including building a roller-coaster-like ramp that provided Amelia with her first taste of flight. But aside from a few idyllic years spent in Atchison, much of Amelia’s childhood was characterized by hardship and constant movement: “There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls. Because I selected a father who was a railroad man it has been my fortune to roll.” When Edwin Earhart’s law practice failed in 1905, he took a job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad and moved the family to Des Moines, Iowa. At first all seemed well for the family, with Edwin quickly earning a promotion. But he... Author: Gilles Messier Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long before the Apollo Program was officially announced in 1961, engineers and science fiction writers recognized the value of giving future moon explorers some kind of wheeled vehicle to increase their mobility. Most early concepts for such vehicles were large truck-like contraptions with pressurized cabins, allowing the astronauts to operate in so-called “shirt-sleeve” conditions, not unlike in the phenomenal film, The Martian. Such vehicles appear in Polish science fiction writer Jersz Zulawski’s 1901 novel On a Silvery Globe and Belgian cartoonist Hergé’s 1952 comic book On a Marché Sur La Lune AKA Explorers on the Moon, in which intrepid globetrotting journalist Tintin becomes the first person to set foot on earth’s satellite. That same year, Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi rocket engineer who developed the V2 ballistic missile and was brought to the United States after the Second World War as part of Project Paperclip, wrote a series of articles for Collier’s Weekly magazine with the delightfully gung-ho 1950s title of Man Will Conquer Space Soon! in which he speculated on what future space missions might look like. In these articles, he described a hypothetical six-week expedition to the moon equipped with specially-designed ten-ton tractor-trailer vehicles for hauling supplies. These articles were later adapted into three episodes of the Disney anthology TV series Disneyland - Man in Space, Man and the Moon, and Mars and Beyond - in which von Braun was prominently featured. Once the Apollo Program officially got underway, von Braun - by now the director of the newly-formed Marshall Spaceflight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama - commissioned a series of studies in cooperation with various corporations including Lockheed, Bendix, Boeing, General Motors, Brown Engineering, Grumman, and Bell Aerospace to evaluate the feasibility of building a wheeled vehicle for lunar surface exploration. Directed by MSC engineer Saverio Morea, these studies came up with a number of theoretical concepts including the Lunar Logistics System or LLS; the Lunar Scientific Survey Module or LSSM; the Mobility Test Article or MTA, the Lunar-Traversing Vehicle or LTV and the Mobility Laboratory or MOLAB - all of which followed the same general form factor of a large, truck-like vehicle with a pressurized cabin and four or more large wheels driven by electric motors. At first, the primary challenge in designing such vehicles was the nature of the lunar surface, which in the late 1950s and early 1960s was largely unknown. Some astronomers speculated that millions of years of bombardment by meteorites might have buried the surface under a blanket of dust several feet deep that would instantly swallow up any lander, rover, or astronaut that touched down on it. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start with a Simon rant, then look at what the M’s stand for in M&Ms. Next up we look at when exactly humans started putting living things in food items for the purpose of entertainment, the origin of “That’s What She Said” and “Said the Actress to the Bishop”, and then all leading up to the first “Trial of the (20th) Century” and what exactly that had to do with the curious practice of having women jump out of cakes. ⁠This is the story⁠ we discussed in the part we cut out at the end, which was in relation to a rather dark story Simon came across concerning soldiers/drinking, noting he had something “orders of magnitude” more disturbing than Nesbit’s youth, to which I apparently did not have a good enough imagination for, thinking that must be an exaggeration… It was not an exaggeration, and we ultimately decided to cut it out because of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the video today, we're looking at the rather disgusting ingredients of Worcestershire sauce and how it's made. Whether honey is vegan. How Cereal became part of a complete breakfast. What started the cops eating doughnuts stereotype. Who invented the Food Pyramid. How Napoleon helped invent margarine. Why asian nations use chopsticks. The difference between brown and white eggs. How people used to use frogs to keep milk from spoiling. The corrupt individual that gave us Monterey jack cheese. And finally the cornell professor who gave the world the chicken nugget. 