Gerry D. asks: Why do nats swarm in a ball in the air? A common sight in the spring and summer, the seemingly unprofitable and pointless habit of gnats to hover in a cloud is, in fact, the single most productive thing they’ll ever do with their short lives. Although there are a wide variety of non-biting, but eminently annoying, […]
Read more
Immobile and silent, those who suffer from the severest forms of akinetic mutism either lack the ability or the will to move or to speak. Caused by any of a number of conditions, diseases and injuries, under certain circumstances the disorder can be treated. One of the most remarkable stories of recovery from this devastating condition happened in 1941, when […]
Read more
On December 22, 1849, members of a Russian intellectual literary group known as the Petrashevsky Circle were sent to Semyonov Square to meet their fate – death by firing squad. With the men pointing their rifles and fingers resting on the trigger, a messenger from the Tsar rode into the square waving a white flag. Like something out of a […]
Read more
This Day In History: February 25, 1601 On February 25, 1601, the last great favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, the 2nd Earl of Essex Robert Devereux, was beheaded at the Tower of London on Tower Green for high treason. His inevitable trip to the block had been brewing for quite some time. Queen Elizabeth first met the tall, handsome and […]
Read more
In this episode, you’re going to learn the origin of the idea that the Moon is made of cheese. You’re also going to learn a boatload of fascinating facts related to the Moon and why a 72 year old Buzz Aldrin punched Bart Sibrel in the face in 2002. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes […]
Read more
In March of 2008, the world lost one of the most fearless soldiers to have served during WWII; a man who single-handedly cleared five heavily fortified positions with nothing more than a knife, a few grenades, a rock, and a complete disregard for the bullets flying around him the whole time. This is the story of Bhanbhagta Gurung. First thing first, […]
Read more
In this video, produced by the very talented Brady Haran over at Numberphile, which you can subscribe to here, Dr. James Grime and Professor Roger Bowley answer the question of whether or not zero is an even number, along with talking about a lot of other interesting things about the history of zero. This is my new favorite video so […]
Read more
This Day In History: February 24, 1807 Just a few days before Christmas 1806, a 34 year-old woman named Elizabeth Godfrey rented a room in a house of ill-repute (tsk-tsk) in the Marylebone section of London. Living next door was a coachman named Richard Price, who resided with a woman named Emily Bisset. Elizabeth was very angry at Richard, apparently […]
Read more
In this episode, you’re going to learn the fascinating story behind how the “temporary insanity” defense became established in U.S. law, and what all this has to do with the creator of the Star Spangled Banner’s son. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily […]
Read more
Jeremy R. asks: Is it true that more words break the I before E rule than follow it? If so, how come this is taught at all? If you ever want to start a fight among a group of linguists and orthographers, bring up the grammar school rule: “I before E, except after C,” which has been around since at […]
Read more
On a field about fifty miles from Boston, Strawberry Hill, on the evening of September 3, 1880, history was made. It is unlikely the department store employees who were tossing around a ball knew that this game would still be talked about 135 years later. As the crowd took their seats, the ball players took their positions; the Sun dipped […]
Read more
This Day In History: February 23, 1954 On February 23, 1954, a group of children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania helped make history by being the first inoculated with the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. The children were first, second, and third grade students attending local public and parochial schools. In the 1950s, Poliomyelitis was still an extremely contagious disease. […]
Read more
This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Surprisingly Poor Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Prior to his role as Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Willard Smith (yes, Willard) enjoyed a successful career as a rapper under the pseudonym, “The Fresh Prince” as part of a […]
Read more
In this episode, you’re going to learn about the bizarre and very rare phenomenon of the “stone baby,” as well as about a woman who carried one of these fetuses in her body for about six decades. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily […]
Read more
Denny G. asks: Why do baseball managers wear the team’s uniform instead of a suit or something like that like you see in other sports? It especially seems weird because managers in baseball seem to universally let themselves go after their playing days are over and tubby old men do not look good in sports uniforms! Football coaches wear clothes […]
Read more
This Day In History: February 20, 1985 Amid a storm of controversy, the Irish government won initial approval for the sale of contraceptives on February 20, 1985. The bill, which narrowly passed by a vote of 83-80, was actively opposed by the Roman Catholic Church, a powerful conservative force in Ireland. The decision was described as the first defeat ever […]
Read more
In this episode, you’re going to learn the gruesome origin of the expression “run amok”. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
Read more
Jim R. asks: Is it true that the word jumbo came from the name of an elephant? The word “jumbo” can roughly be understood to mean “a large specimen of its kind” and it’s often posited that the word entered the English language thanks to an elephant. While this is certainly a nice story, the truth is a little more complicated. First […]
Read more