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What's the Deal with Turkey on Thanksgiving?
It's Thanksgiving in the United States -- and Thanksgiving is weird! In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore some of the big questions about Th…
2 years, 7 months ago
Tammany Hall: America's Early Puppet Masters
It's no secret that politics can often have a dark side -- smoky backrooms, corruption and graft have always had their place in American history. And…
2 years, 7 months ago
The Hoover Dam is Ridiculous, Part Two: The Audacity!
As the railroads tried and failed to control flooding in the Salton Sink, state and federal leaders realized America needed a bigger solution. With t…
2 years, 7 months ago
The Hoover Dam is Ridiculous, Part One: Man Versus Nature
The next time you're in Vegas, rent a car and spend a day at the Hoover Dam. This towering, larger-than-life marvel of human engineering has fundamen…
2 years, 7 months ago
CLASSIC: Waging War With Hallucinogenic Honey
Honey is popular around the world, and for good reason. This addictively sweet substance is a common ingredient in hundreds of recipes, and people hi…
2 years, 7 months ago
CLASSIC: Ben Franklin Tried To Reinvent the Alphabet
"For such a popular, well-known language, English is full of strange, seemingly arbitrary rules. Most people just accept these various idiosyncrasies…
2 years, 7 months ago
CLASSIC: When the Puritans Canceled Christmas
Nowadays Christmas is a globally-recognized holiday celebrated by millions of people, but in the past this wasn't the case. In fact, some groups of C…
2 years, 7 months ago
How Did Trick-Or-Treating Become a Thing?
Every year at the end of October, countless children (and adults) don costumes and head into the night, going door to door with the same ritual cry: …
2 years, 7 months ago
The Tangled History of Topiary, Part Two: That Shrub Is Looking at Me Funny
Ben, Noel and super producer Casey Pegram dive back into the weeds of the surprisingly ancient (and ridiculous) art of trimming flora into bizarre an…
2 years, 8 months ago
The Tangled History of Topiary, Part One: The Ancient Art of Fancy Plants
If you've ever looked at a bush and thought "this would be way cooler if it was shaped like a rabbit," then you're part of a long line of topiary ent…
2 years, 8 months ago