The Curse of Knowledge Meets The Valley of De...

Thomas Midgley's inventions caused his own death, hastened the deaths of millions of people around the world, and very nearly extinguished all life on land. Midgley and his employers didn't set out to poison the air with leaded gasoline or wreck the ozone layer with CFCs - but wh ...  Show more

We usually bring you failures of the past, but today we're sharing an episode from someone who uncovers failures as they happen. Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative climate journalist and the host of Drilled, a true-crime climate change podcast exposing how corporate ...  Show more

In World War II, a secret department of British ‘corkscrew thinkers’ hatched a plan to use the cadaver of an unclaimed homeless man to turn the tide of the war in the Allies’ favor. It worked. Learn all about it in this classic episode.

Who joined the Knights Templar? When not waging war, what did they get up to on a day-to-day basis? And how did they become associated with the Holy Grail? In this “Everything you wanted to know” episode, Emily Briffett speaks with Helen Nicholson to uncover the answers to your t ...  Show more

Back in the days before electricity, a peculiar tradition rose out of southeastern North Carolina. Over vast swaths of farmland, voices would ring out to say good morning, ask for help, or just to share a ditty. The old timers called this tradition “hollerin’.” Part singing and p ...  Show more

What if part of known history never actually happened? What can Santa teach us about the power of language in folklore? Multiple Conspiracy Realists write in with their own otherworldly, sometimes disturbing experiences. All this and more in this week's Listener Mail.

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