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All Episodes

The BrainFood Show — 250 episodes

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Title
1

The Surprisingly Heartwarming Ending to That Time Japan Invaded the United States' Mainland

2

The Incredible Worst Gun of WWII

3

The Lamentable Laugh Track and Who Invented It

4

The Gruesome Tale of Burke and Hare

5

How the Swiss Stayed Neutral, the Near Disaster Surrender Flight, and More (Stories of WWII Part 4)

6

Who Invented the Ouija Board, and How Does it Work?

7

Introducing: No Such Thing

8

What is the Real Best Way to Survive a Nuclear Blast?

9

What's REALLY Going on With Toast Always Landing Buttered Side Down?

10

The Weapons of World War 2 (Part 2)

11

Tesla vs Edison- Debunking the Myth of the War of the Currents

12

What was Being a Ninja Really Like

13

The Stories of WWII (Part 2)

14

The Truth About Land Mines

15

The Real Life Expendables

16

The Truth About Thomas Edison's Adulthood and Inventions

17

Is Nuclear Winter Actually a Possibility or Just Pseudoscience?

18

The Stories of WWII

19

The Quest for the Recoilless Gun

20

Creating the Terminator

21

The Truth About the Incredible Childhood of Thomas Edison

22

The Actual Most Painful Sting and How Did They Figure That Out?

23

What was It Actually Like to be a Gladiator, History's Literal Deadliest Fart Killing 1000s, & More

24

The Rock WWII Turned On

25

Billionaire Build a Car- The Insane Car Brand Where Every One is Literally One of a Kind

26

The Truth About Tesla's "Inventions" (Daven and Gilles)

27

The Incredible Soviet Probe Space Heist

28

Does Absinthe Really Make You Hallucinate, The Wine Lover's Meltdown, Inventing Bloody Mary & More

29

The Dark Origins of the Treadmill and Why Oscar Wild was the Worst

30

What Really Causes Spontaneous Human Combustion?

31

How Ancient Romans Made Perfectly Straight & Durable Roads, Concrete Better Than Ours, & Much More

32

Was Keelhauling Actually a Thing?

33

Conspiracy: The Stories Behind Flat Earth, All Seeing Eye, Little Green Men Fake Moon Landing & More

34

Is It Really Possible for a Nuke to Ignite the Atmosphere?

35

The Weapons of WWII

36

The Most Bizarre Substance Known to Science and What It Can Do

37

How the Hell Did Winston Churchill Lose the Election Right After Defeating Germany?

38

The Real Color of the Sun, How Many Nuclear Bomb Powered Rockets It Would Take to Stop the Earth Orbiting the Sun and Much, Much More

39

The Most Badass U.S. President and His Many Insane Exploits

40

WTF is Up with the McDonald's McRib?

41

Are the Odds of Successfully Navigating an Asteroid Field Really Approximately 3,720 to 1?

42

Why Don't Plane Windows and Seats Line Up?

43

What was It Really Like to Be a Gladiator?

44

WTF is Up with Breathable Liquids?

45

The U.S. Plan to Nuke the Moon, Why People Thought the Moon was Made of Cheese and Much More

46

The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time

47

Murphy’s Law in Action

48

How to Scratch an Itch in Space, the Surprisingly Long Time You Can Survive in Space Without a Spacesuit, Why the Apollo 13 Astronauts Got Cold, and Much, Much More

49

The Incredible Black Arrow Rocket

50

The Junior High Dropout That Created Dunkin' Donuts

51

Inventing Color in a World That was Black and White

52

How Astronauts Go to the Bathroom in Space and How Women Can Safely Pee Standing Up

53

How They Ruined Superhero Movies

54

Britain's Most Disastrous "White Elephant" Airliner

55

Real Life Space DJs and the Pillownaughts

56

Making Children Cry for Fun and Profit

57

WTF is Up with the Bermuda Triangle?

58

The Forgotten Gun That Changed Everything

59

Who Invented the Egg McMuffin?

60

The Very Real Bear Soldier Who Fought in WWII

61

The Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz

62

The Incredible Biology of Sickle Cell

63

The First Road Trip Part 2: In Which We Discuss All Things Tangentially Related

64

The First Road Trip Part 1: The Gumption of Bertha Benz

65

The Greatest Feat of Piloting in Space

66

Swept Under the Rug: The Truth About the Japanese Holocaust

67

That Time Ben Franklin and John Adams Slept Together and the Hilarity That Ensued

68

Could the Tyrannosaurus Rex Really Not See You If You Didn’t Move?

