Episodes

  • That Time the USA Tried to Make Hippo Farming a Thing

    That Time the USA Tried to Make Hippo Farming a Thing
    Sep 14 2025
    If you were to travel down the Rio Magdalena just north of the Columbian capital of Bogotá, you might just come across some rather out-of-place wildlife: a herd of African Hippopotamuses. The herd, which now numbers nearly 100, is descended from four individuals imported in the 1980s by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, and kept in a private zoo on his estate in Puerto Triunfo. When Escobar was killed in 1993, the hippos escaped into the surrounding rivers and multiplied…and multiplied, and multiplied. The enormous invasive species then proceeded to wreak havoc on the local ecosystem, destroying local plant life, disrupting the habitat of native animals like crocodiles and manatees, and killing fish with copious amounts of noxious faeces. If left unchecked, biologists fear the population could reach 1,000 by 2035, causing untold environmental damage. But as bizarre as this environmental crisis might seem, the exact same scenario might very well have played out in the United States more than 100 years ago, thanks to one of the strangest bills in U.S. congressional history. This is the wild and unlikely story of how the U.S. government tried to introduce hippo ranching to America. Host: Simon Whistler Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Sponsor note:  Our listeners get 10% off their first month at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    22 mins
  • The Fascinating Saga of History’s Largest Diamond

    The Fascinating Saga of History’s Largest Diamond
    Sep 12 2025
    “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” So wrote Samuel Johnson, the famed 18th Century polymath and founder of the modern English dictionary. And indeed, London offers many delights for the discerning traveller, from the iconic Houses of Parliament and St. Paul’s Cathedral to the theatres of the West End, the fashionable shops of Soho, and the countless world-class museums covering every subject imaginable. But no sojourn to the UK capital is complete without a visit to the Tower of London, the 11th century fortress and palace that has served many functions over the centuries, most infamously as a prison for some of British history’s greatest villains. It is also famously the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Among the centrepieces of this storied collection are the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign’s Sceptre With Cross, worn by British sovereigns during coronations and state openings of parliament. But in addition to their historic symbolic importance and sublime craftsmanship, these pieces have another claim to fame: they are both set with stones cut from the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered: the Cullinan, unearthed in South Africa in 1905. The story of how this massive stone came to reside among the Crown Jewels is a fascinating one, a tale of luck, subterfuge, and Colonial politics at the turn of the 20th Century. Author: Gilles Messier Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Sponsor note:  Our listeners get 10% off their first month at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    31 mins
  • ENOUGH! The First Astronaut Strike In Space... Allegedly

    ENOUGH! The First Astronaut Strike In Space... Allegedly
    Sep 10 2025
    People being unhappy with their job is not a rare occurrence. It is almost a given that, assuming you don’t work for me, there are many people in your office who want an exit as soon as possible, maybe even you. At some point, maybe you’ve even snapped and rebelled against your company overlords in some fashion. But as cool as you might have felt passive aggressively sending that urgent email three days late on purpose, you will never be as cool as those men who thumbed their noses at the $4 million (about $25.2 million today) being spent per day on their mission and said “not my problem” while in lower orbit…. Allegedly… Sponsor note:  Our listeners get 10% off their first month at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    33 mins
  • The Incredible Real Life Cold War Bond Villain Ice Lair

    The Incredible Real Life Cold War Bond Villain Ice Lair
    Sep 8 2025
    Ah, the ice lair! From Superman’s Fortress of Solitude to Ozymandias’s Antarctic headquarters in Watchmen to the Rebel Alliance’s Echo Base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, nothing quite exudes sophistication, rugged determination, or - pun intended - sheer cool than a hideout carved out of cold, hard snow and ice. But while certainly stylish and awesome, such sub-zero digs are surely the exclusive preserve of comic book heroes and villains, being too impractical to build in real life, right? Well, actually no! In the late 1950s, the United States Army actually attempted to build a supervillain ice lair of its own, carving an elaborate nuclear-powered base directly into the Greenland ice cap. While sold to the public as a peaceful research outpost, the facility actually had a far more sinister, secret purpose, which had it been completed would have further ratcheted up already high Cold War tensions. This is the forgotten and fascinating story of Project Iceworm. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila Sponsor note:  Our listeners get 10% off their first month at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    29 mins
  • 32 Seconds from Detonation- That Time the U.S. Almost Accidentally Nuked North Carolina... 3 Times

