Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

This week we’re replaying a few of our sweetest episodes. In this show from January 2020, astronauts on the International Space Station bake chocolate chip cookies. But baking cookies in space is a little different than baking them on Earth. Plus: a new device called the Exolung can keep air flowing for virtually as long as a diver likes.  ⁠Space-baked cookies not chips off old block ⁠ (The Columb...

This week we’re replaying a few of our sweetest episodes. In this show from June 2019, Wilmington, Ohio and Latrobe, Pennsylvania are split over which town was the true birthplace of the banana split. Plus: the mind-melting TV show known as the Banana Splits Adventure Hour was actually supposed to have an entirely different name! ⁠Wilmington Banana Split Festival⁠   ⁠Birthplace of the Banana Split...

This week we’re replaying a few of our sweetest episodes. In this show from November 2019, we get a look at a meringue that's just about the lightest dessert ever made. Plus: the story of a light-emitting fungus gnat in Brazil, which is maybe not as appetizing as the first story. ⁠World’s Lightest Dessert Is 96 Percent Air, Weighs Just One Gram⁠ (Oddity Central) ⁠First South American insect th...

This week we’re replaying a few of our sweetest episodes. In this show from December 2020, we take a closer look at the amazing and frequently disturbing history of gingerbread, including how one of the most famous royals of all time helped bring gingerbread people into the world. Plus: a lesson in patience from a musical great who made herself into a cookie-baking expert.  ⁠The History of Gingerb...

This week we’re replaying a few of our sweetest episodes. In this show from July 2021, we meet Agnes B. Marshall, who helped make ice cream the icon that it is today. Plus: ground control once played the song “Hello Darlin” by country star Conway Twitty to astronauts in Earth orbit. Only this version of the song was a little different. ⁠The 19th-century entrepreneur who pioneered modern ice cream⁠...

Today in Readlyn, Iowa, it's the start of Grump Days - because Readlyn proudly bills itself as home to "857 friendly people and one old Grump!" Plus: today in 1955, Paul Bunyan died? Even though he’s a legendary person and didn’t really live? That's what a grave marker in Minnesota claims, anyway. THE TOWN WHERE IT’S FUN TO BE A GROUCH (Now I Know) Paul Bunyan's Gravesite (At...

Wedding season is definitely here, and today we’ll tell you about a wedding tradition that used to have one very clear meaning and then did a 180. Plus: Stand With Pride is a network of people who volunteer to serve as stand-in parents when families of origin refuse to attend LGBTQ+ weddings. Why Do Couples Tie Cans to Wedding Cars? (New York Times) He inspired people to be stand-in parents at gay...

Lou Gehrig famously ended his consecutive games streak in the spring of 1939, not long before he was diagnosed with ALS. But on this day in 1939, he played one last exhibition game in Kansas City. Plus: today in 1977, the Kansas City Royals take to the field in Milwaukee with borrowed uniforms after a thief took off with most of their road gear. Hall of Fame opened the day of Lou Gehrig’s final ga...

Today in 1993, the release of the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park. One of the small but key roles in that movie is the work of Jophery Brown, actor and a stuntman who's performed in some of the biggest movies of the last few decades. Plus: Sal Giardino's New Jersey gravestone is hard to miss: it's a giant black lightbulb featuring the words "World's Greatest Electrician."...

Legend has it that today in 1529, two armies in Switzerland decided that instead of having a war, they would have some soup. Plus: Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is holding a centennial celebration through September. In Switzerland, the soup quarrelling politicians share (BBC) 100 Years of the Craters of the Moon (Visit Idaho) Let’s sit down over some virtual soup t...

Today in 1520 the beginning of what may have been the biggest, most expensive party of all time, involving two kings, 18 days and $19 million. Plus: starting tomorrow in New Orleans, it’s the French Market Creole Tomato Festival. The Field of the Cloth of Gold (Historic-UK.com)  French Market Creole Tomato Festival   No need to spend millions, you can back our show for just a dollar a month on Pat...

For the birthday of Tetris, the story of a 13 year old who played so deep into the NES version of the game that it crashed - and the gamers who found ways to keep playing even past that "end" point. Plus: starting tomorrow the town of Metropolis, Illinois is hosting its annual Superman Celebration.  It’s Possible to Hack Tetris From Inside the Game Itself (WIRED) Metropolis Superman Cele...