00:00 What is in Worcestershire Sauce and Why is It Called That? 04:44 Is Honey Vegan? 09:45 How Did Cereal Become “Part of a Complete Breakfast”? 23:43 What Started the “Cops Eating Doughnuts” Stereotype 27:01 Who Invented the Food Pyramid? 36:20 Napoleon and the Invention of Margarine 42:30 Why Do Asian Nations Use Chopsticks? 45:50 The Difference Between Brown and White Eggs 51:07 Frogs and Milk- How to Keep Milk from Spoiling Without Refrigeration 53:50 The Corrupt and Ruthless Californian Who Gave us the Name for “Monterey Jack” Cheese 01:01:31 The Cornell Professor Who Gave Us the Chicken Nugget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday. But you all undoubtedly know a lot about that already. What you might not know is that the popular public version of that diary has been greatly censored because, as young teens are wont to do, Anne talked about her nether regions and sex- a lot. In fact, the version of Anne Frank’s diary many of you are likely familiar with, depending on the publisher, has had upwards of 30% of the original content removed. While sometimes this is done to streamline Frank’s prose, most of the time the edits were made to avoid offending people with more conservative sensibilities. For example, entire pages of Frank’s original diary were filled with detailed descriptions of the changes... Author: Karl Smallwood Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pushing daisies. Kicked the bucket. Bought the farm. Six feet under. Crossed over. Passed away. Shuffled off this mortal coil. It is said that the more important - or taboo - a concept is to a society, the more euphemisms that society will have for it, and death is no exception. Death is central to the human experience, with every culture on earth having developed elaborate rituals to mourn the deceased and help them go gentle into that good night. But…what is death, anyway? How is it actually defined? Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Wallace was one of those to lead Scotland’s battle for freedom from England after King Edward I of England declared himself Lord Paramount of Scotland in the late 13th century. Wallace was finally caught on August 5, 1305, and brought to London for trial and execution. From the 15th century minstrel “Blind Harry” to modern times with the blockbuster film “Braveheart” (both accounts being wildly inaccurate), William Wallace’s acts to try to free Scotland have captivated people for centuries. Born in Scotland around 1270, Wallace was from a family of minor Scottish nobility. During his formative and early adult years, Scotland was ruled by King Alexander III and the country enjoyed an era of peace and stability. However, the King died suddenly in 1286, leaving a four-year-old granddaughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway, as heir to the throne. (She would ultimately be engaged to King Edward I of England’s son.) However... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever wonder what the difference between dynamite and TNT is or how they were invented? Well, wonder no more! Despite what the likes of AC/DC and Wile E. Coyote might have you believe, dynamite and TNT are very different substances with distinct properties. So what’s the difference between TNT and Dynamite? And just who invented them? Well, let’s find out as we dive into the fascinating and destructive history of these high explosives, and along the way in the Bonus Facts we’re also going to look at the truth about why there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics, which is likely to be different from what seemingly every mathematics professor the world over will tell you because, well, they are mathematicians, not historians. But to begin with, for much of modern human history, the only practical explosive available was black gunpowder, a mixture of charcoal, sulphur, and potassium nitrate AKA saltpetre. As covered in our previous video Who Invented Gunpowder, this mixture was likely discovered in China around the 9th Century C.E, making its way west across the Middle East to Europe by the 13th. Initially used in fireworks, it did not take long for gunpowder to find military uses, leading to the development of artillery and handheld firearms. It was also packed into various closed casings to produce explosive charges such as hand grenades, buried mines for breaching the walls and doors of fortifications, ‘torpedoes’ for defending harbours against ships, and shells and bombs for cannons and mortars. But while gunpowder completely changed the face of warfare, quickly rendering - for example - castles and plate armour obsolete, it also suffered from several serious drawbacks. For example, burning gunpowder produced large quantities of thick, white smoke... Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at what exactly grog is, where it came from, and the origin of the name. Moving on to the main content today we’re looking at the woman who was arguably the most successful pirate of all time, dominating both land and sea in the vast region she controlled, which all ultimately saw her have one of the most impressive exits to piracy in history as well. We follow all this up with looking at the origins of a variety of sailor/pirate slang terms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the episode today, we are looking at whether professional wine connoisseurs can tell really not tell the difference between expensive and cheap wines. How Alcohol “Proof” is Determined. Do Drunk People Really Survive Car Crashes More? Why Would You Add Antifreeze to Wine? Do Wine Makers Really Walk Over Grapes With Their Feet? Does Canadian Beer Really Contain More Alcohol Than Beer Made in the United States? How Did Oktoberfest Start? Why Isn’t Beer Sold in Plastic Bottles? Who Invented Tequila and What about the Worm? A Brief History of Beer. The interesting story behind Welch’s Grape Juice, and what Eggnog is Made Of 0:00 Can Professional Wine Connoisseurs Really Not Tell the Difference Between Expensive and Cheap Wines? 17:26 How Alcohol “Proof” is Determined 21:00 Do Drunk People Really Survive Car Crashes More? 32:10 Why Would You Add Antifreeze to Wine? 46:15 Do Wine Makers Really Walk Over Grapes With Their Feet? 51:10 Does Canadian Beer Really Contain More Alcohol Than Beer Made in the United States? 55:12 How Did Oktoberfest Start? 1:03:55 Why Isn’t Beer Sold in Plastic Bottles? 1:08:30 Who Invented Tequila and What about the Worm? 1:13:30 What is Eggnog Made Of? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Thermonuclear weapons are messy. Capable of wiping out millions of humans in one go if detonated in a large city, but unfortunately they also destroy the city the people dwell in, making it a poor choice for a weapon for the up and coming conqueror who wishes the humans gone, but infrastructure still intact. This all brings us to the topic of today, so called enhanced radiation weapons, a special type of atomic bomb which releases a large portion of its energy in the form of neutron radiation. If pop culture is to be believed, this is one of the most insidious weapons ever developed by mankind, capable of killing all the people in a city while leaving all the buildings and other infrastructure untouched. Indeed, the weapon’s purported preference for property over human lives has led commentators in communist countries to pithily describe it as the “capitalist bomb.” But are neutron bombs actually a real thing as often depicted in entertainment - and, if so, are they really as “clean” and “surgical” as everyone seems to believe? Well, grab your welding goggles, lead underwear, don your cowboy hat and prepare to yee-haw, as we dive into the curious science and history of one of the world's most controversial weapons. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did Al Gore lose despite winning more votes? Discover the complex and controversial role of the U.S. Electoral College and how it determines the nation's president in this deep dive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at what literal battleships had to do with the creation of the Slinky. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show looking at what is largely considered the greatest of the so-called Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and then look at the guy who burned it down just so history would remember him, as well as what steps the ancients took to try to stop him from achieving that goal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the episode today, we're looking at Does Hand and Foot Size Really Correlate with Penile Length? Why Can’t You Mix Blood Types? Is It True Women Retain the DNA of Every Man They’ve Ever Slept With in Their Bodies? Do Beards Really Grow Faster in the Winter? The Mad Aussie Who Stung Himself and His 9 Year Old Son With a Deadly Creature FOR SCIENCE!!! Can You Really Make Yourself Immune to Poison by Taking Tiny Doses Over Time? Why Do Steroids Make Balls Smaller and Does the Same Thing Happen to Women’s Ovaries? Do People Really Have Repressed Memories or Is It Just Things They’ve Forgotten Are Viruses Actually Alive? and Is It Actually Possible to Be Allergic to Exercise? