In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out with an appetizer looking at how chopsticks came to be and why they became so popular in certain parts of the world vs things like spoons and forks. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor… Ourselves! Go check out our new-ish channel Highlight History, an upcoming re-launch / re-thin…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out with an appetizer looking at whether chastity belts were ever actually a thing in medieval times or if it is just a Hollywood invention. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor… Ourselves! Go check out our new-ish channel Highlight History, an upcoming re-launch / re-think of Fact Qu…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out with an appetizer looking at the film The Knight’s Tale and the very real historic knight Ulrich von Liechtenstein and what the real guy actually got up to. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor… Ourselves! Go check out our new-ish channel Highlight History and Simon’s latest attem…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out with an appetizer looking at how the slipping on a banana peel comedy gag got started. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor NordVPN. Get 68% off NordVPN! Only $3.71/mo, plus you get an additional month FREE at https://nordvpn.com/brainfoodshow Or use coupon code: brainfoodshow Nex…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out with an appetizer looking at how soap actually works to get rid of microbes. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor NordVPN. Get 68% off NordVPN! Only $3.71/mo, plus you get an additional month FREE at https://nordvpn.com/brainfoodshow Or use coupon code: brainfoodshow Next up, we h…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out looking at why the toilet is called the “Crapper” and the “John”. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor Skillshare. For a limited time, use the following link to get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: http://skillshare.com/brainfood Next up, we discuss all about what Me…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out looking at the rather interesting way the couple hundred million dollar Hope Diamond has been transported a couple times. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor Skillshare for 2 months for free here: http://skillshare.com/brainfood Next up, we discuss how diamonds went from a mostly…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out looking at the rather curious phenomenon of the average of your friends being happier, wealthier, and more successful than you. Next up we have a brief message from our sponsor Backblaze and unlimited automatic backup service for just $6 a month. Try it for free for 15-days! http://backblaze.…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are start out looking at whether there is actually any difference between various men’s and women’s bathroom products like shaving cream, razors, etc and why women pay more for basically everything. We also have a brief message from a sponsor, Skillshare. Help support this show and learn a lot of interesti…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are looking at the difference between a number of things, kicking it off with the difference between BCE/CE and BC/AD systems of dating and the rather fascinating story of how those systems came to be. We also have a brief message from a sponsor, Skillshare. Help support this show and learn a lot of intere…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are looking at the difference between a number of things, kicking it off with the difference between hardwood and softwood…. which you’d think you already know, but we’re guessing for most, you don’t actually know the difference. We also have a brief message from a sponsor, Skillshare. Help support this sh…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the first woman in the United States to cast a political vote who for reasons we’ll get into did it with her feet… We also have a brief message from a sponsor, Skillshare. Help support this show and learn a lot of interesting new skills, as well as TWO MONTHS FREE using the following li…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are looking at the man Frank Capra based the character of George Bailey on in It’s a Wonderful Life, and how this rather remarkable individual went on to shape quite a bit of history in a certain region of America, in a very positive way despite that almost nobody has ever heard his name. This is all rathe…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at why Fox tried so hard to trick people into thinking Miracle on 34th Street was not a Christmas movie when it came out. We then look at why movie trailers are called that and a bit on the evolution of them, and then look at why Miracle on 34th Street was deemed Morally Objectionable in …

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at the interesting reason why milk is white, yet cheddar cheese is yellow/orange. Next up, we have a brief message from our sponsor, Blinkist, which gives you the key ideas from more than 3,000 bestselling nonfiction books in just 15 minutes instead of having to listen to the full audiobo…

*Sorry the audio is a little funky on this one. But don’t skip it, it’s one of our best content-wise, in my opinion. As to the audio, we had multiple technical issues that ended up resulting in us having to use the combined live, streamed audio (rather than our local recordings), which in turn had issues beyond the normal streaming audio across the…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at that time the United States government banned pre-sliced bread… Really. Next up, we have a brief message from a sponsor, Blinkist, which gives you the key ideas from more than 3,000 bestselling nonfiction books in just 15 minutes instead of having to listen to the full audiobook or rea…

