Stuff You Should Know - SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Yo-Yos Work

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

You may have played with a yo-yo before -- perhaps you've even walked the dog -- but do you know about the physics behind what makes a yo-yo sleep and wake up? Learn all about inertia, angular momentum and the history of the yo-yo in this episode of SYSK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him. Gabe Ortiz is a cop. His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late. He was the head of this gang. You're going to push that line for the cause. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle a dangerous past, one that could destroy everything he thought he knew.

Listen to the brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio. have Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Happy continuing holidays, everybody. Chuck here to tee up our next episode on our 12 days of Christmas toys playlist. And I am super excited because you're about to listen to one of our older episodes from this list. About an Molder Toy. It's all about yo-yo's. It's how yo-yo's work.

Hope you like it. Welcome to Stuff You Should Nest. know from How StuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. That's me. Same as ever. Scratching the old back. Yeah, I just got a little itch there. You ever use one of those little dealies, the little creepy hand, the little monkey paw on the end of the stick? I have before. Yeah.

I don't like to do that. It hurts. Oh, yeah? I guess you could call it. It's a painful sensation. I'd get up against the wall sometimes and do the... Yeah. The Ballou, the Bear trick. That'll do sometimes, too.

Oh, yeah. But it's weird. Like, I only have backcatches in about the same place, and that would be on my left shoulder blade on the western side of it, depending on which direction I'm facing. Curiously, this is going to be the most interesting part of this show. That is not true, Chuck, man. So, Chuck, this is going to be a great one.

Okay. I have a feeling this. and be one of those ones where it's like, wow, that turned out to be really good. It's physics-heavy out the yin-ya. Yeah, everyone loves that. But the fact is, when we finish this, you're going to know how yo-yo works. This is probably the most truly titled, truest-titled episode we've ever done. You think?

Yep. I don't know. All right, well, we'll find out. I think it should be called physics through the eye of a yo-yo. So, listen, have you ever seen the movie Harlem Nights? parts. Dude, that is, go back and watch it again.

I don't think it was really good. Oh, you're crazy. It's one of the best movies ever. Eddie Murphy, Red Fox, Richard Pryor. Great cast. And like everybody else in it too, I think Bernie Max's in there.

Awesome cast, terrible script. I don't think the script was terrible. I thought it was great. There was one thing about that movie that bugged me to know it. It's set in like the 20s, right? Yeah.

And throughout the movie, Eddie Murphy uses the word, Yo. Yo is obviously a modern term. And it just sticks out like a sore thumb every time he does. It drives me crazy. Like, it drives me crazy that he did. It drives me crazy.

The director wasn't like, you can't say yo. This is like 1920s, New York. Yo wasn't around. I don't know that they were going for historical accuracy in that one. They were wearing spats. Yeah, well. So, Jerry, like that one. So I went back and did a little digging, Chuck,

and it turns out that Yo was, in fact, around in the 1920s. But Eddie Murphy was still wrong for using it in that capacity. Okay. Okay, so Yo goes back at least to like the 15th century as like a hunting cry, right? When somebody was like, too, do, somebody else might go, yo! And you go chase a fox. That was kind of the first wave of yo. As far back as 1859, we know that there were sailors that were using it.

Yo-ho-ho. Yo-ho. Or also, it was a response. for roll call like yo like somebody called your name you would say yo a key it wasn't until after world war two though that the modern incarnation comes and it came out of the uh italian corridors of philadelphia of course it did so that's where they think yo came from after world war two hence eddie murphy was wrong in using yo especially frequently in the movie harlem nines so I did all that research

or I could have just looked into Google Translate from English to Filipino or vice versa and find that it just means come yeah but I don't think that's what it means here does it? It does now okay so the word yo-yo

as it stands right means come come or come back yeah that makes sense did you know that I did you want to talk a little bit about the history of yo-yo's did you know before reading this fantastic article that yo-yo's originated, as we understand them now, originated in the Philippines in the 1920s? I didn't know that.

