Stuff You Should Know

A quirky historical tale about how Vietnamese immigrants came to dominate U.S. nail salons. It touches on postwar migration, low-cost manicure technology, and accessible training that turned into a nationwide trade. The story follows a celebrity's visit to a refugee camp and how hands-on instruction helped launch a booming industry.

A lively tour of modern humanism and its roots from Cicero through the Enlightenment. They explore how secular rituals, ethical movements, and manifestos shaped a life stance. The conversation covers notable humanist figures, debates over meaning and ethics, and practical ways people craft purpose without belief in an afterlife.

They explore why people label films as cursed and how coincidence and risky filmmaking fuel those stories. Tales of on-set injuries, mysterious deaths, and production disasters crop up from The Wizard of Oz to The Omen. Radiation fallout and strange coincidences around The Conqueror and unmade films like Atuk get discussed. The segment finishes by unpacking why cursed-movie myths stick.

A hidden presidential retreat gets the spotlight. They trace its New Deal beginnings, FDR’s makeover into Shangri-La, and the wartime intrigue around Churchill visits and nearby OSS training. There’s also secluded diplomacy, presidential quirks, intense security, and the surprisingly detailed world of cabins, cooks, carts, and pools.

Why kangaroos are the only marsupials that hop. A look at their odd body plan, rainforest ancestors, and the evolutionary path from climbing to bounding. It also gets into the oversized fourth toe, springy tendons, and balancing tail that make their movement so unusual.

A revered aircraft maker shifts from engineering pride to shareholder pressure. The story follows a rushed jet design, a hidden software patch, weak oversight, and two devastating crashes. It also gets into hearings, whistleblowers, a midair door-plug blowout, and how a profit-first culture spiraled into a public disaster.

A mind-bending look at Julian Jaynes' claim that modern consciousness arose only a few thousand years ago. They explore the idea of auditory 'god' commands replacing inner speech in ancient people. Language, metaphor, writing, and societal change get tied to the rise of introspection. Ancient texts, split-brain research, and childhood development are used to probe this controversial theory.

A playful deep dive into maple syrup: tapping and why sugar maples reign. They trace Indigenous and colonial processing methods and modern tech like vacuum tubing and reverse osmosis. Climate threats, tree health rules, and Quebec’s huge production get attention. Plus maple products, culinary uses, grading, and the notorious maple syrup heist.

They dive into why third molars exist and how human jaw changes and diet made them problematic. Personal stories about removal and anesthesia spark laughs. The discussion covers impaction, missing wisdom teeth, and the debate over when to extract versus keep healthy molars. Surgical risks and odd anesthesia tales round out the conversation.

A deep dive into the rise of the Save the Whales movement and how grassroots tactics pushed conservation into mainstream culture. Stories of dramatic industrial whaling, daring direct-action tactics at sea, and iconic photo campaigns that shifted public opinion. An exploration of the international moratorium, surprising recovery stats, lingering whaling debates, and modern threats like bycatch and climate change.