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 decades ago. Next up, we have a brief message from our sponsor Skillsha…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at 19th century practical joke that occurred in London that is arguably the greatest of the century. Next up, we have a brief message from a new sponsor, Blinkist, which gives you the key ideas from more than 3,000 bestselling nonfiction books in just 15 minutes instead of having to liste…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at how “Dick” came to be short for “Richard”. Next up, we have a brief message from one of our favorite and most useful sponsors- Backblaze! Backblaze really is super cheap and takes almost no time or effort to get setup and working. Unlimited automatic backups for your computer for just …

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at why superheroes wear their underwear on the outside. Next up, we have a brief message from our sponsor, Jeremy Scott, perhaps best known for his work on CinemaSins, but also the author of the books “The Ables” and the sequel that just came out, “Strings”, both of which you can order he…

*Just an addendum to one of the tangents I forgot to mention- pulling up like crazy in a plane while rapidly hurtling towards the ground is a phenomenal way to ensure the wings of the plane cease to remain attached to it. In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at the little known much more massive big brother to the Roman Colo…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start with the rather curious way in which George Eastman, founder of Kodak, died. Next up, we have a brief message from our sponsor, Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of amazing classes covering dozens of creative and entrepreneurial skills. You can take classes in ever…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we skip the quick fact because this one took forever to research and put together and I ran out of time. Instead we jump right into the main topic which is a very real phenomenon that popped up off and on for several hundred years called Dance Mania or St. Vitus’ Dance. While it might sound like a bit of a jo…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at whether or not male humans can get pregnant and carry a baby to full term naturally. (Spoiler- yes and yes. And even breastfeed too! It doesn’t even require fancy science or advanced medical techniques.) Moving on to the meat of today’s episode, we jump into a variety of bizarre animal …

Sorry for the long gap between episodes. We’ll be getting a bit more regular going forward. Also apologies for my audio quality in this one. Adobe kept crashing on me, so we had to use the audio Simon was receiving which isn’t ideal. Also a bit under the weather and lost my voice before recording, so maybe for the best that I wasn’t coming through …

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at how exactly Al Capone got the scars that got him the nickname “Scarface”. Moving on to the meat of today’s episode, we jump into the rather interesting story behind one of the many so called “trial of the century” of the 20th century. In this case involving a housewife and her lover and…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the interesting story behind where the Monopoly pieces came from. Next we discuss our sponsor, RetailMeNot. Visit http://bit.ly/2BXvyAk to download the free RetailMeNot Genie browser extension today and start saving the easy way. Moving on to the meat of today’s episode, we jump into th…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the massive creature that has a doughnut shaped brain with its esophagus running right through the middle. Next we discuss Wix! Go to https://www.wix.com/go/brainfood to get started on your website today! Check out our website at https://brainfood.fm Next up we begin by looking at the f…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the mind blowing things caterpillars get up to while in the chrysalis. Next we discuss Wix! Go to https://www.wix.com/go/brainfood to get started on your website today! Check out our website at https://brainfood.fm Next up we begin by looking at the fascinating way in which honey bees, …

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather fascinating fact about dogs and cats that you probably didn’t know. Next we discuss Wix! Go to https://www.wix.com/go/brainfood to get started on your website today! Check out our website at https://brainfood.fm Next up we begin by debunking a variety of common whale related my…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start with a Simon rant, then look at what the M’s stand for in M&Ms. Next we discuss one of our favorite sponsors, Dashlane! Get 10% off with the coupon code “brainfood”: http://www.dashlane.com/brainfood Next up we look at when exactly humans started putting living things in food items for the purpose of…