I did know that it was around for a long time before that, though, in, you know, other forms. Well, pretty much the same form. There were like two forms of yo-yo's in history. Yeah. And one came out of the, the new one came out of the Philippines. The other one, yeah, it was pretty old. Well, ancient Chinese, or at least ancient Greeks. Right.

More than 2,500 years ago. But they think the Chinese had something similar to that. Yeah, I'm starting to strongly suspect that the Chinese are the origin of human civilization. You think? Yeah. They came up with beer. Yeah? Well, they came up with beer.

There you have it. They win right there. And it is the oldest toy on the planet except the doll, the dolly. I thought that was pretty interesting, too. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Although I wonder if they're kind of diminishing any kind of ancient rituals or rites by saying,

Look at this cute doll when really it's some sort of fetish. I don't know. You never know. So it's been around a long time. They've designed it in different ways over the years.

The original design had the string tied tight to the little axis there. We'll call it the Greek design. The Greek design? No, we'll call it the Chinese design. Or the European design.

Well, not design, but it was popular in Europe. Yeah. And that, obviously, if you ever used an old yo-yo like that or redesign yours to where it's tied around the axle, it'll pop up, you know, as soon as you throw it down, it'll pop back up.

Yeah. Because it's tied to the axle. Exactly. Right. And you said it was popular in Europe. There were other words for it, other names for the yo-yo before it was a yo-yo. That's right.

There was the lemigrette, the bandalore. The bandalore was British, I believe. The quiz? Yeah, I didn't get a country of origin for that. But it was very popular in Europe. There's a painting of, I think, Louis the 18th. Is he the boy king? I don't know.

Whichever Louis was the boy king of him holding like a yo-yo. Like a royal painting of him with a yo-yo. Or the, what was the little hoop on it and a stick? I think that's what it was called. That was an awesome game. The hoop on a stick. Woo-hoo! And then, I don't think you can compare the yo-yo to the hoop on a stick.

No, I'm not comparing it. I'm just saying I just never got that. Oh, okay. Well, here's another one for you. Napoleon was well known for carrying and using a yo-yo, apparently for stress relief. Oh, yeah? It didn't work too well. He was a stressed out dude. Yeah. He needed the yo-yo. But as you said, that's the European-favored or Chinese design, where the strings tied really tight to the axle, and it just basically goes up and down. Yeah. Right? So the Filipino design led to the modern yo-yo, as we understand it now, and the huge distinction.

is that the string is just looped around the axle kind of loosely, which has the added benefit of allowing the yo-yo itself to spin once it reaches the end of the string. Yeah.

Sleep, that's why people yo-yo, I think. It's all about the tricks. I mean, it's sort of fun for a minute just to go up and down, but it's really all about the tricks. Right, it's just a stress reliever if it just goes up and down. Did you yo-yo when you were a kid?

Yeah, here or there. But even as a kid, like, I could sense that like these new modern ones that we'll talk about with like ball bearings and clutches they just seem like cheating I agree let's not even talk about them

it's not even a real yo-yo so Chuck you want to talk about a little bit about physics well let's finish the history first shall we oh okay well I have plenty of that it was originally in the Philippines they think it was a hunting weapon

for like 400 years but not like a little tiny yo-yo they were really big and it was basically a big spindle attached to a rope with like spikes coming off of it they were like the size of a yugo yeah and i guess the just the benefit there is you could get it back after you threw it at somebody right the string was almost just useless though well it was rope just throw it and run after it oh really okay it was actually heavy rope and they used it for uh hunting too right well at some point down the line well yeah you would

think anything used in hunting you know does double duty and war exactly anything you're trying to kill yeah um the at some point though they became smaller and became toys and uh in the 20s a Filipino immigrant to the U.S. named Pedro Floris um started a company the first modern yo-yo company in the United States and did pretty well for himself uh and then in 1929 he sold out to a man named Duncan right Donald Duncan yes Donald Duckin and uh Duncan or Duncan And, you know, Florist is in Santa Barbara, and like you said, was selling these things like hotcakes, enough that Duncan said, hey, let me buy that.

I'm going to keep the name Yo-Yo because it's catchy. Yeah. I'm going to trademark it, and now I own it. And through the years, he had competitors that made similar devices with different names, and they were like, dude, everyone's calling this thing a yo-yo. We want to be able to call it a yo-yo, too. And he said, no, no, I own it. then the federal courts in 1965 says,

you know what, that's generic enough now where you don't own it any longer. Right. They're all yo-yo's. Well, those legal challenges to their trademark, the name yo-yo, was one of the things that bled the company dry. It eventually went bankrupt.

The Duncan Company went bankrupt. Yeah, the same year they ruled against them. They were like, well, that's it for us. But they also had other money troubles. They were actually victims of their own success that Duncan Company was. So they moved in the 40s to Luck, Wisconsin, which very quickly became known as the yo-yo capital of the world. And at their peak, they were making 3,600 yo-yo's an hour.

Wow. Mostly out of wood at first, maple. They were using a million board feet of maple wood every year. Yeah? That's a lot. And they actually, in addition to their legal challenges, like the money going to fight their legal battles, they were paying tons of money in overtime, too. advertising. And as a matter of fact, I think in 1962, Chuck, they managed to sell 45 million

yo-yoes. And in that same year, there were only 40 million kids in the U.S. Wow. That's pretty astounding. A chicken in every pot and a yo-yo in every other hand at least. Yeah. Sure. I guess some kids were yo-yo with both hands up. They're rich kids. Yeah. But like I said, the company ended up going bankrupt. Anyway, but yo-yo enthusiasts still look very fondly on the Duncan name. And I think June 6th, yes, June 6th is National Yo-Yo Day,

which happens to be the same day as Donald Duncan's birthday. Yeah. Well, and the Duncan name lives on. Obviously, you still see Duncan Yo-Yo's. They sold out. They didn't just shut down. Well, they went bankrupt and sold out, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So, who was it, the Flambeil plastics company? Yeah. They said, we'll keep the name Duncan because it's synonymous with Yo-Yos. Yeah. It's not generic yet. No. No.

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Well, I think this is very interesting. Good. So there's a two... Okay, you mentioned with the string tied to the classic Chinese design yo-yo, you have one kind of energy going on, right? Yes. And that is linear momentum. The ability of it to go up and down, or I should say down and up, right? That's right.

With the Filipino design, the modern design, it has two. kinds of potential energy. It has that same linear momentum to go up and down, but it also has angular momentum. And angular momentum is its ability to spin on an axle. Yeah. Okay? So you've got two things going on. And like you said, when the yo-yo hits the end of the line of its linear momentum, it can still, it's built up, since it's wound around the spool. Yeah. It's built up a lot of angular momentum, so it can just sit there and spin or sleep as you called it. Yeah, it actually increases as it goes down. which is the key to keeping it spinning.

Right. It gets faster as it falls. There's another pretty cool trait to a yo-yo. Who knew they were so complex? I didn't. Did you? I did not. Okay, so they also have gyroscopic stability, Chuck.

They do. Okay, so if you have a yo-yo that's sleeping and you push down on top of it, like it goes down and then back up. Right. That's because of its gyroscopic stability. That point that you push down on the yo-yo is transferred from the front

and spun around to the back so that's evened out so the yo-yo will just keep spinning as long as it's spinning fast enough. Gyroscopic stability. Yes, that means a spinning object will resist change to its axis of rotation

and if you've ever thrown a football, it's the same thing. Yeah. Or if you've ever thrown a football poorly, what do they call that? A wobbler, a turkey. Wounded duck. Brick.

