Inventing The Credit Card

Independent horror film ‘White Zombie’, starring Bela Lugosi, premiered in New York City’s Rivoli Theatre on July 28th, 1932. It marked the first time that zombies had featured in a Hollywood picture - albeit as the result of an evil voodoo master in Haiti rather than a condition ...  Show more

Warner Brothers’ biggest animated star, Bugs Bunny, made his cartoon debut on July 27th, 1940, in A Wild Hare - though, at the time, he didn’t officially have a name… Though previous versions of the ‘wabbit had appeared in earlier Looney Tunes shorts, this incarnation - directed ...  Show more

When you think about it, credit cards are a pretty fascinating idea -- they're convenient, ubiquitous and, often, predatory. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore the strange origin story of the credit card.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

In May 1974, scratch cards went on sale for the first time in the US State of Massachusetts. Free giveaway and coupon games from stores had been commonplace across the USA during the 1950s and '60s – but players could easily cheat. The mathematician John Koza was hired to make th ...  Show more

Learn about why people tune out facts and trust their guts in medical emergencies; a Victorian-era version of credit cards; and how scientists are trying to add an eighth row to the periodic table of elements.People tune out facts and trust their guts in medical emergencies by Ke ...  Show more

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at the surprisingly interesting origin of the paperclip and why a person who had nothing to do with its design commonly gets all the credit for it, including having a giant statue of it made in his honor only a couple d ...  Show more