Stuff You Should Know

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Boeing's Nosedive: The 737-MAX May 05, 2026

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Boeing used to be one of the most respected engineering firms in the world. Then it changed its focus from making great airplanes to increasing its stock value. The result was the 737-MAX, a plane that took the lives of 346 people in two avoidable crashes.

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Selects: Thrill to the Stunning Bicameral Mind Hypothesis May 02, 2026

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Psychologist Julian Jaynes came up with a stunning hypothesis in 1976, that human consciousness only developed in the last 3000 years. And he seemed to have proof in ancient texts. Scholars have been picking it apart ever since and in this classic episode we join the club.

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How to Drink a Tree's Blood Apr 30, 2026

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Of course we're talking all about maple syrup today - the tapping, the processing, the eating.

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Short Stuff: Wisdom Teeth Apr 29, 2026

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By all rights there should be three sets of molars in your mouth. But it turns out that our skulls aren’t really set up to accommodate that many anymore. Exactly why depends on who you ask.

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Save the Whales! Apr 28, 2026

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In the 1970s, conservation groups around the world rose up to protect dwindling whale populations, some on the verge of extinction. They all worked under the same banner: Save the Whales! It turned out to be one of the most successful campaigns ever.

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Selects: How Fever Dreams Work Apr 25, 2026

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Fever dreams can be unsettling experiences. These ramped up nightmares are vivid, detailed and only happen when the human body experiences a fever. What is it about the combination of fevers and dreams that make these night terrors so hellish? Learn all that and more in this classic episode.

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UNESCO World Heritage: Preserving the Best of Humanity Apr 23, 2026

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Humanity’s created a lot of neat things over the eons and starting in the 1940s, the UN created an agency focused on preserving those things for the whole world and future people. But that mission is in danger of becoming only about branding and money.

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Short Stuff: Brown-Headed Cowbird Apr 22, 2026

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There’s a kind of bird that lots of people think is a real jerk. And it kind of is. But in the brown-headed cowbird’s defense, it’s just evolved that way. Find out why it has such a bad reputation among bird lovers in this Short Stuff.

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Some Silly Inventions That Became Wildly Popular Apr 21, 2026

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Once in a while someone comes up with a solution for a problem we didn’t know we had, and maybe even a problem that didn’t even exist. Even more rarely, the stars align just right so that some crackpot invention captures everyone’s imagination.

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Selects: Sammy Davis Jr: National Treasure Apr 18, 2026

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In this classic episode Josh and Chuck sit down and detail the complicated life of the late, great Sammy Davis Jr.

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