Stuff To Blow Your Mind

You and your skeleton are cordially invited to join your Stuff to Blow Your Mind hosts on an excursion into the bone-choked depths of the HowStuffWorks ossuary. What curious skulls and skeletal specimens will they uncover? What curious science and cultural anomalies will factor into their discoveries? Grab a torch and join them in the depths in part 2 of 2. Learn more about your ad-choices at http...

You and your skeleton are cordially invited to join your Stuff to Blow Your Mind hosts on an excursion into the bone-choked depths of the HowStuffWorks ossuary. What curious skulls and skeletal specimens will they uncover? What curious science and cultural anomalies will factor into their discoveries? Grab a torch and join them in the depths in part 1 of 2. Learn more about your ad-choices at http...

Up in the sky and down in the ocean, blue is the endcap of our visuall existence. One that may even influence us subconsciously. Find out why this color is the ultimate magician, appearing mostly as an illusion, in this episode of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do tears of joy and the desire to pinch a baby's cheek have to do with one another? Quite a lot. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, find out about dimorphous expressions, as well as the siren call of baby scents that lure the joyful aunt to its cheek in the first place. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in...

Shhhh! Some of us are listening intently to a certain tone, one that sends waves of pleasure down our spine. It's called autonomous sensory meridian response. Robert and Julie explore, and while they're at it, they'll find out if whispering exists among any non-human primates. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati...

Sex-reversed genitalia and tractor beams -- just a few of the extraordinary discoveries and breakthroughs of 2014. How have they changed our perception of the universe and ourselves? Join in on the discussion in this episode of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Find out what the most astonishing moments in science were in 2014 and why they may just be game-changers for humanity. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine exploring a cave and discovering paintings that appear to come alive with a few claps of your hand. Enter the cave of forgotten sounds with Robert and Julie and they spelunk their way through sonic illusions. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How long does it take to make or break a habit? Is this really the year you make major changes or learn a new craft? Robert and Julie break down the science of it all in this classic episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Find out how and why dung beetles have been capitalizing on poop in a big way for 30 million years. Also, these little guys may be the world's tiniest astronomers. Robert and Julie reveal why. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why are mystery packages so appealing? How do they improve our mental faculties and fuel our creativity? In this classic episode, Robert and Julie share tales of sealed envelopes, quantum thought experiments, virginity boxes and things Pandora should never have opened. You might even score a gift idea or two. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.c...

Spices are essentially chemical weapons. They protect a plant from animals and microbes. yet humans long ago learned to hack these defenses and use them to flavor their food. Join Robert and Julie for a discussion of spice and evolution. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Was Scrooge's bitterness an actual mental disorder? And was his visitation by the ghosts of the past, present and future his subconscious mind's attempt at DIY psychotherapy? Or did he merely spike his pot of gruel with a little mind-altering something-something? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Find out why the Grinch had the personality of a toadstool sandwich, with arsenic sauce. Robert and Julie explore the physiology of the Green One, not to mention his self-imposed social isolation, which may have contributed to the woefully diminutive size of his heart. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do deer and moose boast antlers? How does this material grow faster than any living vertebrate bones on Earth? You'd think we'd know the answers to these questions, but antlers remain far more mysterious than we often realize. Join Robert and Julie as they discuss the science of antlers and how these weapons factor into ancient human history, global myth cycles and professional athlete urine s...

What if you could suck all the oxygen out of a room with a nifty piece of material? Soon you may be able to with a crystalline material that stores, binds and releases oxygen. Find out how, and join Robert and Julie for a little Oxygen 101, including the question, "What lifeform provides half of the world's oxygen?"' Hint: It's not trees. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodca...

Whether you're a tattoo virgin or a sleeved-and-stamped ink enthusiast, there's no denying the cultural staying power of the tattoo. But where do we go from here? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, explore the world of cutting-edge and near-future high-tech tattoos, from glowing raver ink to tattoos that actually serve as technological interfaces. Learn more about your ad-choices at https...

Tattoos allow us to make the outer body reflect the inner self. In a life of flux, they allow us to make names, symbols, gods and ideas a semi-permanent part of corporeal form. Then again, they also allow others to mark us as "criminal" or "outsider." Join Robert and Julie as they explore not only the science of tattoos, but also a bit of their rich and varied history. Learn more about your ad-cho...

What does comfort mean to you? Thanksgiving dinner? A cup of tomato soup and a warm blanket? In this classic episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Julie examine the particulars of comfort, why we crave it and what happens when we have too much of a good thing. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You may not be the turkey on the chopping block, but holiday get-togethers with family can make you feel that way. Find out how to navigate the holiday in this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you were suffering from a debilitating bacterial infection and you found out that pumping someone else's fecal matter into your rectum could vanquish it. Find out about fecal microbiota transfers and why we might one day seek out "artisanal" poop samples to cure what ails us. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in...

Robert and Julie bow down to the will of Arnie the Mailbot and finally get to the mounting stack of listener mail. Tune in for discussions on past episodes, mind-bending concepts and the future of humanity -- all while a laser-armed mail-bot runs amok in the HowStuffWorks offices. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Sure Biosphere 2 was the laughingstock of the science community when its mission came to a close in 1993. (Blame the Star Trek-like uniforms.) But scientific findings spiraled out of it long after the project was officially canceled. Some 150 papers and scads of new insights into the environment are due to the visionary wonderland that is Biosphere 2. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://ww...

Enter Biosphere 2 with Robert and Julie and tour a technological wonder of the early 90s -- a 7,200,000 cubic foot Earth-in-miniature. Find out about this "Eden on top of an aircraft" and what went awry when eight people sealed themselves inside a biosphere for two years. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever heard someone say something you disagreed with and kept your opinions to yourself? You, my friend, just fell into the spiral of silence. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.