*Apologies for the audio quality on this one, simultaneously our audio editor / producer was on vacation and a certain host was also a great distance away from his acoustically treated studio. In any event, in this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at what exactly grog is, where it came from, and the origin of the name. Next up we…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a Christmas gift that resulted in one of the more celebrated books of all time. Next up we briefly mention our sponsor- go to https://wix.com/go/brainfood to get started on your Wix website today! And check out our new website for the Brainfood Podcast at https://www.brainfood.fm/ Movin…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a couple rather bizarre Spanish Christmas traditions involving holiday defecating… Next up we briefly mention our sponsor- go to https://wix.com/go/brainfood to get started on your Wix website today! And check out our new website for the Brainfood Podcast at https://www.brainfood.fm/ Mo…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the rather humorous original name for the song Silver Bells. Moving on to the main content today we’re looking at the truth about the origin of the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” and what’s the deal with the weird lyrics. After that, we look at the truth about the origin of the Candy C…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at whether poinsettias are actually poisonous or not. Next we discuss today’s sponsor. If you’re interested, go to https://wix.com/go/brainfood to get started on your Wix website today! And check out our new website for the Brainfood Podcast at https://www.brainfood.fm/. Moving on to the m…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we look at one of my favorite stories I’ve ever researched. But before that, we begin by looking at what could have been wrong with Tiny Tim that simply throwing money at the problem could have fixed given 19th century medicine. Next we discuss today’s sponsor. If you’re interested, go to https://wix.com/go/b…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at the real reason turkeys are called turkeys. Next we discuss today’s sponsor, Lumerit education, which is a service to help you figure out the cheapest/fastest/best way to finish college or pick up a degree, and if you like even from the convenience of your own home, with the degrees iss…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather interesting fact about Pulp Fiction and Samuel L Jackson’s character’s most famous lines in the film. We then move on to briefly mentioning our sponsor for today- Wix.com, where you can go to create awesome looking, exceptionally easy/fast to create websites for free, as we did…

*Note: This is still a little out of order, as we are needing to further delay publishing of the Tech History Part 3 owing to, ironically enough, technical difficulties. We’ll have it up within the week most likely though. In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at what literal battleships had to do with the creation of the Slin…

*Note: This is a little out of order, but we had to delay publishing of the Tech History Part 3 owing to, ironically enough, technical difficulties. We’ll have it up soon enough. But for now, in this Halloween special of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at whether it’s actually safer to use a crosswalk instead of a just jaywalking as well a…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a the absolutely bizarre way bedbugs mate. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show on who invented the Internet and how it works. We also look at who invented email and the web, and what Al Gore had to do with all this. On another note, if you could do us a huge favor and rate a…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a quick fact surrounding what Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Genesis had to do with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Next we discuss our sponsor for this episode, Backblaze. Seriously, one of Simon and I’s favorite services and is ridiculously cheap and easy to setup. Just in…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we’re looking at the story of an intelligent, sweet little girl who was given up to an orphanage and then grew up to have a rather successful career as a nurse… and just so happens to be one of the most notorious female serial killers in history. On another note, if you could do us a huge favor and rate and r…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing a random quick fact involving the parents of Ferris Bueller on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. We then move on to discussing the show’s sponsor, Dashlane, which is a great free password management service. You can also get a free month of their premium version and then 10% off thereafter by u…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing a random quick fact involving the curious old practice of mailing children. We then move on to discussing the show’s first sponsor, RXBar. For 25% off your first order, visit https://rxbar.com/brainfood and enter the promo code: brainfood Next we move into the main content for today’s e…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing the clandestine way Niel Armstrong managed to get his application to the astronaut program in despite submitting it past the deadline. We then look at why he got to be first to walk on the moon when precedent should have had it been Buzz Aldrin. Next up we look at the oft’ forgotten sec…

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing the real origin of Tang and what that has to do with Pop Rocks and how they work. We then move on to the interesting story behind the invention of Velcro and how it works. Next up we look at whether NASA really spent many millions of dollars developing the famous “space pen” instead of …

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we begin by discussing the first space walk in which the cosmonaut in question very nearly got stuck out there and his adventures thereafter. We then move on to discussing how the idea that the moon is made of green cheese got started. Next up we discuss the late 1950s plan the United States had to nuke the m…