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Department of Defense apparently has a plan in place in case of a zombie apocalypse. So what is it and why did they make it? “Although it sounds ridiculous, this is actually the only proven class of zombie that actually exists.” - This is a quote from an official government document about zombie chickens, which are totally a thing. More on this later. But to begin with, while zombie fiction is certainly not as popular as it once was in the early 2000s, for a number of reasons up to and presumably including that we all now can’t be bothered to break out of our zombie like trance scrolling social media, the idea of the dead springing back to life and continuing to roam the Earth is still an admittedly very intriguing idea to explore. Which is why our staff here have developed a very well defined plan for what we’d do in the event of a theoretical zombie apocalypse, ensuring we come out the other side not only alive and un-zombified, but using our now decades of time doing nothing but learning all manner of things to help us rule the earth with an iron fist. For anybody out there who doesn’t happen to have a plan in place for when the dead rise from their graves and spread across the land like a plague of meat-hungry locusts the U.S. Government has got you covered. Author: Karl Smallwood Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila 0:00 Intro 3:18 The Official U.S. Counter Zombie Dominance Plan 6:00 So What Did They Come Up With? 9:00 Zombie Types and Approach 14:15 Dealing with Zombie Tropes in Real Life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover the dark history of unethical dental experiments on vulnerable patients at Vipeholm Mental Hospital. Uncover the shocking secrets behind Sweden’s quest to solve the mystery of dental cavities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather interesting fact about Pulp Fiction and Samuel L Jackson’s character’s most famous lines in the film. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show looking at the surprisingly old first computer and the truth about who really was the first computer programmer. (Note: Not Ada Lovelace, contrary to popular belief.) Next we jump into a variety of bonus facts including looking at why C is the default hard drive letter on most computers, touch on what this had to do with some rather interesting stuff regarding Microsoft’s early days,  the correct way to pronounce “wiki” as in “wikipedia”, what Cunningham’s Law has to do with that, the interesting origin of Tetris, how spam came to mean junk message, and much, much more! And if you’re interested, here’s the video on ⁠Yankee Doodle Dandy we mentioned⁠. On another note, if you could do us a huge favor and rate and review this show in whatever podcasting platform you’re using (including hopefully giving us some feedback related to the new format), we would be extremely grateful. Thanks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the episode today, we're looking at what being shot actually feels like, the NRS-2- The Gun Knife, How Silencers Work, and How Silent Do They Actually Make Guns? The CIA’s Undetectable Poison Dart Gun Can Shooting Plastic Explosive Really Set Them Off? That Time an English Dude Invented a Gun that Fired Square Bullets, and the Waterfowl’s Nightmare. The Ridiculously Oversized Punt Gun. The Pivotal WWII Gun That Nobody Wanted to Put Down- The “Plumber’s Nightmare”. That Time the U.S. Made a Nuclear Gun, and That Time the Nazis Nearly Completed a Super-Cannon Capable of Hitting London from France Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Explore the life behind *The English Patient*: meet László Almásy—a Hungarian aristocrat, desert explorer, and WWII spy. From daring expeditions to espionage, uncover the real story that inspired the novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was the winter of 1957, and Charles Tanny was in agony. A bad dental filling had triggered a severe case of trigeminal neuralgia (tri-gem-in-al), leaving the 42-year-old snowblower salesman and father of three with crippling facial pain which no doctor seemed able to relieve. Suspecting the problem might be psychological, doctors eventually referred Tanny to the Allen Memorial Institute, a stately former mansion and psychiatric research centre on the slopes of Montreal’s Mount Royal. His family hoped the institute would finally be able to ease his pain, allowing him to resume his life. But when Charles Tanny emerged three months later, they hardly recognized him. Once a warm, loving father and husband who doted on his wife and children, Tanny was now cold, distant, irritable, and often violent. Stranger still, he seemed to have forgotten nearly every aspect of his life, having no memory of his business and barely remembering his family members. As his daughter Julie - then only four years old - later recalled: “He was like a shell of what he was before. He was just a completely different person.” Unknown to his loved ones, Charles Tanny had been subjected to a series of bizarre medical procedures aimed at erasing, reprogramming, and ultimately controlling the human mind. Born of Cold War paranoia, these experiments, devised and conducted by an ambitious, but misguided, Canadian psychiatrist and secretly funded by the CIA, shattered the minds and lives of hundreds of unwitting patients and their family, leaving a legacy of pain and outrage that resonates to this day. This is the horrifying forgotten story of Dr. Ewen Cameron and the Montreal Experiments. Author: Gilles Messier Producer: Samuel Avila Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey 0:00 Intro 3:03 The Man Behind the Awful 6:38 Ideas from Nuremberg 9:58 Disturbing Psychic Driving 13:14 The CIA Seeks Mind Control 16:53 Even More Disturbing Depatterning 21:20 Combining the Awful 25:20 The Aftermath- Were There Any Consequences? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neil Armstrong will likely be remembered by humans as long as there are humans to remember. The first man to set foot on the moon. His first words will likewise reverberate throughout history... But what was the second thing he said on the moon. And how did Neil Armstrong die? This is the story of one of the greatest astronauts in history. Authors: Melissa Blevins, Daven Hiskey, Matt Blitz. Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a the absolutely bizarre way bedbugs mate. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show on who invented the Internet and how it works. We also look at who invented email and the web, and what Al Gore had to do with all this. On another note, if you could do us a huge favor and rate and review this show in whatever podcasting platform you’re using (including hopefully giving us some feedback related to the new format), we would be extremely grateful. Thanks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's compilation, we're looking at a series of "What Happens When" topics including What Happens If Parents Don’t Give Their Baby a Name? What Happens to the Bodies if a Cryogenic Company Goes Bankrupt? What Happened to Dead Bodies After Big Battles Throughout History? What Happens to Your Stuff When You Get Sent to Prison for Life? What Happens when You Ask a Surgeon For Your Amputated Limb Back? What Happens When You Donate Your Body to Science and How Do You Do This? What Happens if you Renounce Your Citizenship But Don’t Belong to Another Country When You Do It? What Happens if You Leave Your House to a Pet in Your Will? What Happens When You Freeze Water in a Container So Strong the Water Can’t Expand Into Ice? What Happens to Your Stuff When You're Declared Dead, Then Turn Up Alive like a Certain Shire Hobbit? And finally What Happens if You Commit a Crime in Space? 0:00 What Happens If Parents Don’t Give Their Baby a Name? 15:29 What Happens to the Bodies if a Cryogenic Company Goes Bankrupt? 28:25 What Happened to Dead Bodies After Big Battles Throughout History? 38:38 What Happens to Your Stuff When You Get Sent to Prison for Life? 49:30 What Happens when You Ask a Surgeon For Your Amputated Limb Back? 1:00:16 What Happens When You Donate Your Body to Science and How Do You Do This? 1:17:29 What Happens if you Renounce Your Citizenship But Don’t Belong to Another Country When You Do It? 1:30:45 What Happens if You Leave Your House to a Pet in Your Will? 1:40:54 What Happens When You Freeze Water in a Container So Strong the Water Can’t Expand Into Ice? 1:45:44 What Happens to Your Stuff When You're Declared Dead, Then Turn Up Alive like a Certain Shire Hobbit? 2:01:13 What Happens if You Commit a Crime in Space? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He is one of the most famous serial killers of all time, but who actually was Jack the Ripper and what actually happened during his reign of terror. Just before 4 am on August 31, 1888, on London’s seedy Buck’s Row, a cart driver named Charles Cross saw the body of a woman lying on the ground. In the early morning gloom, it was initially impossible to tell if she was drunk or dead. Cross was soon joined by another carter, Robert Paul. The two men saw the woman’s skirts were pulled above her waist. They smoothed them back over her knees and went searching for a policeman. What the two carters didn’t notice in the shifting shadows was the woman’s throat had been cut so brutally that her head had almost been decapitated. Beat officer John Neil discovered that gruesome fact on closer inspection of the body. (He later testified at the inquest that when he had passed that way just 30 minutes earlier, “there was not a soul about.”) P.C. Neil sent another colleague to fetch a local medic and soon Dr. Rees Ralph Llewellyn arrived on the scene. He quickly examined the body and found that the arms and legs were still warm. Llewellyn believed the woman had been dead for less than 30 minutes. Her killer may have still been lurking nearby when Cross and Paul came upon the body.... Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everlong. Learn to Fly. Best of You. All My Life. The Pretender. These are but a few of the top-charting songs by American rock band The Foo Fighters, founded in 1994 by legendary former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. But what actually is a Foo Fighter? Well, it turns out the band’s name is not just merely a random string of nonsense words, but rather refers to strange phenomenon observed by pilots over Europe and the Pacific during the Second World War, one of a string of such weird occurrences throughout history through today that have caused some to point to the classic explanation when anything weird appears in the sky- aliens. But what’s actually going on here? Well, today we’ll be looking at everything from tales of ancient aliens, to what actually were the Foo Fighters of WWII and where the name came from, to that time the U.S. Military finally buckled down to take a deep look into it all to see if the Earth was in any danger from extraterrestrials, and what they determined, as well as why we are all pronouncing UFO wrong, and how the coiner of the term explicitly stated it should be said. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Daven Hiskey 0:00 Intro 2:37 Ancient Aliens? 10:44 The 19th Century UFO Craze 15:20 WWI UFO Encounters 16:57 WWII's Mysterious Foo Fighters 27:10 Why are They Called Foo Fighters? 30:30 What Were Foo Fighters? 40:14 The U.S. Military Gets Serious About the Search for Aliens 43:26 What the Military Discovered About UFOs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glenn Miller was on the top of his game in 1944. He led the most popular recording group in the world. His only rival for king of Big Band music was the great Benny Goodman. During World War II, 40-year-old Miller was serving as a major in the United States Army Air Force while performing for the troops. On December 15, 1944, he boarded a small plane for the short flight across the English Channel to do a show in Paris for American troops that had just helped liberate France. Miller and the two other men on the aircraft never made it to their destination. No trace of the wreckage or any of the passengers was ever found, and Glenn Miller is still listed as missing in action. Of course, as with any accidental celebrity death, speculation about the circumstances began almost immediately... Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a quick fact surrounding what Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Genesis had to do with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. After the sponsor spot, we then jump into the main part of the show on how the QWERTY keyboard came to be. We also dig into whether the Dvorak keyboard layout is actually superior to QWERTY or if that’s just something people say. Next up we look at who really invented the mouse and how it languished in obscurity for quite some time before Steve Jobs came along. A few links for this episode: ⁠The Mother of All Demos (1968)⁠ ⁠Remington #2⁠ ⁠Canadian First Mouse⁠ ⁠First Handheld Mouse⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's compilation episode, we're covering a myriad of Whys, from Why the United States doesn't use the metric system, why fingernails on chalkboards make us cringe, why we have moles on our bodies, why doesn't the heart get tired like other muscles, and much, much more. 0:00 Why Doesn’t the United States Use the Metric System? 20:55 Why Does the Sound of Fingernails on a Chalkboard or Scraping a Plate Make Us Cringe? 35:09 Why Do We Have Moles All Over Our Bodies and What Do They Do? 42:55 Why Doesn’t the Heart Get Tired and Need to Rest Like Other Muscles? 54:25 Why Do Some People Think the Human Soul Weighs 21 Grams? 1:06:14 Why Do the Eyes in Some Paintings Follow You Around the Room? 1:11:17 Why Does Soda Taste Significantly Better When Carbonated vs. Flat? 1:14:01 Why Do We Get Allergies? 1:27:33 Why You Sometimes Get a Lump in the Back of Your Throat When Sad and Why We Cry 1:32:44 Why Coffee Makes You Poop 1:40:14 Why Can’t People Smell Themselves? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we think of the most influential books in history, we often think of books that have a wide readership. Something that if not most literate people read, surely, many of the elite did. But it turns out, some of the most influential books in ancient history were only read by, quite literally, a handful of people. You see, Rome had a set of holy books, divinely revealed to a mysterious prophetess, that were kept under lock and key by a college of Roman priests never numbering more than 15 at a time. These books were only read by this select few, and were used by the Roman Senate to help decide all manner of things important to the management of Rome. This is the story of the mysterious Sibylline Books, the books not even the Roman senate were allowed to read. The Sibylline Books were three volumes of Greek hexameter