Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

It's National Board Game Day, so we’re going back in time to the very first board game in US history. Though explaining which game was the very first is slightly complicated. Plus: opening tomorrow in Kansas City, it’s the Museum of BBQ. What America’s first board game can teach us about the aspirations of a young nation (The Conversation) Museum of BBQ Roll on over to our Patreon page and bac...

Today in 1849, the US issued a patent for one of the smallest big ideas of the century: the safety pin. And a big factor behind that little invention was paying off a big debt. Plus: today in 1921, the birthday of Robert Wade, a chess master who once proved that even top notch players can have a bad day. Three Millennia of Safety Pins (The Atlantic) Worst chess defeat (Generalist Academy) Pin your...

Today in 1843, the birthday of Samuel W. Pennypacker. When he was governor of Pennsylvania his supporters tried to make certain types of editorial cartoons a crime (!) Plus: today in 1942, a funeral for John Pecinovsky, known as “the Half-and-Half Man,” because he would wear clothes that were white on one side and black on the other. When Cartoonists Were Criminals (Historical Society of Pennsylva...

This month in 1920, the magazine Electrical Experimenter featured the physiophone. It was a Hugo Gernsback invention that turned sound into electrical impulses, so Deaf people could feel the music. Plus: for National Library Week, a visit to the central library in Kansas City, where the building itself looks like a bookshelf. This Invention From the Grandfather of Science Fiction Was Promoted as M...

Happy International Beaver Day! These toothy, flat-tailed rodents are some of the greatest builders on earth, and, as some scientific research has shown us, they build for the long term. Plus: for National Beer Day, the story of a beer receipt from ancient Mesopotamia. Beaver Dams Can Last Centuries, 1868 Map Shows (Treehugger) The Oldest Beer Receipt (Circa 2050 BC) (Open Culture) Build this show...

Spiders know what it's like to get distracted by excess noise. A new scientific paper finds certain arachnids in louder environments build their webs differently than those where it’s quiet. Plus: a film archive intern comes across a silent movie that researchers had long thought was lost to history. Getting Annoyed at Your Noisy Neighbor? Spiders Are, Too. New Research Finds They’ll Build Web...

Bike helmets have been more or less the same for many years, but there’s a new effort to make safer and more responsive headgear with 3D printing. Plus: for National Burrito Day, the story of the first restaurant to put the breakfast burrito on its menu. Safer bike helmet with new design of material (University of Gothenburg)   The Breakfast Burrito Was Invented At This Restaurant In New Mexico In...

It's National Ferret Day, so here’s the story of a ferret named Felicia who contributed to the field of physics as a kind of living pipe cleaner for some heavy-duty equipment. Plus: the Instagram account known as Chair of Virtue showcases and celebrates some of the wildest chair designs in the world. Felicia Ferret (Fermilab History and Archives Project via Archive.org)  Bizarre True Story: Ph...

April Fools Day is when people try to mislead each other, sometimes the people you’d least suspect. Like how on this day in 1957, one of the world’s most steady and preeminent news outlets reported that spaghetti was growing on trees. Plus: today in 2015, someone played an April Fools Day joke on the community of Winters, California, installing an old parking meter in town. BBC’s 1957 April Fool’s...

Today in 1889, the formal opening and dedication of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. What a strange life it’s had, including a proposal in the 1930s to add two huge car ramps to the sides of the thing. Plus: the tower gets a fresh coat of paint about every seven years, but it hasn't always been the same color. 1936 Crazy Project to Make the Second Floor of the Eiffel Tower Accessible by Car (Vintage...

Today in 1899, the birthday of Gladys Ingle. She was called a “wing walker," which meant she could walk on the wings of a plane in mid-flight and perform some of the most daring and death-defying stunts you could imagine. Plus: there's an online collection of uniforms for stewardesses and flight attendants through the years. Wing Walker Woman Climbs From One Plane to Another to Make a Mid-Air Tire...

Today in 1912, the planting of two cherry trees along the banks of the Potomac River in Washington DC. There are now thousands of cherry blossoms in the nation's capital, and it all happened thanks to one very determined woman and a bunch of great minds all thinking alike. Plus: today in 1969, the birthday of singer Mariah Carey, who once threw herself a Mariah Carey-themed birthday party. How...