69

Caesar Part 4: In Which We Discuss All Things Tangentially Related

70

The Incredible Story of U-47 and “The Bull of Scapa Flow”

71

The Nazi Kamikaze Squadron

72

The 1990s were Weird

73

Caesar Part 3: The Real Story of the Ides of March

74

Caesar Part 2: Julius Caesar’s Pirate Adventure and the Long Lost Location of the Rubicon

75

Who Started the Lizard People Conspiracy Theory?

76

Who Started the Flat Earth Conspiracy Theory, How Many Believe This, and What Do They Believe?

77

How Did the Trump Family First Make Their Fortune?

78

Caesar Part 1: Caesarean and the Fascinating Story of Dr. James Barry (a.k.a. Margaret Bulkley)

79

The Bull Moose (Part 2)

80

Legendary Legends: The Greatest Adventurer and the Voyage of the Nautilus

81

The Bonkers Atomic Car with 5,000 Miles Range

82

The Nukes of the North- Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

83

The Bull Moose (Part 1)

84

The Many Ways Studios Try to Get You to Watch More Ads

85

Britain's Disastrous WWII Fighter Plane

86

Accidentally Nuking a Country

87

Why Do You Forget Everything When You Enter a New Room?

88

Incredible Engineering- The Man Who Froze Time

89

The Hilarious Christmas Riot

90

A Perilous Journey- John Adams Goes to France

91

The Crapper, The Poop Log, the Parasitic Poop Twigs, and Much, Much More

92

What Really Happened After the Mutiny on the Bounty?

93

The Truth About the 12 Days of Christmas

94

The Lord of Misrule and the First Book Banned in America

95

Are Poinsettias Poisonous and the Truce

96

The Amazing Story Behind The Christmas Carol

97

The Incredible Flame Thrower Packing Insect

98

Fires of Industry, Witchcraft, and the First Spark of the Revolution

99

Denazification and the Unsolved High Tech Murder That Reshaped Post-Cold War Europe

100

How Do Spy Agencies Actually Recruit Spies in Real Life?

101

The Kids Who Led the Resistance Movements Against the Nazis

102

How Did People in Medieval Times Actually Siege a Castle in Reality

103

How Much Did Top Gun: Maverick Cost the U.S. Taxpayer?

104

What Did the German Public Know About the Holocaust During WWII?

105

Who Invented Nachos and the Potato Chip? Is the Green Part of the Potato Bad for You? And Much, Much More

106

WTF are Smelling Salts?

107

The Time a King Let the Leader of a Cult Become King to See if the World Would End

108

Crazy Cool Science- What Causes This Sand to Sing?

109

Who Started the SS and How Did They Rise from a Handful of Men to Such Extreme Power?

110

Who Invented the Band-Aid?

111

The Crazy Carnival Ride Soviet Turntable Procedure That Gave Us the First Corrective Eye Surgery

112

Forgotten Hero- The Other Oskar Schindler

113

Who Were the Real Life "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” and What Did they Actually Do?

114

Rebuilding Civilization, America's Most Mysterious Monument, and Blowing It Up

115

The Horrifying World of Mind-Control Creatures

116

Hollywood vs Reality: What Actually Happened During Apollo 13?

117

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire: The Extraordinary Saga of the Unsinkable Nevada

118

The Great Vibrator Myth

119

WTF is Up with the Swastika?

120

The Insane Engineering of Atmospheric Diving Suits

121

What Did the British Royals Get Up to During WWII?

122

What Did the British Royals Get Up to During WWI?

123

Hitler’s “Ideal Aryans” Who Were Actually Jewish Ad Campaign

124

How NASA Learned to Land on the Moon

125

What's Up with Space Food?

126

What is Up with the Van Allen Belts and How Did Astronauts Survive Flying Through Them?

127

What was Hitler Like as a Child? And was His Grandfather Really Jewish?

128

The Twisting, Turning Tale of the Invention of Dr Pepper

129

So What Happens Exactly When Someone Wins the Lottery?

130

The Weird, Wacky, and Hilarious World of Animal Mating

131

The Forgotten First Major Public Nuclear Disaster

132

How Does Darth Vader Poop?

