Smartest Year Ever

Oldest Message in a Bottle Found After 132 Years (Lost at Sea and Found) | Smartest Year Ever (June 1, 2025) What’s the oldest confirmed message in a bottle ever found? And what story did it carry across time, tides, and oceans? In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy dives into the real-life discovery that stunned maritime historians, scientists, and Guinness record-keepers alike. From the...

What’s the most isolated place on Earth? Somewhere so far from land, the closest humans… are in space ? In today’s episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy dives into Point Nemo — a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean with no islands , no people , and almost no marine life. But here’s the twist: this watery void has become the final resting place for over a hundred decommissioned spacecraft . There’s a...

In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy unpacks one of humanity’s boldest space broadcasts — the Arecibo Message . In 1974, a powerful radio telescope in Puerto Rico fired off a burst of binary data aimed at the stars. But what was in that message? Who was it meant for? And why do some scientists now think we might've made a cosmic mistake? Explore how Frank Drake , Carl Sagan , and othe...

 Why haven’t we heard from aliens? Maybe the real question is: why would they want to be heard? In this episode, Gordy explores the Dark Forest Theory —a chilling thought experiment that flips the Fermi Paradox on its head. What if space isn’t quiet because we’re alone, but because everyone’s hiding? Drawing from Liu Cixin’s sci-fi masterpiece The Three-Body Problem , this concept offers a grippin...

The Drake Passage is one of the most notorious stretches of ocean on Earth — a 600-mile-wide maritime gauntlet between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula , where rogue waves , cyclonic winds , and the full force of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current converge. Gordy explores why sailors , scientists , and adventurers have feared and respected this extreme environment for centuries. From its criti...

Did everyday slang come from ship decks and cannon fire? Turns out, phrases like “under the weather” , “turn a blind eye” , and “scuttlebutt” aren’t just colorful language—they’re the echo of real nautical life. In this episode, Gordy uncovers the surprising maritime origins behind 5 popular English idioms . From the British Royal Navy to sailing ships in the Age of Exploration , these expressions...

Mary Mallon was just a cook. But history remembers her as Typhoid Mary — the woman who unknowingly spread a deadly disease to dozens without ever showing symptoms. In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy uncovers the true story behind one of public health’s most infamous cases. It’s a tale of germs, denial, quarantine, and one very stubborn scoop of peach ice cream. But beneath the headlines...

Why do people say “bless you” when someone sneezes —but not when they cough, hiccup, or burp? In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy explores the origins of this curious cultural reflex , which blends superstition, religion, health , and linguistic tradition . From medieval plague outbreaks to modern etiquette, the sneeze has had a strange journey through human history. Gordy breaks down so...

In life-or-death situations, some people report the same eerie sensation: someone else is with them. But when they look around... no one’s there. From Antarctic explorers to 9/11 survivors, these stories defy explanation — and reveal something astonishing about the human brain under extreme stress. Join Gordy in this gripping episode of Smartest Year Ever as he dives into the science and mystery b...

Where did emojis come from—and which one did the entire world forget? Today on Smartest Year Ever , Gordy breaks down the unexpected origin story of emojis, starting with a pixelated red heart in 1999 Tokyo. It’s the story of how Shigetaka Kurita and NTT Docomo created the world’s first emoji set, why they were only 12x12 pixels, and how Apple secretly introduced an emoji keyboard to the world yea...

What if one of the most iconic civilizations in history… didn’t see the sky the same way we do? In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy dives into a mind-bending debate that blends linguistics, psychology, and perception : Did the Ancient Greeks actually lack a word for blue—and if so, what does that mean for how they saw the world? From Homer’s “wine-dark sea” to the blurred line between la...

Would you pay $50,000 to see your pet again? Barbra Streisand did—twice. After her beloved dog Sammie passed away, she cloned her, resulting in two new dogs with the same DNA but different personalities. Cloning pets isn’t just sci-fi—it’s high-end biotech. Companies like ViaGen Pets will take tissue samples, extract DNA, and implant it into a surrogate, creating an identical twin born years later...