That's why a wounded duck doesn't go very far because it doesn't have tight spin. Yeah. So it falls off its axis and won't travel as far. Exactly. Same as a Frisbee. And then the whole team's mad at you. Basically anything that spins. Yeah. Frisbee's footballs, there's gotta be a baseball, uh, we could liken it to a baseball somehow. Let's say a curveball, knuckleball, knuckleball. Slider. Definitely not a knuckleball. Slider. It doesn't spin it all. Really? Is it like a shot put? No, the knuckle ball, you, the whole key is, it doesn't move. It travels like this and that's why it moves all around. Crazy.

nutty yeah um it so you've got your you've got your yo-yo sleeping you're you're totally aware of its gyroscopic stability um and you understand that its angular momentum is just awesome it's far out right it's far out but you want to wake it up and that's when you bring it out of its sleep and rewind it back up the spool right a little tug on the old finger yeah and the reason why is because the loop right there's less friction with the loop around the axle. Yeah. When you tug it, you increase that friction, and you allow it to rewind.

It just grabs a hold of its buddy and says, let's go back up to the palm. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. I like yo-yo physics a lot. So we basically just talked about the two hardest parts, right? Sleeping and waking. Yeah, and like I said, sleeping is the key to do any kind of trick, like walking the dog. Yeah.

Which I was pretty good. I used to do a few yo-yo tricks. Really? Yeah, I could walk the dog and I could do the deal where you make a triangle and then tick-tock through the triangle. Something like a cradle or probably the cat's in the cradle? Let's call it a cat's cradle. And then I could do the around the world. Wow. Yeah, I couldn't do any of those. This inspired me to get a new yo-yo, by the way.

I like the vintage Dunkin ones, specifically the yellow ones with the butterfly, like the gold butterfly. The inverted ones? No, it just had a butterfly on that rainbow. Because they had those that looked like a butterfly that were... I know what you're talking about. Inverted, and I think that actually plays a part in the

increasing the moment of inertia section. I think that's why they flipped it out to put more weight on the outside. Yeah, okay, you want to talk about that? Why not? So do you remember when we did the Murphy's Law podcast? How could I forget?

Remember one of the books? that he wrote was for your moments of inertia. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't realize it was a terrible, terrible engineering pun until I read this article. Yeah. Kind of made me hate John Paul Stapp a little bit. Nah, we love that guy.

So, Chuck, a moment of inertia is basically a way of describing a spinning object's resistance to changes in that rotation, basically being slowed down. Yeah. Right? And what smarter people in us have figured out is that if you increase the mass

and distribute it slightly further away from the axis, you're going to increase its moment of inertia. Right. And that increases the amount of time it's just sleeping, right? Yeah, and like I said, I don't know this, but I just remember when I was a kid, they had those inverted yo-yo's, and I bet you anything, that's why they did that.

It's got to be. Because they were wider at the outside and then curved in, which had to be less mass. Yeah. It was less stuff. less wood. So I'm going to go on record just saying that's why they did that.

But I think you want more mass further away to increase its moment of inertia, right? Yeah, so there was more mass on the outside further away from the axis. Right. Yeah.

So that allows things to sleep a lot longer and that was, I guess you could say, one of the breakthroughs in yo-yo design. I think in the 60s they started adding mass to the outside

and extending the axle a little bit. Bam, the yo-yo's been improved. Think about this, right? 2,500, maybe even longer than that, years ago, somebody invented the yo-yo does not change until the Philippines in the

early 20th century. Well, I thought it said it did change. We just don't know. Said there were changes in design over the years. No? Not that I took. I took it, like there was one way, and then there was the Filipino way. And that was it. We got a correction to make then.

And then the 20th century hits, and then there's all these great improvements on these designs. Indeed. One of the improvements, Chuck, was adding ball bearings, right? Yeah. So you and I don't think these are improvements, or at least I don't. Okay, that's absolutely true. That's a good caveat. I think that the Filipinos perfected the yo-yo.

Let's just call them modifications. Okay. For sorry kids who don't know how to yo-yo. Rich kids. Yeah, that makes it easier, I think. Yeah. Isn't that the whole point of both of these things? things?

