SmartDrivel

Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays and 154 sonnets, and the official count is 884,647 words and 118,406 lines. Within this prodigious output, he invented over 1,700 new words and countless phrases that we use every day. Jon and Kurt decide to share some of the most surprising and interesting of these words and phrases in this episode–it may not be fashionable (ding ding) or neither here nor there...

Jon and Kurt have a little forum about the most amazing couples ever. Those from fiction. From wars. From the bible. From the arts. From politics. From legend. Forged in love or in greed, these couples all have a fascinating story to tell.

We’ve all been there: you are having a really good time at the party and imbibe just a wee bit too much. Enough too much that the following morning you feel like crap. So you try all sorts of things to mitigate the pain. To no avail. The hangover persists. Humankind has been searching for a solution to this for 10,000 years–ever since that first accidental beer was brewed. In this episode, join Jo...

The English language is filled with color idioms. White lies, red handed, blue moon, green with envy, paint the town red are just a few examples that Kurt and Jon dig into in this episode. Many of these terms have a literal origin that were long ago forgotten. Press play and enjoy our very own mashup of history, the dictionary, and a bag of skittles.

Celebrities always seem to have really cool names. Names that sound great when spoken and that conjure up a feeling of glamor or strength or sophistication. Interestingly, most of these names were not the names they were given at birth. These new monikers were adopted to appeal to an audience. Doesn’t Marilyn Monroe sound more beautiful than Norma Jean Baker? Isn’t John Wayne much more strong soun...

Humans, as a species, are a very funny animal classification. Not content to buy just those products that they need for daily survival, their money burns a hole in their pocket to such a degree that they end up spending it on absolutely ridiculous things. From the Pet Rock to Dehydrated Water to the Comfort Wipe and oh so many others, it is amazing what people will go out of their way to buy. Jon...

In its quest to be remembered by car rental customers, Avis once proudly proclaimed, "We're #2. We Try Harder." It was a brilliant campaign that highlights the challenges of being second. No one remembers you. Kurt and Jon are both second children so they've been dealing with this challenge forever. (Some people even start a podcast to overcompensate.) So Jon and Kurt set out t...

Kurt and Jon explore the disorienting land defined by the Urban Dictionary and learn more than they bargained for. As it turns out, Kurt is equally at home with hors d'oeuvres as well as store d'oeuvres. One is consumed in a friend's living room. The other at Costco. If you don't know what it means to be a body booker, say, "Damn, Gina," or engage in the fine art of c...

There are certain entries in every category that are just perfect. They may not be the best or the greatest or the deepest or the funniest or the quintessence, but they are perfect. These entrants tick off all the boxes and stand as the perfect representaion of thier ilk. Perfect movie. Perfect cocktail. Perfect meal. You get the idea. Jon and Kurt weigh in with their thoughts…controversy abounds.

It’s happened to all of us, too many times to mention. We see something or hear of something or want to do something that seems just fantastic…until it is too late and you realize that it was actually a really bad idea. Jon and Kurt have fun discussing prime examples of regretful choices that just seemed so damn good at the time.

The boys are back at it with a third episode dedicated to fun phrases and their origins. This time, we learn where “pull out all the stops” and “put a sock in it”  and “rule of thumb” come from, among others. We also learn the provenance of “best man” and “honeymoon”. And, we learn the correct way to spell pom-poms er pom-pons.

Jon and Kurt have fun guessing famous slogans that were funny, had double meanings, or were just blatantly bad. From the disaster of the Chevy Nova in foreign markets to the hilarity of a Sega print ad to explaining the beauty that is Guinness, the two hosts share, laugh, and marvel at some of advertising's most interesting attempts at selling products.

Throughout recorded time, certain foods have been elixirs and medicinal remedies for multiple ailments. As Hippocrates famously said, “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” In this episode, Jon and Kurt dig up some really cool uses for every day foods that cure ailments. So the next time you are sick or hurting, don’t run to your drugstore, listen to this episode and open your refrig...

