Fascinating Nouns

American Slide Chart: The Carol Stream, Illinois Company That Has Been Quietly Running the Analog World Since 1970 Most people have never heard of American Slide Chart. But if you’ve ever spun a cocktail mixing wheel, used an HVAC sizing chart, or received a popup college acceptance letter, you’ve almost certainly held one of their products without knowing it. In this episode of Fascin...

In this bonus episode, Scott and I discuss the importance of Fire Walk With Me, how Mark and David timed The Return to debut almost 25 years to the day after the finale of season 2, the hidden darkness of Twin Peaks, and how Mark Frost is a prolific sports writer.

Twin Peaks Untold: The Real Story Behind TV’s Most Influential Show Few television shows have left a mark on popular culture as deep and lasting as Twin Peaks. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost and premiering on ABC in 1990, Twin Peaks didn’t just tell the story of who killed Laura Palmer — it rewrote the rules of what television could be, pioneering serialized storytelling, dream...

In this bonus episode, we discuss the Albert Belmont, the 1800’s version of George Costanza, how the sex party in Eyes Wide Shut was actually based on a real Rothschild ball, and the origins of Jewish Space Lasers.

What if the world’s most famous conspiracy theory is built entirely on myths, misquotes, and a pamphlet from 1846? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with author Mike Rothschild — yes, that Rothschild — to dig into his book Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories , and trace the Rothschild myth from a Frankfurt Jewish ghetto...

In this bonus episode, Eddie and I discuss the Zodiac ciphers, his possible identity, and the existence of the REAL Zodiac killer, a guy who killed by using astrology.

What if the Zodiac Killer never existed? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with former Port Authority NY/NJ officer, 9/11 first responder, and author Eddie McNamara to dig into his book Zodiac Actually: The True Story of a Fake Serial Killer — and the case he makes is more convincing than you might expect. Eddie McNamara spent years tracking down court records, i...

*Disclaimer* This episode goes blue. You’ve been warned. What do a rubber chicken, a Tibetan singing bowl, and a hula girl figurine all have in common? They all have deeply, deeply messed up thoughts — and Elisabeth Saake is here to tell you exactly what they are. In this episode I sit down with author and associate publisher Elisabeth Saki to dig into her two wildly funny books: House Plant...

What happens when the first and only person allowed into Stephen King’s private archives sits down to talk about what she found? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with Dr. Caroline Bicks, author of Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King , for a wide-ranging conversation about horror, language, childhood trauma, and the secret sauce behi...

In this bonus episode, Steven and I explore the more strange and mystical elements of time expansion, including spiritual awakenings and near death experiences.  With both of these, time can seem to stop or cease completely.  We also talk about life reviews, their relation to precognitive events, and how that relates to the block universe!  Yeah, we pack quite a bit into these 10 minutes.

What if you could slow down time — without getting into a car accident? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with psychologist and author Dr. Steven Taylor to explore one of the most fascinating phenomena in human experience: time expansion. We dig into the science behind why time seems to slow to a crawl during car crashes, emergencies, and near-death situations —...

He was more famous than the mayor of New York — and one of the biggest fraudsters in American history. In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with author Gary Weiss, author of Retail Gangster: The Fall of Crazy Eddie , to unravel the wild true story of Eddie Antar — the man behind the iconic “his prices are insane!” commercials that dominated New York airw...

In this episode Amelia and I go beyond the science and discuss the more supernatural elements of communicating with animals, which include animal psychics and prescient dreams.  And it all starts with a distinct giggling in the trees…

Since before the publication of Dr. Doolittle, we have been obsessed with communicating with animals.  Whether it’s out pet dog or the squirrel he’s chasing in the backyard, we would love to know what these creatures are thinking.  That is exactly what motivated Amelia Thomas to write her book ‘What Sheep Think about the Weather’, which documents her attempts at understandi...

If you know the name Dan Meyer, it is because he is the world’s foremost expert on sword swallowing.  He has had several appearances on America’s Got Talent, he has a famous Ted Talk, and he even has an IG Nobel Prize for his work documenting injuries sustained while swallowing swords.  What people don’t know is that for as impressive as this body of work is, it pales in comparison to his lifelong...

How far back do your memories go?  Do you remember your kiss with little Susie in second grade?  Can you remember your Kindergarten teacher’s name?  What do you remember about the day you were born?  My guess is, even if you CAN remember any of these things, the details are pretty fuzzy.  Not so for today’s guest Rebecca Sharrock.  She has a rare condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical M...

Italian mobsters were not the only ones who wanted to control an entire musical genre.  Rap Mogul Suge Knight followed the formula of the Mafia by controlling the lives of up-and-coming rappers, and beating/killing the competition.  Just ask Vanilla Ice.

Today, it is a given that Rock ‘N Roll is still one of the most popular and lucrative music genres in the world, but this was not always the case.  In the 1950’s, it was an upstart musical movement that was nothing like the contemporary songs of the day.  It needed a push, and that push came from an unlikely source:  The Mafia.  The Mob realized the potential of this new music, and they made it th...

There is nothing more ubiquitous in human existence than waste.  To live is to produce refuse.  And there are so many kinds of waste:  Human, household, digital to name a few.  But what is waste really?  Turns out, the definition is pretty fluid.  In this episode I talk to John Scanlan, author of “ The Idea of Waste ” to get to bottom of this garbage pile.  What I find there is shocking.  We discu...

Initially I wanted this episode to come out during spring training this year, but now that the Cubs have clinched a playoff spot, this is a much better time to discuss Al Yellon’s new book “Chicago Cubs Firsts”.  We discuss the great players like Ernie Banks and Ryne Sandberg, as well as broadcasters Harry Caray and Vin Scully.  We also explore early baseball rules, how the Cubs got their name, an...

Henry and I talked for an hour about how the downfall of the human race was not only inevitable, but imminent.  Or is it?  In this bonus episode, Henry breaks down his plans for saving the human race.

Way back in the bonus episode to ep. 201, Henry Gee and I discuss his article on how the human race is in decline.  A better term would be free fall.  Well, he expanded that article into an entire book, and we finally get to discuss it!  It turns out, as soon as Homo sapiens dominated their competition, and emerged from Africa as the apex predator on Earth, their fate was sealed.  With no one to c...

In a quiet theater, you sit and stare at a scene unfolding before your eyes, the participants unaware of your presence.  This excites you, and you just can’t seem to pull your eyes away.  That is because you, like everyone else who watches movies, is a voyeur, someone who loves to watch when others can’t see them.  This is essential to cinema, and Jimmy and I will discuss how this came...

No matter what movie you are watching, there is a high likelihood that some form of mental illness will be presented there.  Whether it is a masked psychopath in the latest horror movie, or an OCD partner in the new buddy cop film, humans seem to be unable to look away from crazy.  But how accurate are these portrayals?  Psychiatrist and closeted cinephile Dr. James “Jimmy” Charney wal...

Almost every culture on the planet has stories of some sort of “Wild Man” creature, whether it is Sasquatch, Yeti, Skunk Apes, Yowie, Wendigo, Yeren, etc.  Here in The States we call this creature “Bigfoot”, and proof of their existence is elusive at best.  Almost as elusive as John O’Connor, who’s book “ The Secret History of Bigfoot ” details his t...