Ever wondered what the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World really were—and how many still exist today? 🤔 In today’s episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy takes you on a fascinating journey through the original "Top 7 List" of history, revealing stories behind these legendary monuments. From the towering Great Pyramid of Giza to the mysterious Hanging Gardens of Babylon , we explore the j...

 Before we had smartphones in our pockets or digital cameras around our necks, the concept of a camera was something entirely different—and it wasn’t even a device. It all started with a dark room, a tiny hole, and a mind-bending discovery. How did this simple setup eventually lead to photography as we know it? In this episode, Gordy uncovers the bizarre journey from the camera obscura —a room-siz...

Why do we forget our dreams so fast ? One moment, you’re in a vivid, surreal world—and the next, it’s like the memory was wiped clean. In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy breaks down the surprising brain science behind why dreams seem to disappear instantly upon waking. Explore how your brain might actually be deleting your dreams , why REM sleep is a memory black hole, and the role of n...

Ever wondered why we say phrases like "baker's dozen" or "spill the beans"? In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy takes you on a quirky journey through the surprising origins of five more food-related idioms. Some are well-documented, while others are shrouded in mystery—can you guess which ones are which? This episode is a follow-up to the popular Food Idioms Part...

Ever wondered how far back you could time travel and still speak English? 🕰️ From Shakespeare and the King James Bible to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and the epic Beowulf , English has been through some wild transformations over the centuries. In this episode, Gordy breaks down when English stops being recognizable. Discover how Modern English (1500–Present) evolved from Middle English (11...

Imagine an airline with no website, no public schedule, and a fleet of unmarked planes. It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s real—and it flies straight into Area 51. In today’s episode, Gordy dives into the shadowy world of Janet Airlines, a top-secret U.S. government airline that officially doesn’t exist. From its eerie red-striped jets to its unlisted destinations, Janet is the airline t...

Ever wondered at what point alcohol goes from hydrating to dehydrating? 🍺 It turns out there’s an ABV tipping point where drinks stop being your friend and start drying you out. Gordy dives into the science behind beer, wine, spirits , and how alcohol affects hydration. We’ll look at why sailors once drank low-alcohol “small beer” to stay hydrated, why modern drinks don’t do the trick, and how yo...

How many people have ever lived on Earth? The answer is way more than you’d think — and it’s a wild story of near-extinction, population explosions, and ancient survivors. We’re diving deep into the math behind the estimated number of humans who have ever walked the planet. From the earliest Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago to the 8 billion alive today, it’s a timeline packed with shocking bottlenec...

Ever wonder why your shoe size is a 10 in one country and a 42 in another? Or why different brands seem to fit differently even when labeled the same size? Gordy breaks down the bizarre history of shoe sizing , from medieval barleycorn measurements to modern inconsistencies. Discover why the Brannock Device —invented nearly a century ago—remains the gold standard, and why even that doesn’t guarant...

Throwing isn’t just a skill—it’s a human superpower. But what happens when we put our pitching abilities up against some of the strongest animals on Earth? In today’s episode, Gordy digs into the surprising science behind animal throwing speed, from gorillas hurling sticks to chimpanzees planning sneak attacks with rocks. But can any of them come close to a Major League fastball? And what does tha...

Ever wondered why light is the fastest thing in the universe ? Or how scientists first figured out its speed? In this episode of Smartest Year Ever , Gordy dives into the fascinating journey from Galileo’s lanterns to Einstein’s relativity. From Ole Rømer’s groundbreaking discovery of light’s finite speed to Hippolyte Fizeau’s ingenious wheel experiment , we’ll explore how light sets the universal...

In 1994, a white cat named Snowball helped solve one of the most unusual investigations in Canadian history. When a missing person was found days later under suspicious circumstances, authorities recovered a leather jacket near the scene. It had traces of blood—and several strands of white pet hair . There was no human DNA linking the jacket to a suspect. But the person of interest? He had a white...

Jet lag is so normal today that we forget—it’s a modern glitch . For most of human history, people simply couldn’t move fast enough to get it. Boats were too slow. Horses, too steady. But the industrial age changed everything . In this episode, Gordy explores the invention of jet lag , from the rise of railroads in the 1800s to the first use of the term in a 1966 L.A. Times article . Along the way...