Podcasts full of fun and fascinating facts
mystery mail, your brain on sound, robot umps, coca-cola's recipe, squirrel takeover, surprising sustainability practices, easy recipes.
I’m not gonna lie, I spent a lot of this week crying over clips of Ke Huy Quan living his dream at the Oscars and emotionally preparing for the return of Ted Lasso. Both have brought me so much joy. But this issue isn’t about joy! It’s about cold hard facts!! Okay no, it’s not that serious. It’s the joy of learning facts from podcasts!
Podcasts are responsible for so many of the random and fascinating pieces of information I acquire. I love when an episode really surprises me with how niche or eye-opening the story is. Sure, I might’ve hit play because it sounded like an interesting topic or it was a topic I enjoy learning about, but so often that also leads to brand new gems of information. I know Arielle Nissenblatt loves noting this, too. She did a round up of fun facts from podcasts and she has a thread on Twitter that she adds new facts to. This is definitely made me start paying closer attention to when and where I learn new things.
What’s the most interesting or surprising thing you learned from a podcast?
This week’s Podstack
Underunderstood - Raisin Suspicion
You know I love a low-stakes mystery, so here’s another to enjoy. On Underunderstood, the team investigates the story of someone who starts receiving mail, including memorabilia and letters on “official” letterhead, from a non-existent fan club for the California Raisins. The mail they receive keeps changing and there are even weird inconsistencies like it being addressed to a different (and incorrect) name. Oh, and they always come from a different address. Who is sending them? Why do they keep misspelling this other wrong name? Each delivery brings more confusing, but also more compelling, differences and possible hints at who or what it could be. The recepient, Jacob, turns to the Underunderstood crew and Reddit to help him solve this mystery. The question becomes- is it all an elaborate prank or an inside job? It’s a hilariously entertaining investigation. Fun fact: there are services that help you send stuff from alternate addresses. (transcript coming soon)
Sound Matters - The Sounds Inside Your Brain
What happens inside your brain when you listen to things? Aka how do we make sense of sounds we hear? For me, sometimes it’s a full body experience! Like a jolt of energy you’d get from coffee, except it’s just a really great podcast. Actually, the really creative intro montage for this episode did that to me a little bit! It’s a pretty complex cognitive process that’s unique to humans. This episode might be heavy on the science, but I think they do a great job of keeping it approachable and the sound design along the way is really fun. It also looks at how learning music can affect the brain’s cognitive skills and the damage that a concussion can do to its ability to process sound. It makes a pretty strong case for the importance of including music in education and that it’s never too late to take up a musical skill. Fun fact: “Everything you’ve ever heard and done in your life will make your brain quite unique in the way it responds to sound signals. You could say you get your own auditive fingerprint of a sort”.
This one is for my mom. And anyone who likes baseball, a good sports story, learning about robots taking our jobs, anything Chris Berube does, or just 99% Invisible. I told my mom about this episode because she loves watching baseball, but figured I’d have to sell it to her a bit more, so here I am. While it’s an episode about the use of “robot” technology in baseball, it’s also a bigger discussion around when robots can take jobs and when the human touch is still needed. Umpires might not be perfect and they might make in-game adjustments as they see fit, but they also have to deal with some wildly unnecessary rage from coaches and fans. Turns out that using robots actually cuts down on those rage-induced outbursts. So what’s the right solution here? You’ll have to listen and decide for yourself! And enjoy Roman Mars giggling at not-so-random team names. Mom, you’ll like this! There’s even a transcript for you! Fun fact: there’s a minor league team named after a Simpsons joke.
Gastropod - Always Coca-Cola: Coca, Kola, and the *Real* Secret Formula
The fun fact of this episode is the main reason I’m recommending it. I’ve always enjoyed Gastropod for the fascinating food stories they tell through the lense of science and history. Nicola and Cynthia have covered so many food facts that I’m always wondering what they’ll teach me next and this episode is a perfect example of that. If you’ve ever wondered about how much coke was or still is in Coca-Cola, this could be your podcast fun fact of the week. Gastropod is myth busting the history of Coca-Cola and it’s full of twists. Fun fact: “There’s piles of cocaine being incinerated in New Jersey. For real.” (transcript)
This Day in Esoteric Political History - Ike's War On Squirrels (1955)
I knew that golf was at least partly responsible for the green grass obsession (thanks to Sidedoor for teaching me that fun fact), but now I’ve learned a whole new level to that obsession. When I saw Jody Avirgan tweet that this episode had “the single most ‘what the fuck’ fact” he’d ever learned on the show, I was too curious not to check it out. Turns out, squirrels and a perfect putting green do not get along. And when that putting green is owned by the White House, that golf-loving president will go to EXTREME lengths to protect it. (Not-so) Fun fact: psychological torture doesn’t work on squirrels. Warning: violence against squirrels is mentioned.
Living Change - Food and Corporate Sustainability with Sandeep Patel
Fun fact: the founder of PopSockets’ mission in life is to end factory farming. So how do phone accessories contribute to that? I never ever expected PopSockets to be an environmentally conscious company in any way. This kinda blew my mind, so I wanted to share this interview. Sandeep Patel, President & CFO at PopSockets, talks about how the company is trying to make an impact and the changes they’re hoping to inspire. It’s an interesting look at how even the companies you might think can’t contribute to sustainability, actually can and do. Nobody’s perfect but I’m thinking initiatives like this are certainly better than nothing? Their processes and internal approach is something that other companies could implement and might make more of a difference than planting lots of trees and using plastic straws.
Working - Recipe Design With Convenience in Mind
Fun fact: one cup of parsley, chopped and one cup of chopped parsley are two different things. What’s the difference? Obviously flavour, but also clarity in the recipe! Sometimes you don’t know how messy a recipe can be until you’re trying to follow one and you keep getting lost. This conversation is about focusing on approachability and clarity in food, over aesthetics. As someone who cooks a lot and sometimes helps a much smarter person with recipe development, I learned so much from this interview and it was a refreshing perspective in a world of Instagram-first food. You learn about food styling, food writing, and how to create recipes that are delicious, easy, and don’t care what the camera thinks of them. (transcript)
Special mention
The incredible Shreya Sharma launched a newsletter this week that is the most beautiful love letter to audio. Be prepared for thoughtful recommendations, perfectly niche playlists, and creative musings on all things audio. I can’t wait to read more!
More sweet treats
Proof that I’m turning my sister into a devoted podcast listener.
How to be a woman in podcasting, featuring Cristen Conger of Unladylike.
Did you know there’s noise pollution in the ocean?
Fun fact: the theme of this issue accidentally came together really well. So many things I listened to lately had really great fun facts! Thank you for reading! If you listened to something this week that made your heart sing, your imagination wander, or your brain ponder, I’d love to hear about it!
I’ve a learnt a lot of history from listening to podcasts like I didn’t know King Charles dated Princess Diana’s older sister before dating and marrying Princess Diana. I learnt this from an episode of Imagined Life.
Thank you for sharing my newsletter 🥺 Also can’t added the Esoteric History episode to my weekend queue 😆