Today in 1944, the birthday of Diana Ross. In the 1960s she and the Supremes had hit record after hit record, and at one point, they were even the namesakes for a line of white bread. Plus: today in 1879, a newspaper article about an experiment in Belgium to see whether cats could be trained to deliver mail. Loafing Around – The Supremes White Bread (Voices of East Anglia via Archive.org) Mail-Del...

Today in 1843, the opening of the Thames Tunnel in London, the first tunnel of its kind and one inspired by a mollusc known as a shipworm. Plus: today in 2024, a story from Cheshire Live about a woman who came to the local animal hospital with a baby hedgehog in need of rescuing. Or at least that’s what she thought. The Epic Struggle to Tunnel Under the Thames (Smithsonian) Woman mistakes bobble f...

Why have so many students spent so many spring breaks in our capital city? The story starts with a single teacher. Plus: today in 1944, the birthday of decorated Marine and actor R. Lee Ermey. In Palmdale, California, there's something called the R. Lee Ermey Musical Road. This One Guy Made the Washington DC Field Trip a Middle School Rite of Passage (Thrillist) City of Palmdale Opens Musical...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from August 2020, a farmer in western New York finds something in his fields that he definitely hadn’t planted: a giant old safe. Plus: the British Antarctic Survey studies satellite images and spotted 11 new colonies of Emperor penguins. What’s inside this mystery safe? Orleans Co. farmer says it should stay unk...

This episode marks our sixth birthday, and it’s a particularly sweet episode, in which we visit a place known as the “chocolate roll capital of the world.” Plus: six whole years is a long time, especially for a podcast. But in other fields, it’s the blink of an eye. Take archaeology. Ready to Roll  (Arkansas Living) After 98 Years, Archaeologists Found the Missing Torso of an Ancient Buddha Statue...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from February 2020, dogs' amazing sniffing ability may be very useful for orchards as they try to head off a disease called citrus greening. Plus: police in New South Wales, Australia stop a man for using his cellphone while riding a horse. Dog sleuths sniff out crop disease hitting citrus trees  (KCRA) Man r...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from June 2020, scientists at Washington State University are testing out a robotic system that might give us another way to pollinate as we try to help bees get their buzz back. Plus: researchers in Japan are testing out a pollination system using soap bubbles, like the ones kids like to create and pop. Robotic...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from April 2019, a robotics firm in New Zealand is testing a robot that’s supposed to move through the rows of the apple orchard, spot ripe fruit, yank it from the tree with lasers and bring it back to the farmer. Plus: a strongman/YouTuber ordered literally everything on the menu at his local Taco Bell for a sin...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from July 2020, in 1988, a whole bunch of people in Nebraska got together to lift a nine-ton barn, move it 110 feet uphill, and rotate it clockwise. Plus: Harrison McIntyre build a mechanical contraption to launch M&Ms at his face. Nebraska family looks back on barn moving event  (WOWT) Guy Builds Machine Tha...

It's National Learn About Butterflies Day, so here’s the story of a guy who turned his backyard into a habitat for a rare type of butterfly, and it worked out pretty well. Plus: today is also National Save a Spider Day, and the community of Avoca, Iowa has saved a spider of a sort. How one man repopulated a rare butterfly species in his backyard (Vox) VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE SPIDER (Olio in Iowa) Ke...

This month in 1962, one of the last appearances of a ship that would reappear from time to time off the western coast of North America, decades after it was abandoned. Plus: today in 1967, the state of Utah officially designated its state cooking pot. Baychimo: The Adventures of the Ghost Ship of the Arctic (Manitoba Museum via Archive.org)  STATE COOKING POT (Utah.gov) Back our show on Patreon so...

This month in 1863, the founding of a town that made history: Mitchelville was the first town in the United States to be governed by formerly enslaved people. Plus: it’s National Girl Scout Day, and a scout troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma gets the credit for the first ever sale of Girl Scout cookies in 1917. This Island in South Carolina Has the First Self-governed Town of Formerly Enslaved People in...

Women’s History Month is here, and in 1920 a group of women made history in Jackson, Wyoming, as one of the first-ever all-female town councils in the United States. Plus: for National Worship of Tools Day, a visit to the world's largest chainsaw. Petticoat Rulers: 1920 All Women Jackson Town Council Inspires Women Today (Wyoming Public Media) Big Gus is the world's largest chainsaw (Boing...