poems, the same meter used in the Greek epics of Homer. We don’t actually know where the Sibylline Books came from other than the Romans' own mythology about them. The story goes that the last of Rome’s seven kings, Tarquinius Superbus who died in 495 BCE, was approached by an old woman with nine books written in Greek that told Rome’s future. She offered these books at an exorbitant price, so Tarquinius refused. The old woman then burned three of the books and offered the remaining books at the same price. Tarquinius, who is portrayed as arrogant in Roman literature, refused her a second time. The old woman burned three more books and offered the remaining three at again the same price. It was at this point that Tarquinius approached his priests to figure out if any of this was a sign from the gods. The priests advised him to buy the remaining books at whatever price the old woman named. Upon purchasing the books from the woman, she disappeared, never to be seen again. The name Sibylline refers to the woman in question, as she is thought of as a Sibyl, or a prophetess in the Greek tradition. Author: Yehia Amen Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1990 sci-fi comedy sequel Back to the Future Part III, intrepid time travelling late 20th century duo Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown find themselves trapped in Hill Valley, California, back in the year 1885. With their DeLorean time machine out of gas and it being, well, 1885, Doc and Marty are forced to take creative measures to accelerate their ride up to the required 88 miles per hour and get back to the future. Doc Brown’s solution for this? An elaborate plan involving hijacking a moving train, pushing its boiler to the absolute limit and beyond of its structural capabilities as it careened towards a ravine, and then if it happened to all go well, the car would get up to 88 mph, thereby sending it back to the future. If not, well… the pair’s futures would officially be something neither would ever need to worry about again after they plummeted to their deaths. But while this certainly makes for an awesome climax to one of the greatest trilogies of all time, 1885 was not that far removed from the age of the automobile; indeed, that very same year German inventor Karl Benz unveiled his Patent Motorwagen, widely considered history’s first practical, mass-produced car. Or, at least the Model 3 version was when 3 years later his wife Bertha Benz snuck out of the house before her husband got up, stole the car, and took the world’s first road trip- all to save her husband’s company, and rid him of his incessant self doubt. Along the way, she even invented the world’s first brake pad, among other tweaks she came up with along the way that were needed to improve the design for long distance travel. Much more on the genuinely incredible story of the world’s first road trip and the extreme gumption and ingenuity of Bertha Benz in the Bonus Facts later. But back to Doc Brown- surely a man of his intellect and resourcefulness, a self proclaimed “student of all sciences” to the extent that when recruited to the Manhattan Project, the General who did so questioned why Doc Brown had a book on needlepoint, to which Doc replied he didn’t like to dismiss anything, as any bit of knowledge could lead to a breakthrough… sure this man of all men could simply have made his own gasoline and gotten back to 1985 the regular way… right? Well, put on your life preserver and crank up the Power of Love as we go Back to the…origins of the petroleum industry, the first usable gas for automobiles, and figure out whether doc brown should have been able to figure all this one out in the few days he had to work with. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Daven Hiskey 0:00 Intro 4:10 Origins of the Petroleum Industry 8:38 A World Changing Breakthrough 12:08 The Fuel Doc Brown Had Access to in 1885 Hill Valley 13:17 The Octane Issue 15:19 Could Doc Brown Have Solved the Octane Issue? 20:37 The Easiest Octane Solution of All 22:30 Summing Up Whether Doc Brown Could Have Just Made Usable Gasoline 23:41 The OG Car and the First Road Trip That Saved It Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Harini Bhat is a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell us something. Hidden History doesn't dismiss ancient events as myth or superstition. It treats them as open case files, shaped by the limits of knowledge, technology, and record-keeping. Because the unknown isn't a failure of explanation. It's a constant in human experience, one that evolves, repeats, and sometimes deepens the more we learn. Follow Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhat now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube @hiddenhistorypod. Listen here:  https://pod.link/1895066656 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices