Swearing is something that's been done across all cultures, virtually since humans began speaking. What is it about these taboo words that offend some...
Sure, we're doing an episode on corsets. Why do you ask? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/l...
In this week's SYSK Select episode, studies find that absolutely everyone lies - some have found as much as a quarter of our daily interactions involv...
Until recently, volcanologists thought supervolcanoes were simply massive volcanoes. But further research has revealed that they are far different - a...
Being nominated as a Supreme Court Justice is no small thing, and it doesn't always go as planned. With this week's confirmation of Justice Gorsuch, J...
In this week's SYSK Select episode, in the early 1990s, Japanese researchers found a strange anomaly in their study subjects, five people who had inex...
Empathy can often be confused with sympathy and regular old compassion. But it's not exactly either one of those. Some say a lack of empathy can indic...
You may think composting is just a bunch of old banana peels rotting away into dirt but, friend, you're not looking closely enough. Inside that compos...
In this week's SYSK Select episode, although lots of people incorrectly believe the filibuster was an intentional rule created by the founders of the...
The Shroud of Turin is no ordinary bed sheet. Some think it's the burial cloth of Jesus. Others think it's an amazing piece of artwork. The truth is,...
Foreign accent syndrome isn't when your mom talks funny when she goes abroad. It's an actual condition where people wake up one day with an entirely d...
If you’re out there, Elon Musk, this one’s for you (although you already know everything in this episode). Everybody else, buckle in and sit back for...
In our continuing exploration of crime and punishment, we take a look at the practice of solitary confinement. To be sure, it has its place in prisons...
There was a time when the lower classes of the American South were considered lazy and dimwitted, a stereotype that still somewhat survives today. But...
Pain is subjective; it is whatever the person experiencing it says it is. But to effectively treat pain, it helps to quantify it, which is why medicin...
In the second of two parts, what was once a voluntary resettlement program becomes a violent, forced relocation under the leadership of President Andr...
In this first of two episodes on the Trail of Tears, learn about the forces that converged to create the series of events that formed the basis of wha...
Now you see it, now you don't — optical illusions can fool us into seeing what's not actually there. But what causes that disconnect between perceptio...
Freedom of speech and the press are values vital to American democracy. But the First Amendment doesn't really define free speech, and plenty of expre...
It’s common knowledge that famines are usually caused by major droughts: Rain doesn’t fall, crops don’t grow, and people go hungry. But recent researc...