133

One of the Most Disastrous Naval Experiements of All Time

134

How Did the Crusades Actually Work?

135

The Secretary: Great Expectations

136

When is the Optimal School Start Time?

137

Hitler's Many Women and Their Often Unfortunate Ends

138

The Secretary- Training for Greatness

139

That Time the USA Tried to Make Hippo Farming a Thing

140

The Fascinating Saga of History’s Largest Diamond

141

ENOUGH! The First Astronaut Strike In Space... Allegedly

142

The Incredible Real Life Cold War Bond Villain Ice Lair

143

32 Seconds from Detonation- That Time the U.S. Almost Accidentally Nuked North Carolina... 3 Times

144

Nikola Tesla's Rather Peculiar Childhood and Oddities (Daven & Gilles)

145

The Incredible Tale of Inventing Walmart

146

Why Did Japan Join the Nazis? (Given, You Know, the Nazis Explicitly Hated Non-Aryans)

147

Why Wasn't There an Italian "Nuremberg / Tokyo War Crimes" Trial After WWII?

148

How Did the SR-71 Blackbird Get Made and How was It So Fast?

149

WTF is Up with Embalming and Displaying Communists?

150

What's the Deal With Presidential Libraries?

151

The Twisting, Turning Road That Gave Us the Microwave Oven

152

A Guide to Building the Pyramids- How Did They Do It?

153

How Did the Wright Brothers Win the Race Into the Air?

154

From 0 to 1000 to 0- What Happened to Howard Johnson's?

155

How Did Christianity Go From a Tiny Jewish Cult to Rule the Western World So Quickly?

156

The Marxist Mummies- The Weird Practice of Mummiffying Communists

157

What's the Difference Between Hardwood and Softwood? (I swear this is more interesting than it sounds :-))

158

WTF is Vegemite?

159

Hancock's Revolution- Birthing the United States

160

How Do We Actually Know We Landed on the Moon?

161

Heinz 57, The Lord of the Pumps, and a Tasty, Tasty Dunkin' Empire

162

The True Story of the Amistad

163

How Vladimir Putin Came to Power (And How He Has Held on to it for So Long)

164

Does Any Government Have a Plan if Aliens Invade the Earth?

165

An Ultra Deep Dive Into How to Get the Best Possible Sleep According to Science and Why It's Literally Killing You When You Don't

166

What was it Really Like to Be a Lighthouse Keeper?

167

The Mysterious Death of Yuri Gagarin

168

How Government Works, When Does the U.S. Government Debt Become Unsustainable, And Much More

169

What's So Special About McDonald's Fries?

170

What's It Actually Like to Be an Amish Person?

171

Who was the Most Prolific Serial Killer of All Time?

172

That Time the Postal Service Tried Sending Mail Via Missile

173

Lies! The Truth About the Tesla vs Edison Feud

174

Is There Any Hard Evidence That Jesus Actually Existed?

175

That Time the U.S. Tried to Build a Massive Military Base on the Moon

176

Common Things Different in Europe vs. the United States

177

The Fascinating Origins of Everyday Things (Part 4)

178

Medieval Times [Part 5]

179

Medieval Times [Part 4]

180

Medieval Times [Part 3]

181

Medieval Times [Part 2]

182

Medieval Times [Part 1]

183

Making Diamonds

184

What We’ve Learned This Month

185

For the Love of the Word Nerds… (And Their Rather Unfortunate Nazi Brethren)

186

The Difference Between… [Part 2]

187

The Difference Between… [Part 1]

188

The Absolutely Badass First Female U.S. Presidential Candidate

189

It’s a Wonderful Life [Part 2]

190

It’s a Wonderful Life [Part 1]

191

The Fascinating Origins of Everyday Foods (Part 1)

192

The Fascinating Origins of Everyday Things (Part 3)

193

The Fascinating Origins of Everyday Things (Part 2)

194

The Fascinating Origins of Everyday Things (Part 1)

195

The Greatest Practical Joke and the Last Laugh

196

Lord Minimus- The Renaissance Dueling Dwarf

197

That Time a Major Studio Intentionally Made a Crappy “Fantastic Four” Movie and Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the Outside

198

Why Do Some Countries Have People Drive on the Left and Others on the Right? (+Contest Winners)

199

Forgotten History Part 2: The First Film and the Murder That Nearly Killed It

200

The Forgotten Plague- DANCE MANIA!!!

