Podcast Episodes
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Genoan Insurance (Entry 522.MT0634)
In which the modern insurance industry is born when medieval Italian merchants form syndicates to manage risk, and Ken manages risk by making people …
6 years, 1 month ago
Streaking (Entry 1234.RV1615)
In which dumb campus fads return to the American spotlight in 1973 thanks to a mild winter and legions of nude undergrads, and John gradually remembe…
6 years, 1 month ago
The De Havilland Beaver (Entry 328.DE0203)
In which the Great White North is serviced and explored by the greatest bush plane of all time, and Ken decides that aircraft shouldn't be named afte…
6 years, 2 months ago
Mesoamerican Ball Game (Entry 778.JB3122)
In which pre-Columbian civilizations spend thousands of years banging each other up with heavy rubber balls, and John tries to replace professional s…
6 years, 2 months ago
Naked Came the Stranger (Entry 823.MT2538)
In which a droll Long Island reporter and his newsroom buddies accidentally create one of the all-time great dirty books, and Ken is skeptical of the…
6 years, 2 months ago
Sadie Hawkins Day (Entry 1094.GN3912)
In which a hippie-hating cartoonist accidentally creates a (slightly) gender-equalizing campus tradition, and John spends hours poring over newspaper…
6 years, 2 months ago
Chinook Jargon (Entry 215.1C1413)
In which a very old Native American trading pidgin becomes a regional language and 20th-century slang, and Ken goes to a movie theater that basically…
6 years, 2 months ago
Patagonian Giants (Entry 907.MT0627)
In which the world's tallest tribe, if they even exist, are enslaved by Ferdinand Magellan and downsized by subsequent visitors, and John reminds us …
6 years, 2 months ago
Bill W. (Entry 122.NU0603)
In which one rough night for a traveling salesman in Akron, Ohio births a new spiritual approach to addiction recovery, and Ken suggests some interes…
6 years, 2 months ago
Hikikomori (Entry 587.1K2225)
In which a generation of traumatized Japanese young people increasingly decide never to come out of their bedrooms, whereas John insists on dying alo…
6 years, 2 months ago