    32 Seconds from Detonation- That Time the U.S. Almost Accidentally Nuked North Carolina... 3 Times
    Sep 6 2025
    The Cold War, lasting from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was one of the most dangerous periods in human history. For nearly five decades, the communist East and capitalist West eyed each other suspiciously across the Iron Curtain, precariously balanced on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. Numerous intercontinental ballistic missiles sat ready in their silos, nuke equipped submarines prowled the oceans, while nuclear-armed strategic bombers patrolled the skies, all ready at a moment’s notice to unleash their apocalyptic payloads. With so much nuclear ordnance flying about, accidents could - and did - happen. Many of these near-misses have already been covered in previous videos such as That Time the Moon Nearly Started World War 3 (and Other Silly Cold War Shenanigans), Fire, Ice, and Plutonium, That Time the U.S. Air Force Lost a Nuke in the Mediterranean, and When Dropping a Wrench Almost Caused Armageddon; as well as Did a Scientific Experiment Really Nearly Start WWII in 1995? But none of these close calls were as horrifyingly close as a 1961 accident that nearly turned the entire U.S. state of North Carolina into a radioactive wasteland and the massive loss of life that would have come with that - and was only prevented from doing so by a single, shockingly crude electrical component. This is the disturbing story of the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Daven Hiskey Sponsor note:  Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • Nikola Tesla's Rather Peculiar Childhood and Oddities (Daven & Gilles)

    Nikola Tesla's Rather Peculiar Childhood and Oddities (Daven & Gilles)
    Sep 5 2025
    In today's episode, Gilles Messier and Daven Hiskey do a deep dive into Nikola Tesla's childhood and many of his rather peculiar oddities. In the mid-19th century, the Austrian Empire, which stretched for over a thousand miles (1600 km) from Italy to Ukraine, was a place of contradictions. The ruling patriarch, Minister of the Interior Baron Alexander von Bach, was on the one hand something of a despot, abolishing public trials, reducing the freedom of the press and imprisoning political opponents. Conversely, his rule also saw the relaxing of economic laws, the demise of internal custom duties and peasants freed from their feudal obligations. It was during this time, in the small village of Smiljan, situated within the Empire’s military frontier (now modern-day Croatia) that Nikola Tesla was born on July 9th or 10th (with the confusion owing to the time at around midnight), 1856, the fourth of five children. Tesla’s father, Milutin, was a priest, and the family soon moved to nearby Gospić, where his parish was located. From the beginning, Tesla was seemingly a rather brilliant child, though Tesla claims his father discouraged scientific academic pursuit, hoping Tesla would become a priest himself someday and doggedly stuck to this point. Even, according to Tesla, restricting his study, with Tesla partially attributing this to the death of his apparently brilliant older brother Dane, back when Tesla was 5 years old.... Author: Daven Hiskey Hosts: Gilles Messier and Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • The Incredible Tale of Inventing Walmart

    The Incredible Tale of Inventing Walmart
    Aug 13 2025
    With their endless aisles, their bountiful racks chock full of discounted merchandise, Walmart stores have firmly wedged themselves into the hearts and minds of most Americans, especially within those neural circuits in charge of household budgeting. At this point, Walmart may as well be considered one of the great, all-American institutions, an essential fiber within the fabric of Star-Spangled capitalism. Or, on the other side, some might say Walmart is everything wrong with the business world today, ruthlessly dominating anyone who even hints at competing with them, and otherwise strong arming everyone from government officials to manufacturers to get their way. But whether you love to hate it, or hate to love it … you certainly can’t ignore Walmart. But how did the world’s largest retailer, with gross annual sales double that of the next up in amazon, start and grow to the behemoth we have today, let alone so insanely rapidly? Well, put on some Lynyrd Skynyrd, grab your guns, flannel, and a Budweiser, and let’s dive into the fascinating story of how one man changed how the world shops. Authors: Arnaldo Teodorani and Daven Hiskey Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen 0:00 Intro 2:51 An Incredible Humble Beginning and Sickening Overachiever 6:07 Continuing to Sickeningly Overachieve in College 8:43 After College Scatterbrained Hard Worker 10:24 WWII and a Dream Girl 12:33 A Beginning and Some Key Choices 18:40 A Huge Mistake, Overcoming, and Expansion 22:18 A New Breed of Store to Change the Game 25:40 Going it Alone and Risking It All 28:06 Go Big or Go Home 30:52 The Methods to the Madness 44:12 The Passing of a Titan 45:56 Good or Bad- The Walmart Controversy Sponsor note:  Give online therapy a try at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠ and get on your way to being your best and happier self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 mins
  • Why Did Japan Join the Nazis? (Given, You Know, the Nazis Explicitly Hated Non-Aryans)

    Why Did Japan Join the Nazis? (Given, You Know, the Nazis Explicitly Hated Non-Aryans)
    Aug 11 2025
    Discover the complex relationship between Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II. Learn about the Tripartite Pact, their conflicting ideologies, and the consequences of their loose alliance. Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Sponsor note:  Give online therapy a try at ⁠betterhelp.com/BrainFoodShow⁠ and get on your way to being your best and happier self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 mins