201

How Porcupines Mate, the Bizarre Sex Habits of Giraffes (and Much, Much More)

202

Twice Executed

203

Taking the Mystery Out of Murder- A Couple of Dumbbells

204

How Everyone Plays Monopoly Wrong Which Makes It Worse, Where the Game Pieces Came From, Who Really Invented It and Much More

205

Animal Facts Part 3: A Doughnut Brain, Dung and the Milky Way, Ant Overlords and More

206

Animal Facts Part 2: Melting Caterpillars, Heating Bees, Why Vultures Don’t Get Sick, and More

207

Animal Facts Part 1: The Blowhole, Cow Tipping and Much, Much More

208

A Disturbing Tale and the “Trial of the Century” That Led to Women Jumping Out of Cakes

209

The Woman Who was the Most Successful Pirate of All Time

210

A Christmas Gift and a Riot

211

Christmas Traditions- The Crapper, The Poop Log, the Parasitic Poop Twigs, and Much, Much More

212

12 Days

213

The Truce

214

The Sledgehammer for the Poor Man’s Child

215

The Remarkable Sarah Hale

216

Tech History Part 3: FIRST!!! + Many, Many Bonus Facts and Contest Winners

217

The Dude Who Burned Down the Greatest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Because of Reasons

218

Macabre Part 4: The Vampire of Cinkota and a Truly Horrific Love Story

219

Tech History Part 2: Who Invented the Internet, Email, and the Web?

220

Tech History Part 1: A QWERTY Story and Whether the Dvorak Layout is Actually Superior

221

Macabre Part 3: The Nightmare Nurse

222

Macabre Part 2: How Shrunken Heads Were Made

223

Macabre Part 1: The Gruesome Tale of Burke and Hare

224

The Final Final Frontier (Part 6): The Real Color of the Sun, How Many Nuclear Bomb Powered Rockets It Would Take to Stop the Earth Orbiting the Sun and Much, Much More

225

The Final Frontier Part 5: Are the Odds of Successfully Navigating an Asteroid Field Really Approximately 3,720 to 1?

226

The Final Frontier Part 4: The U.S. Plan to Nuke the Moon, Why People Thought the Moon was Made of Cheese and Much More

227

The Final Frontier Part 3: How to Scratch an Itch in Space, the Surprisingly Long Time You Can Survive in Space Without a Spacesuit, Why the Apollo 13 Astronauts Got Cold, and Much, Much More

228

The Final Frontier Part 2: How Astronauts Go to the Bathroom in Space and How Women Can Safely Pee Standing Up

229

The Final Frontier Part 1: Real Life Space DJs and the Pillownaughts

230

The War Bear

231

The Prisoner (+Contest Winners)

232

The First Road Trip Part 2: In Which We Discuss All Things Tangentially Related

233

The First Road Trip Part 1: The Gumption of Bertha Benz

234

Could the Tyrannosaurus Rex Really Not See You If You Didn’t Move?

235

Caesar Part 4: In Which We Discuss All Things Tangentially Related

236

Caesar Part 3: The Real Story of the Ides of March

237

Caesar Part 2: Julius Caesar’s Pirate Adventure and the Long Lost Location of the Rubicon

238

Caesar Part 1: Caesarean and the Fascinating Story of Dr. James Barry (a.k.a. Margaret Bulkley)

239

An Interview with Audio Production Guru Mike Russell

240

The Bull Moose Part 2

241

Growing a YouTube Channel

242

The Bull Moose Part 1

243

Stealing the Eiffel Tower

244

Writing and Researching Online- A Chat with Karl Smallwood

245

A Restaurant for a Beetle and $100 and a Bike- The Fascinating Stories Behind Four Famous Businesses

246

Enlightened Rigging of the Lottery + Wheezy Waiter (The BrainFood Show Episode 5)

247

The Fascinating Origin of Pong and Atari + Interview with the Creators of Quest for Glory and the Upcoming Hero-U (The BrainFood Show Episode 4)

248

The Preposterous Pyramid (The BrainFood Show Episode 3)

249

The White Feather (The BrainFood Show Episode 2)

250

The BrainFood Show Episode 1: Throwing Tomatoes