Commute | The Podcast

 Fifty years ago, a simple yet complicated puzzle game was created. This week, we look back at the fun - and frustration - of the Rubik’s Cube. Grocery store shopping seems straightforward, but it’s not. Every square inch is constructed to manipulate you to stay longer and spend more.  For all the world-famous Olympic athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, like Simone Biles, there will also be ordin...

The basket of bread often appears before you even place your order and is never listed on the final bill. How did restaurants get started giving away free food? The Surgeon General’s recent New York Times op-ed, warning of the potential harm social media can have on young people, provocatively equated internet risks to smoking cigarettes. This isn’t the first time the Surgeon General has had a pro...

It's vacation season around here... but we'll be back next week with an all-new episode! _ It’s not uncommon to have something lost in the mail, but typically it’s not something irreplaceable … like human remains. Is it hard to make new friends as an adult, or is it just you? Traveling internationally soon?  We have your back with our guide to proper etiquette across borders and cultures...

Jaywalking- crossing the road wherever you please instead of at a crosswalk or stoplight - is a crime. But it wasn’t the police department’s idea. Ah, summer. Vacations and outdoor fun … and mosquitoes. Are they more particular choosing victims than we think?  And what’s up with the itch? Recently, a vintage toy set an incredible record sale price at a collectibles auction. What are people thinkin...

Who decided that the Earth would be called the Earth? It’s been a century since a physician's own weight loss journey introduced the concept of counting calories. We still do that, but is it the best approach? Famed physicist Stephen Hawking once held a dinner party where every guest shared the same peculiarity - they were from the future. Who showed up? Sources: https://www.livescience.com/3...

More than 10 million households own timeshares. You can also buy one online for $1. The story behind Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe is more than weird - it’s actually pretty dark. The Old Farmers Almanac has been around  since the late 1700s and is as relevant and popular today as ever. What’s its secret? Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-a-timeshare-cbs-news-explains/ https://www.financialpoi...

Ketchup is considered the king of condiments but Ranch, uniquely both a dressing and a dip, wears the crown when it comes to sales.  Who came up with this great idea? The hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer is based on a true story of a stalker terrorizing a struggling standup comedian. The real stalker has seen it. She isn’t happy. May midterm elections are over. Until November, the political signs do...

We'll have a new episode next week, but this week, we revisit one of our most popular episodes from 2023: We’ve all failed. Most of us would rather not talk about it, but the Museum of Failure does more than talk about failures. It celebrates them. U.S. airlines lose millions of pieces of luggage annually. Most of them don’t just vanish, they end up in the same place. (It’s not the landfill.)...

You know the healthy average human temperature is 98.6 … but it’s not, and we’ve known that for over three decades.  The Statue of Liberty is world famous - but is the  iconic sculpture based on a real person? Pop Tarts changed breakfast 60-years ago. It was the prize in a high-stakes race between rival cereal-makers to get to the toaster pastry finish line first.   Sources: https://www.mentalflos...

Who decides what time it actually is? France tried to change it once. It involved decimals. Many of us shower once a day. Do we need to? Does it do more harm than good? Americans throw away $70 million in coins every year. One company decided to go dumpster diving. Sources: https://www.engadget.com/that-time-france-tried-to-make-decimal-time-a-thing-143600302.html https://www.bbc.com/culture/artic...

Have you been excited to see a movie but also frustrated because it was years away from release? What if it wouldn’t be released until after you were dead, and what if that was the plan? Smokey Bear has been warning people about the dangers of forest fires for decades. But where did he come from? Is he up something more than simply preventing fires? Peanuts, the beloved comic strip with Charlie Br...

One day, everyone in Japan will have the same last name.  Art takes time - unless it doesn’t. Some hit songs have come together rather quickly.  William Henry Harrison served as President of the United States for a month. What happened? Sources: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/japan-sato-only-name-by-2531-marriage-law https://www.businessinsider.com/songs-took-short-amount-of-time-to...

Some people make money from corporate jobs, while others find a way to be their own boss. Matt Farley does a little of both. Oh, and it’s often by way of songs about bathroom humor. Today we collectively experience something that doesn’t happen often - a total solar eclipse. Can we look at it, even for a split-second? How will pets react? Conventional wisdom says we need 7-8 hours of sleep per nig...

