• The Colorado River Compact
    Apr 2 2026

    Deciding how to share water is pretty important stuff when there isn't much of it around. Today we dive into the Colorado River Compact.

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    37 mins
  • Short Stuff: Simple Spelling Movement
    Apr 1 2026

    Pretty much everyone agrees that English is a chaotic language. There are nutso rules of grammar and spelling other languages don’t have. More than once, movements have emerged to simplify English and each time they were beaten back with a vengeance.

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    13 mins
  • The Middle Class: Canary in the Gold Mine?
    Mar 31 2026

    Lots of nations gauge the health of their country by how the middle class is doing. There’s just one issue with that – no one can say exactly what defines the middle class. But even when you take a guess, it seems like the health isn’t so good these days.

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    53 mins
  • Selects: The Disappearance of Lars Mittank
    Mar 28 2026

    In 2014, a young German man walked into an airport in Bulgaria with a flight booked, then suddenly ran out leaving all his posessions behind, never to be heard from again. This classic episode tells the story of Lars Mittank.

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    43 mins
  • Malcom X
    Mar 26 2026

    Malcolm X was one of the most revered, feared leaders of the civil rights movement. In contrast to Martin Luther King, Jr., X advocated black self-reliance and separateness in American society and that equal rights should obtained by any means necessary.

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    56 mins
  • Short Stuff: Kentucky Meat Shower
    Mar 25 2026

    In 1876 it rained meat out of the clear blue sky on a homestead in Bath County, Kentucky. While the mystery of what happened will never be solved, the best explanation makes the story even weirder than it seems.

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    11 mins
  • The History of Fire
    Mar 24 2026

    The first fires came from lightning strikes. After that, no one is super sure when we started controlling it and then later, starting our own. But it's sure fun to speculate!

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    37 mins
  • Selects: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gin
    Mar 21 2026

    If there's one thing we've learned about Chuck over the years it's that he loves his gin. And he loves it even more now that understands it. Pour yourself a martini and cozy up to the classic gin-cast.

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    49 mins