Ever wonder where products got their names? Why so many with numbers–409, 57, 40, 7? On top of that, how did companies come up with their names? Was Amazon always “Amazon” right out of the gate? What was Pepsi first called? Where did the name Lego come from? All of these wonderments baffled Jon and Kurt…at first. But then they leaned into the topic and created an episode dedicated to discussing an...

We have all had them…these knee buckling, mind boggling big questions that we try to make sense of. Like “why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?” or “how is it possible to have a ‘civil’ war?” or “have you ever imagined a world where there are no hypothetical situations?” Jon and Kurt ponder a whole bunch of questions like these working their minds into a pretzel of logic.

With the Surgeon General of the United States officially warning of the harmful effects social media can have on children and teens Jon and Kurt thought it was time to re-air one of their first episodes. Taking on a popular issue facing society today, Jon and Kurt attempt to lay out the pros and cons of social media while waxing poetic about the moment the first fish walked out of the ocean.

Conspiracy theories may seem like they're running rampant right now – and they are – but it's nothing new. Thousands of years ago, well before social media amplified non-stop nonsense, our ancestors looked up at the night sky and came up with some pretty crazy stuff to explain what they saw. This tradition has been well maintained throughout history. The boys dig into and debate some of...

The Darwin Awards are catnip to any Smart Driveler. They “recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool by dying or becoming sterilized via their own actions.” What an incredible, fertile bank of content from which to draw. Let’s be frank–these are colossally stupid people who have found the most humorous and ridiculous ways t...

Jon and Kurt have each found certain parts of the human existence that they feel are out of place, unwarranted, just plain wrong. They chalk these up to being some of the (very) few mistakes made by God. In their first episode of this topic, #41, the lads mentioned some things they found to be out of whack, like first rows in movie theaters or oceans of water we can’t drink. Well, they are at it a...

Upon a recommendation from a loyal listener, Jon and Kurt record another episode of fun facts with which to amaze, tantalize, and hypnotize your friends. They run the gamut from expanding landmarks to lacking the body odor gene to the first recorded “your Mama joke” in history. Be ready to write some of these down so you can memorize and then show off your cool, esoteric knowledge.

Jon and Kurt recently learned of a fascinating human dynamic: there are many instances where large groups of people all swear they know a fact that is indisputable. Yet they are wrong. Their "fact" is completely made up. It is a wild manifestation of being human–certainly AI wouldn’t fall prey to a social current that sweeps up many in its errant tide. In this episode, our completely hum...

Jon and Kurt had so much fun discovering the greatest April Fool’s pranks that they dove in even deeper and found more incredible hoaxes. Marketers take it as manna from heaven and have had a lot of fun ginning up interest in their products around great April Fool’s initiatives (“Left handed Whopper” anyone?) as have governments (Norway’s “free wine” stunt) and celebrities (Walt Frazier). The host...

Jon and Kurt decided to capitalize on the fact that they recorded  this episode the day after April First and put out a topical discussion about pranks. They found historical jokes centuries old that fooled many middle agers (not someone in their 50s, but someone who lived centuries ago) and some that got the masses hook line and sinker in the 20th century. And lots in between. Give a listen and g...

Ever want to hang with Sam I Am and try to eat Green Eggs and Ham? Or chill with Captain Nemo as he heads 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Maybe you want to have tea with Emma in one of the gorgeous English manor houses or chow down some spinach with Popeye and go after Bluto? Well, Jon and Kurt thought it sounded pretty cool, so in this episode they discuss which fictional characters they would like...

Like it or not, the AI revolution is coming. Heck, it is here already. Jon and Kurt wondered how unique they were and if ChatGPT had the ability to add drivel to smart. So, for this episode, they requested ChatGPT “to create a dialogue for two hosts of a podcast called Smart Drivel where the goal is to deliver interesting facts about history, food, words, trivia, life, etc. but in a funny way. The...