Yeah, I guess it makes it easier to sleep and... Yeah, and I guess they're like, well, if you're just enjoying sleeping and waking your yo-yo, then why make it tough? If you want to have fun with your toy... Right. I can't believe they made it easier for kids to have fun. How dare they? So the bald bearing design, I think, is kind of clever.

Basically, this modification takes the axle and splits it in two. Yeah. into two races, which are basically little courses for ball bearings to spin around, right? Now, does that split the axle? These are just around the axle. So, one is connected to the axle. That's the inner race. One is connected to the string, that's the outer race, and then in between the two are ball bearings. Right. Okay? They're not connected in any way, except maybe via the contact with the ball bearings.

Right. so when you release your yo-yo toward the ground and it's linear and angular momentum really build up when it hits the inner race can tilt a little bit and connect with the outer race via the ball bearings so they're spinning right right and then as they straighten out the they're not connected anymore so that the string no longer has any effect on whether the yo-yo spins or not because it's just the inner race connected to the axle that's spinning. So your yo-yo can sleep far, far longer. Yeah, the outer race spins the inner race, which spins the axle. Right, it's like a transfer of angular momentum. Exactly. And then the string's just like, you just let me know when you're done

and we'll wind back up. Well, it'll give a little tug, we'll do the same thing with that style, right? Right. Okay. Or you can just completely take yourself out of the equation altogether, except for a snap of the wrist. The initial release is all you need to do with what's called the yo-yo with the brain. These are really fake yo-yo's. Yeah. I want to get one, though. It's kind of cool.

If you could be in a vegetative state and do this yo-yo. Yeah, this was in the 90s company called Yomega released these, and they called it the yo-yo with a brain, when in fact they should have called it the yo-yo with a clutch. And the deal here is you've got these two clutch arms, weighted ball on one side, and it's not attached on the other side, and they're spring-loaded. the spindle is not attached to the axle but the clutch arms are attached to the spindle so when you throw this thing down

it's going to spin slower at first and the clutch is engaged as it gets faster all the sudden it's enough inertia to pop the clutch essentially against the edges and it releases the spindle which makes the whole thing spin faster on the axis

right the centrifugal force pushes down the weight which pushes down the arm onto the spring which releases the two which allows it to spin and it only spins for a certain amount of time it's not like the kind that you tug back up it'll spin until it slows down

and then the clutch locks back down and boom it shoots back up right back up I want to I wish we had one of those I want to see what it's like so basically the big two modifications are based on separating the string from the axle by creating two different kinds

of, I guess, axles or spindles or whatever. Which are really just sort of taking the Filipino design a step further because, although it made contact with the axle, it wasn't, quote, connected to the axle. Yeah. Or I guess it was, but it wasn't tight. Right. And a guy named Michael Caffrey is the one who came up with the yo-yo with the brain. And Yomega started telling him in 1990, but he came up with it in 1980.

Two years after a man named Tom Cune created the no-jive 3-1 yoke. that you could take apart and replace the axle and do all sorts of modifications with. Oh, really? Big, big time for changes in yo-yo design. So did he rip this dude off? Is that what you're saying? No. Oh, okay. No, I'm just saying like these two big steps in yo-yo design.

The way you said two years after it was sinister. Well, you're a very suspicious person. I am when it comes to yo-yo design. Hey Harry Potter fans huge news Harry Potter the full cast audio editions are all being released on audible on a monthly basis and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is already out you have never experienced the wizarding world like this before they've taken it to another level the cast is perfect

Hugh Laurie is Dumbledore Matthew McFaddy and is Voldemore Riz Ahmed is Snape and Cush Jumbo as the narrator and there are too many others to name. There's even a brand new musical score. And the sound design? You'll feel like you're right there. Footsteps echoing down the halls of Hogwarts, a golden snitch flying past your ear.

The Hogwarts Express rumbling out of platform 9 and 3 quarters, and it's all in Dolby Atmos, which makes the wizardry even more magical. Plus, these are the unabridged versions, even more awesomeness. As I mentioned, the first book is out, and the next installments in the series will be released every month until all seven are out.

