NO SUCH THING

It’s been known for years now that men aren’t the best at asking follow-up questions on dates with women. But a more specific version of this phenomenon has emerged: men aren’t even asking other men follow-up questions, even their good friends! With the help of “mindful masculinity” expert Liz Plank , we get to the bottom of why men don’t know anything about the...

This week, we look into why car headlights seem like they've gotten so much brighter in recent years than they used to be. And, is there any hope for a shift back to a more reasonable brightness level? Our guest today is Daniel Stern, a lighting expert and chief editor of Driving Vision News . Additional music by Certain Self . For more, including links to some of the research cited in this episod...

This week, we take a look into a rather divisive issue: school cell phone bans. With more and more states introducing legislature to ban mobile devices in schools, we take a look at the cases for and against the restrictions. Our guests today are Sabine Polak from the Phone-Free Schools Movement and Keri Rodrigues from the National Parents Union . For more, including links to some of the research...

In collaboration with our friends at Search Engine , we seek to find a cure for Manny's deep aversion to seafood, for the sake of our friendship. For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show . If you have a question you'd like us to answer, feel free to email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we bravely interrogate the male practice of standing while peeing. Why do we do it? And why stand when you can sit? We speak with urologist Gerald collins to find out if there are any hidden benefits to sitting while peeing. For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show . If you have a question you'd like us to answer, feel free to email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com . See omnystudio.com/listen...

On this week’s episode we tackle a question Devan has been grappling with while living with a dog in the city: Are suburban dogs happier than city dogs? To find out, we spoke with one of the leading dog cognition experts, Alexandra Horowitz. She heads the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard and is the author of Inside of a Dog . The credit song is Big Dog by Maurice featuring Kenny Ning and Certain...

Letterboxd is a great tool for keeping track of movies and seeing what your friends and others are watching. But does constant logging, rating, and reviewing actually help us enjoy films? To find out, we spoke to Dr. Ruud Jacobs, who actually researched the impact of consumer movie reviews, and professional movie critic Tasha Robinson. Dr. Jacobs' research can be found here , and you can hear Tash...

On this week’s episode, we tackle our first listener-submitted question: is it OK to wear outside clothes on your bed? Everyone has strong opinions, but what does the science say? We speak with microbiologist Dr. Lisa Cuchara of Quinnipiac University and ran a swab test to get some answers. For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show . If you have any questions you&r...

This week, we take a break from our regular format to discuss some of our favorite things from the past year. This is the first of a new format we're calling NST Chats: loose, informal, and much more casual than our typical rigorous reporting, fine editing, and high-powered analysis. We promise to hit the ground running in 2025 with a return to our usual style, next Tuesday! NST Selects: 2024 Play...

The past decade has seen a resurgence of political violence: January 6, multiple attempts on Trump’s life, and of course the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO are just a few notable examples. We spoke with University of Chicago Professor Robert A. Pape , who has studied political violence for decades, to understand this disturbing trend, the public’s reaction to it, and why he t...

What if this ONE thing we’ve always been told about horses isn’t true at all? What if it’s a lie we’ve told ourselves so that we can enjoy our horseback riding vacations and Kentucky Derbies without guilt? To answer this question we speak with Ren Hurst, a former professional horse trainer and author of “The Wisdom of Wilderness.” And we venture to New Jersey to...

Certain taboo words have recently crept back into common use across private conversation, on social media, and in mainstream entertainment, seemingly all along the political spectrum. In this episode, we explore why slurs are making a comeback, featuring Business Insider deputy executive editor Mia de Graaf. Business Insider: The return of the slur For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at w...

Do you think you’d be able to successfully land a plane, with no prior pilot experience and relying only on air traffic control assistance? A YouGov survey found 13% of people are “very confident” that they could. In this episode, we explore why some people (like Manny) are prone to overconfidence, with help from social psychologist and professor David Dunning. Outro song is "Not...

What began as an innocent debate soon devolved into accusations of deception and trickery. Is it misleading to say you read a book if, in actuality, you listened to it as an audiobook? And do you absorb information the same way when listening compared to reading? With some help from Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell, Associate Professor at University of North Dakota, we get an answer. Here’s a lin...

This is the trailer for NO SUCH THING, a new podcast by Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devan Joseph. Our two-episode premiere drops on Tuesday, November 26. For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show . If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. See om...