In this episode, you’re going to learn just who is “Craig” and how he got started making lists, as well as how the site evolved to what it is today. [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
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A great man once said, “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” Eloquently highlighting the ridiculousness of strictly adhering to the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition, Winston Churchill may not have realized that his defiance is supported by history. As it turns out, there was never any such generally recognized rule. […]
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Nothing put more fear into this author as a child more than being told, right before bedtime, “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.” I was a logical kid and I knew that ghosts, boogie men, vampires, and the monster living under my bed were all imaginary. But reminding me that there are very real bugs that may be living […]
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Today in History: November 24, 1859 When Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species” was published on November 24, 1859, it sold out that same day. That’s not as impressive as it may initially seem as only 1,250 copies were available for purchase. The truly remarkable thing was the ground-breaking subject matter contained within its pages. Like Galileo two centuries earlier, Darwin […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Why Don’t Birds’ Legs Freeze? How a bird reacts to the cold depends on what kind of a bird it is and there are a variety of methods they use to keep their legs warm, from the mundane to the much […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn how penguins manage to keep their exposed feet from freezing, along with some other interesting penguin facts. [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
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F. Whisten asks: Is it true that all clams are male? If so, how do they reproduce? Encased in a hard shell, brainless and possessing only a single limb (a retractable foot that looks like a tongue), clams seem like a species for which reproduction would be difficult. And yet, each year, millions of clams are born – thanks in […]
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Walter K. asks: Why are movie theaters allowed to make their concessions so expensive? In 1948, the Supreme Court ended the stranglehold Hollywood studios and distributors had on the U.S. movie market. Declaring the big eight a monopoly and ordering them to divest of their ownership of movie theaters and cease other non-competitive practices, with U.S. v. Paramount Pictures, et […]
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This Day In History: November 21, 1922 In November 1922, Georgia Governor Thomas Hardwick found himself in quite the quandary. He desperately wanted to run for the Senate seat left empty due to the death of Thomas Watson in September – but he had actively opposed the passage of the 19th amendment. Now that it was law, how could he […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn whether Ben Franklin really suggested what would become daylight saving time and some other interesting facts about DST. [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
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Quick Fact 821: An Australian man, Don Ritchie, died in 2012 at the age of 86 from cancer. For the final 45 years of his life, he lived across the street from the most famous suicide spot in Australia, known as “The Gap,” an ocean cliff in eastern Sydney. During that time, Ritchie stopped at least 160 people (with the […]
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Today, we mostly think of the fax machine as an outdated piece of technology. While there are still some uses for it in an office-setting, technological advances are sending the fax machines to the same pasture as pagers, land-line telephones, and disposable cameras. Even if this is the last we hear of the beeps and bops that echo as an […]
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This Day In History: November 20, 1969 Most people remember Alcatraz Island off the California coast as the location of the country’s most notorious and isolated federal prison housing the most dangerous inmates. It closed in 1963, and the empty prison complex stood silently against the rocky, grey landscape. That is, until November 20, 1969, when a group of Native […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn about the fascinating tale of two major companies who had a dispute over a slogan, and how they decided, rather than to litigate, to duke it out the old fashioned way, with much fanfare along the way. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also […]
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Pat A. asks: Were Kamikaze pilots all just volunteers or how exactly did they get selected? During WWII, thousands of Japanese pilots made the ultimate sacrifice for their country by becoming, essentially, flying suicide bombers. But what was it that made these men so willing to lay down their lives in such a way? Were they really bright eyed volunteers […]
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This Day In History: November 19, 1990 There were red faces all around as the Grammy Award for best new artist was stripped from pop duo Milli Vanilli on November 19, 1990, when it was revealed that they hadn’t warbled a single note on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences explained […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn about the humble beginnings of Stephen King’s career as a professional writer, and what Penthouse magazine had to do with it all. [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
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This is a video from CGP Grey. If you’re a fan of TodayIFoundOut, I guarantee you’re going to love his YouTube channel, unless you just hate videos that is. (He also has an entertaining podcast, Hello Internet, with fellow popular YouTuber Brady Haran.) If you liked this video, you might also enjoy: How Long You Could Survive in Space Without […]
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