When we think of execution methods, the guillotine seems quick and therefore painless. Maybe not… Chocolate Chip Ice Cream was once an in-demand flavor. Are we now on the brink of it going away… forever? Americans just spent $5 billion on Easter Candy, a lot of it in the form of chocolate bunnies. How did this creature become so seasonally popular? Sources: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/5025...

Hotels and airlines avoid it. More than 1/3 of Americans say they fear it. What makes #13 so bad? Did you attempt the Presidential Physical Fitness test in your elementary school P.E. class?  Did you pass?  Did an actual president declare that we should do this? During Covid, more than 50 million people registered as active bird watchers - the most participants in any sport in America and, now pos...

*Episode 118 Rebroadcast* The iconic Apple logo features an apple with a bite missing. How did they decide on that image? It depends on who you ask. Some are heroes in a traditional way and save a puppy from a burning building or rescue someone from drowning. Then some are like Roger Anderson and go after telemarketers.  Would you trade your friends in for a free cheeseburger? Well, a few days, Bu...

England offers incredible tea selections and passionate soccer fans. They also drive on the other side of the road. Iowa Hawkeye basketball standout Caitlin Clark hasn't just broken records and won a lot of games, she's had an impact that goes beyond the court.  Years ago, a rat fell into wet cement in Chicago leaving an outline of its body in the sidewalk. The neighborhood thought this...

A recent real-life Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seemed too good to be true. Spoiler alert - it was. Have you ever wondered why we pronounce Arkansas like that? So have we, and we decided to find out why.  Can we blame bad or strange behavior on a full moon? Intelligent people have figured this out. Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/world/europe/willy-wonka-experience-glasgow.html ht...

History is filled with stories that seem too fantastic to be true … and then there’s Archimedes and his death ray. Private label generic brands are the more affordable option to store brands at your local supermarket. But who makes this stuff, and is it true that it’s secretly made by the name brand company it’s competing against?! As we’ve discussed on the show before, food expiration dates are s...

Sometimes, if you’re a Sriracha fan and you want THE Sriracha - the original OG version with the cartoon rooster - you’re out of luck. Is it a supply chain issue as everyone assumes … or something deeper? It’s hard to go a day without seeing a State Farm Insurance commercial featuring the iconic Jake from State Farm. But Jake is a real person (though that’s not his real name), and being famous isn...

We’re fresh off of watching the Super Bowl - but besides the Super Bowl there was the Puppy Bowl! Where did this come from, and why do so many advertisers want in? Betty Crocker, The Jolly Green Giant - these fictional characters are fun representatives for food brands that consumers can form connections with.  Then there's Chef Boyardee. Eighty-seven years ago, Amelia Earhart vanished during...

Americans average nearly 30 minutes in the car to get to work and back, and they hate it. This week, what we can do to improve the experience. Movies spectacles cost millions of dollars. One thing that’s not in the budget? Fighter jets. Taylor Swift made both the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs a lot of money. We’ll tell you how and how much. Sources: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/taylor-swift-...

Why is raising the middle finger offensive? How did the idea evolve? You dip a chip and take a bite. Now, what do you do with the other half? Does it matter what month your birthday occurs? Some turn out to be better than others. Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/22/world/middle-finger-gesture-explained-cec?cid=ios_app https://theconversation.com/is-double-dipping-a-food-safety-problem-or-just-...

It looks so easy in movies, but what does it take to hire a hitman in the real world? In the 90’s, McDonald’s was the largest playground provider in the nation, but recently McDonalds Play Places have been disappearing. What happened? Heads or tails? Does it matter which you choose? A group of researchers decided to find out. Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/14/nyregion/hit-men-are-easy-to...

For most of its 110-year history, Stanley drinkware has not been particularly cool.  Suddenly, the Stanley Tumbler has now become a status symbol across high school and college campuses. How did this happen? In the early 1980s, cockroaches were everywhere, from homes across America to the halls of the White House. This seemingly indestructible insect was impossible to stop. Then one man had an ide...