Go to audible.ca slash HP1 and start listening now. No one can resist a rule of culture. So here's one for the dating files. Rule of culture number 72. Chemistry isn't just vibes, it's values. Because what's the point of matching with someone if you can't talk about the shows you binge, the books you dog ear,

or all the hot takes, you'll defend it brunch? I mean, you definitely have friends who have met their partners on Bumble, and it makes sense. It's not just about matching with someone. It's about finding someone who gets your references, your obsessions, your whole vibe.

With shared interests and prompts, you don't just see a profile. You get a glimpse of someone's personality, which makes it even easier to start conversations that actually lead somewhere. Plus, with photo and ID verification, you can trust that the person you're talking to is real. With that added piece of mind,

it's so much easier to show up as your full self. So whether your rule of culture is, the best first date start with the shared hot take on Renaissance or compatibility as having the same hometown bodega order, download Bumble, and turn those connections into something bigger. Download Bumble and start your love story. It's 5.23 p.m. One of your kids is asking for a snack.

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You know, I looked online at videos and stuff to make it a little easier because this is a very visual thing. And they do have videos. But what I found out is that a lot of teachers, physics teachers, use yo-yo's to describe these, whatever, four to six properties that we described. I have to tell you, I understand angular momentum far better now. I understand, and although it went through the yo-yo's, through the football, I understand the moment of inertia. Okay. Oh, wait. Is that moment of inertia?

No, that's angular momentum. Angular momentum. Spinning on an axis? Yeah, yeah. Oh, you were talking about the gyroscopic stability. Yeah, there you go. See, I get confused. I need too, Chuck.

It's physics, man. Don't feel bad. You want to know a couple more pieces of yo-yo trivia? Yeah, let's hear it. In 1968, one Abby Hoffman of the Chicago 7 was indicted, or no, charged with contempt of Congress when he started doing the Walk the Dog during a House Un-American Activities Committee session that was investigating him. So he was like, I'm just.

so over this, I'm going to yo-yo? Well, apparently, the way I read it is that he was trying to entertain, lighten everything up. It's like, here, watch me yo-yo, and he was walking the dog. Who-Xed, no, not fun. So that's how yo-yo's are connected to McCarthyism. If you ever take an S-Y-S-K quiz and that comes up. Plus, yo-yo's were huge back then.

Totally. That was like the heyday, I think it was the 60s. Yeah. Nixon, have you seen Nixon try to yo-yo? No. Man, if you don't like Nixon, this will just make you hate a, them even more. The night that they opened the Grand Ole Opry

and I think sometime in 1974 what's the main guy like the whole cast of he-haw is behind Nixon and then the mate Roy Akif yeah he presents Nixon with a yo-yo and like has to put it on Nixon's finger and Nixon looks like what's going on you know and

then he tries to do it once and it just kind of like flops down and makes like a sad trombone noise and he just has this sullen look on his face like I don't like yo-yo He looks kind of like you did at the beginning of this episode. Yeah, me and Nick Tricky Dick. Who knew?

And then they took a yo-yo in space, Chuck. Yeah, I saw that, and it still worked? It did work. They found that letting it drop did nothing because they were testing it in microgravity, but if you throw it, it will go slowly. But it will still spin? You can do it slowly, but it will still spin. And it moves kind of just kind of gracefully,

along the string, like in just mid-air, horizontally, but it'll never sleep. Well, thank God, NASA did that. Yeah, back in 1985. Those are all the videos you see, though. They do much more than that. That was back when NASA was like, we have so much money. We don't know what to do with it. Right, exactly.

Let's launch something, and let's say the Toys and Space Project. Right. And they did. Now, this was just for yo-yo's. That was the only thing they did on that flight. Well, no, the Toys and Space Project encompassed 60 shuttle missions, one for each toy that they tested out. Wow.

Jacks was one of the best one. I bet. The Bolo paddle? Yeah. So that's yo-yo's. Frankly, I'm pretty happy with this one. I thought you were going to lead in with something on Yo-Yo Ma. No, man, try to look up yo-yo's in the news and not get Yo-Yo Ma.

Jeez. Can't do it. Stupid, cello-genist. I searched a yo-yo-mo. Minus Ma, minus knee, minus Gabba, to finally get some stuff on the other words. Oh, yo Gabba, yeah. Oh, what was the other one?

Yo Mama. Neo. Yo MTV Raps. That came up too. Did it? Yeah, I stopped searching before I minus MTV too. I didn't know you could minus. I was into, yeah.

And it'll root out all the search, all the results that have that in it. So you just put the minus sign? Minus and then the next letter, no space. Had no idea. And you can do a bunch of different ones. No commas, no nothing, just like minus Gabba, minus Yo. Really? Minus Ma, minus Knee.

You literally just improved my life. Well, good. Or my research. For like the eighth time today. Yeah. All right. Well, that's it. All right.

Yo-yo's. I was in a jewelry store once a Neo came in. It seemed nice. Who's Neo? He's this rapper. He's from Atlanta. Yeah. I thought you're talking about The Matrix.

No, it's Like his real name's Keanu This is Neyo Oh Yeah, I've heard of him Yeah, him Well, if you want to learn more

About yo-yo's Including some really Top-notch illustrations This is one of those ones That you will see Why we have Staff illustrators here At HowStopWorks.com

In color, no less That's all You want to type in YoYo at the handy Search bar at How StuffWorks.com That'll bring up that really cool article and I said handy search bar

So now it's time for Chuck to shine With another edition of Listener Mail Josh This is one of our oldest And not by age But one of our most loyal fans Anna Spies

She has a band And they put together Well let me just read it This is coming out shortly after Christmas And she said it was still great to read this Hi guys and Jerry Since we're firmly in the festive greedy little grip of the holiday season,

I was wondering if you could give a shout out to a project I'm involved in, or my band is at least. It's a charity album to raise funds for the continued fallout from the Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster. In the light of everything that's happened since, I know it's been put on the back burner

of most people's charitable contributions, which is why we were thrilled and honored to do our part to re-raise awareness when the label releasing this compilation approached us to contribute a track. So, you know, she's right. You hear about these tragedies that happen, and then six months later, you kind of forget about it. It's the curse of the news cycle.

Exactly. But luckily, there's a lot of people that my friend Dave is one of them that's still working, like, on the tsunami from five or six years ago. Oh, that's great. So continued help is always needed. There's a CD that's going to be out in mid-December. So by the time this comes out, it'll already be out. You can stream the entire album, which is 37 tracks by 37 R3. on the website

More Hope for Japan.com and her band New Century Classics wrote and recorded a brand new song just for this compilation and she's quite proud of it and I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but I'm gonna. And she says there's a lot of far better known

artist on there and anyone who likes instrumental music post rock, ambient and basically pretty melodic guitar-based tunes should dig it. So check it out. That's Anna's band New Century Classics cool more hope for japan.com very cool thanks a lot anna appreciate that thanks for letting us know

thanks for doing what you do and thanks for listening for like years she's been around forever yeah yeah i guess if you're working on something that you feel like everybody's forgotten and shouldn't have let us know and we'll try to help you re-raise awareness too yeah yeah send us a tweet to sysk podcast or you can shoot us facebook something uh facebook dot com slash stuff you should know and as always You can get really personal and send us an email, a real live email, to Stuff Podcast at How StuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit How StuffWorks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.

Download it today on iTunes. I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him. Gabe Ortiz is a cop. His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late. He was the head of this gang. You're going to push that line for the cause. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle the dangerous past,

one that could destroy everything he thought he knew. Listen to the brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Stefan Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest total wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older.

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I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't. Every week, we're breaking down the world of men's health from testosterone and fitness to diets and fertility. We'll talk science without the jargon and get your real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about. So check out the Mailroom on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite. Shouts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.