Momentary Experts

Simon and Craig discuss research on how the internet change human memory, attention spans, and dating habits.

Simon tells Craig about Polynesian navigation and why they were able to find islands thousands of miles apart while using canoes.

Craig explains what outsider art is to Simon and discusses the similarities between several examples.

Simon tells Craig why basic antiseptic practices failed to catch on with doctors for decades after they were first pioneered. They also discussed what surgery was like before the invention of anesthesia.

Craig takes Simon through 100 years of cinema and explains how contemporary anxieties shaped pop culture, from musicals in the 1930s to Westerns in the 1950s to quicksand deaths in the 1970s to YouTube thumbnails in the modern day.

Simon tells Craig about the birth of the cable industry and how HBO pioneered entire new forms of entertainment that had never before existed.

Craig tells Simon about the decline of "third places" and why this has made Americans more isolated, which led to all sorts of mayhem, from lower life expectancy to the embrace of right wing conspiracy theories.

Simon and Craig discuss all the movements that came together to pass Prohibition, including 1. The rise of Women's Suffrage 2. The rise of Jim Crow laws 3. Protestant pro-temperance movements 4. The passage of the income tax We also learn how rich people got around Prohibition laws and why it was eventually repealed. Finally, we talked about what effects from Prohibition we still see today.

Did you know that jello used to be extremely expensive? Or that the color purple used to be banned in Europe? Did you also know that the Greek Parthenon wasn't always white? And what do these things have to do with one another? Craig explains it all and then ties it to Marie Kondo and Target.