Why Would You Ask That?

Join us as we learn about the incredible work of Dr. Harvey Wiley and his crusade against corporate greed, food lobbies, and small time fraudster's alike. One man's mission to make sure food is exactly what it says on the tin led to an insane experiment that laid the foundation for none other than the FDA. CW: Human Experimentation, Poison Consumption, Physical Illness, Several Minutes Talking Abo...

Part 3? Kind of. This episode is not about idioms but is from a question we received about "culture-bound syndromes" based on the idiom running amok from our Spilling the Beans episode. You don't need to have listened to parts 1 and 2 to understand this episode. It's all about how the term "culture-bound syndrome" was born and died in a flash. We take a look at what some of these syndromes were/ar...

It's aquatic. It's humanoid. It's arguably a mermaid. It was invented by anonymous forum posters and somehow ended up in a paranormal magazine next to a "real" 1958 sighting. This week we chase the Ningen from 2chan to Antarctica to your Pokédex, and detour through the wider world of monsters the internet built from scratch. CW : Whaling, Survival Situation Talk Music provided by Dark Fantasy Stud...

In 2023, Channel 4 aired a mockumentary called The British Miracle Meat , hosted by Gregg Wallace, that got 408 Ofcom complaints in 23 minutes flat. This week we get into how it pulled that off by borrowing a centuries-old literary con, and why horrifying your audience might genuinely be the most effective way to get anyone to care about a crisis they've been ignoring for years. CW: Simulated Cann...

Frozen in your own body, convinced something’s in the room with you? This mini unpacks what sleep paralysis is, why it can feel so terrifying, and how those night visits turned into stories of hags, nightmares, and bedroom demons. M shares personal experiences and practical tips for what you can actually do if your sleep is being disrupted. CW: Sleep Paralysis, Fear, Blood Mention (a few seconds),...

We take it easy this week and chat up food— favorite, fictional, and family recipes. It's a chance to learn a little more about your hosts and perhaps try a recipe they offer. Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support .

Michael Bay's use of explosions is meme-worthy, referenced in everything from US comedies to video games to even Japanese manga. How did he get here, and how did his EXPLOSIVE style find his success? CW: Explosions, Gun Use, House Fires, Exploitation of Women, Talk of the Military Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast...

Beneath our feet lies a labyrinth of cheese, specifically, American cheese. How much? The answer is more than a healthy amount of cheese, and the government put it there. The story of America's cheese caves stretches from WWII-era farm subsidies to Reagan-era welfare politics. It's weirder than you think. CW: Classism/Poverty, Food Insecurity, Politics Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [Lice...

Did you know human zoos, where real people from colonized lands were displayed like animals, ran until shockingly recently? From Ota Benga in the Bronx Zoo monkey house to 598 Congolese in Belgium's "village" exhibit, this episode uncovers the global history of human exhibitions, the pseudoscience that justified them, and why most people still don't know it happened. CW: violence, racism, kidnappi...

There's the usual laws, like no kissing your wife on Sunday, and then there's the law about keeping ice cream in your back pocket. Remy delivers on weird laws that are still on the books, some of which we can be arrested for very easily. Or may actively be breaking. And that you might be breaking. Right now. CW: Ableism / Disability exploitation, LGBTQ+ discrimination, Sexual content (brief/legal...

Echelon sounds like a conspiracy theory. A secret government project? Cold war private surveilling? And giant golf balls in the English countryside? This week we're digging into the full story of mass surveillance from Cold War spy networks to the devices sitting in our homes and asking how much privacy we actually have left. CW: Government Spying and Privacy Violation, War, Brief talk of 9/11 Mus...

Ed and Lorraine Warren of The Conjuring franchise and more get the WWYAT treatment: knock them down brick by brick. We address their rise to fame and subsequent drift into infamy, the Judith Penney allegations, and the media empire that buoyed their reputation. Please be mindful of the content warnings this episode. CW: Child Sexual Abuse/Statutory Rape Allegations, Grooming, Coerced Abortion Alle...

What is it like to experience the world at 400 frames per second? How quickly can cats see the world around them? How does it change the perception of time? This episode tackles the speed of reality. How fast can you see? CW: Harm to Animals Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support...

What if you could SMELL your movies? What if the protagonist walked on screen and you recognized their smell as much as their musical motif? This episode, Karen tells us about the history of Smell-O-Vision and how it briefly came to light in the movie theatre. Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-th...

What ARE the nephilim? Where did they come from and how did their existence prompt the Christian god to drown 99.999% of humanity? This episode dives in to explore the history and the conspiracy of nephilim. CW: Murder, Death, Religious Trauma   Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/sup...

Far to the north, the inukpasugjuit sleeps. Once there were giants of all sorts making their homes on the polar ice, but now we don't see even a silhouette in the distance. We meander into Inuit folklore this week, sharing what we could find on Inukpasugjuit. CW: Animal Harm (super briefly), Colonialism  Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://...

This week, Karen answers a listener's questions about the history and purpose of scales in music. Why do we use scales? Where did the come from? Let's find out! Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support .

You ever heard of the Bunny Man Bridge? That's fine, Karen and Remy hadn't either, not until M went and blasted them with having heard it first hand. Be prepared for hatchets and a variety of bunny suits and an absolute shredding of the looks of the bridge. CW: Murder, Discussion of Mental Illness Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spr...

Where are the mermaids? Why aren't they filing their taxes? I'll tell you why: GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY. They talked all about it in this documentary the ANIMAL PLANET showed back in— what's that? It wasn't a real documentary? It's a pseudodocumentary that had a hand in eroding media literacy and fostering distrust in government-backed science?! Now hold on... CW: Implied Harm to Animals, Death, Brie...

The typical American education ends in college. People pursue their passions, no matter how small, no matter how... atypical. This episode delves into some textbook "weird" college degrees and perhaps why they are not so weird as people believe, or why they truly are as weird as we think they are. And perhaps... we poke a bit at the USAmerican obsession with simply having a degree. Music provided...

Before clickbait headlines and conspiracy YouTubers, there was The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. Join us as we talk lunar lies, Victorian media chaos, and a fake discovery so elaborate it makes some modern conspiracy theories look tame. All that, and one astronomer who just wanted to mind his own telescope. Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://ww...

You ever wonder how plausible it would be to become a real life catgirl/catboy/catbeing? How close we are to having centaurs? Or perhaps you wonder if you could gain some cool animal powers if science just progressed far enough? Well guess what! Remy has the deets on human/animal chimera research! We also discuss the ethics of cannibalism. Again. CW: Animal Cruelty, Racism (briefly) Music provided...

In Russia lies a lake that could hold a sea dragon of either humble or magnificent proportions, which is either big enough to swallow men or small enough to hide, and maybe it glows, or maybe it breathes fire. I don't FUCKING know. This is more of a lesson in research than a lesson on Brosnya, but hey! Somewhere in here there is a dragon, just like Lake Brosno! CW: Big Fish with Big Teeth, Deep Wa...

We're back! We got a question from JJ about something very important: what do bugs think humans are? This episode we delve into bug perception, bug feelings, and bugs... as cows? CW: Bugs (Bees, Spiders, Mites, Flies mostly) Music provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support .

Hey, folks. This week, we have an announcement.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support .