If you're traveling abroad this summer you'll need a passport - unless you're one of a very small number of very prominent people who don't need to use passports. Plus: this week Louisville, Kentucky is home to Ali Fest. Does the President Have a Passport? (Slate)  Ali Fest in Louisville, KY  Travel over to our Patreon page to get bonus episodes and lots of other extras - no passpo...

It's National Cheese Day! Today we're telling the story of American cheese, which got its start from a guy who emigrated to Chicago from Ontario. Plus: a region of northern Sweden known as "the Kingdom of Cheese" drives the point home with two 23 foot tall cheese slicers. What Is American Cheese, Anyway? (Serious Eats) A Brief History of "American Cheese," from Colonial...

Alexander Graham Bell is best known for the telephone, but he thought his light-based calling system, the photophone was way more important... so much so that he even tried to name his daughter Photophone Bell. Plus: for World Bicycle Day, the story of a Japanese company that let customers order a special set of socks that would be knitted by a bicycle-powered knitting machine. Photophone: How Ale...

There’s some linguistic research that suggests that American hockey players sometimes start to sound more like Canadians as their hockey careers continue. Plus: The uses seven bridges to connect a bunch of islands in Norway together. You essentially get to drive right along the ocean.  How do you pronounce “hockey”? US players say it with “fake Canadian” accent. (Ars Technica) The Atlantic Road (E...

Today in 1953, some 10,000 people took part in Woodruff, Wisconsin's Memorial Day "Penny Parade." They were raising to build a hospital, urged on by the leader of the effort, Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb. Plus: a teen who went fishing catches a guy's wallet that had fallen into the water three decades earlier. Penny Facts (Dr. Kate Museum) Dr. Kate Museum in Woodruff, Wisconsin contin...

Today in 1943, Norman Rockwell's painting "Rosie the Riveter" was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. But that's not the image that we think of today as Rosie, and just as there were multiple depictions of the character, there were multiple real-life inspirations for those depictions. Plus: congrats to Max the cat, who just got an honorary degree from a college in Vermont....

Today in 1901, a court decision protected the right to say pretty much whatever we like while reviewing a podcast, or a song, or a performance. And it all started with some of the strangest performances of all time, put on by the Cherry Sisters. Plus: the start of summer travel season brings to mind a guy in Italy named Eduardo, who collects Do Not Disturb signs from different hotels. Fair Comment...

For today’s holiday we wanted to replay an episode from 2019 about the history behind Memorial Day. Officially, the community that started Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York - but Waterloo is definitely not the only place with a Memorial Day origin story. How Waterloo, NY, became the birthplace of Memorial Day (New York Upstate) Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You’re From (New York...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about our neighbors in the solar system. In this episode from March 2023, long before the internet’s favorite planet got its very pun-filled name, an astronomer wanted to give it a much more chill one. Plus: modern day scientists have plenty of theories on how Uranus ended up on its side.  ⁠Uranus: the first planet discovered with a telescope...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about our neighbors in the solar system. In this episode from May 2019, a look at Venera 5, an overlooked but important visit to a fairly nasty place, the planet Venus. Plus: McMinnville, Oregon kicks off its annual UFO Festival, complete with fun run called the Alien Abduction Dash.  ⁠Venera 5⁠ (NASA)  ⁠Yes, We've Seen the Surface of Ven...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about our neighbors in the solar system. In this episode from June 2019, a look at how the Curiosity Rover takes selfies on Mars without having its robot arm in the foreground of every shot. Plus: the University of St. Andrews teaches grey seals to sing the "Star Wars" theme. For research. ⁠Why Don’t We See the Curiosity Rover’s Arm...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about our neighbors in the solar system. In this episode from July 2022, the story of Venetia Burney, who at age eleven did something few people have done: she named a planet! Plus: the people of Ripon, Wisconsin team up to make the world’s largest chocolate chip cookie. ⁠Venetia Burney Phair (1918-2009)⁠ (NASA) ⁠Ripon's signature Cookie...

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about our neighbors in the solar system. In this episode from October 2021, we find out whether scientists who study Uranus think the many jokes humans make about the seventh planet are funny. Plus: a visit to a magic shop in Burnsville, Minnesota that's the oldest in the US.  ⁠Here’s What Uranus Scientists Think About Your Disgusting Jok...