The BrainFood Show

In the episode today, we are looking at whether professional wine connoisseurs can tell really not tell the difference between expensive and cheap wines. How Alcohol “Proof” is Determined. Do Drunk People Really Survive Car Crashes More? Why Would You Add Antifreeze to Wine? Do Wine Makers Really Walk Over Grapes With Their Feet? Does Canadian Beer Really Contain More Alcohol Than Beer Made in the...

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Thermonuclear weapons are messy. Capable of wiping out millions of humans in one go if detonated in a large city, but unfortunately they also destroy the city the people dwell in, making it a poor choice for a weapon for the up and coming conqueror who wishes the humans gone, but infrastructure still intact. This all brings us to the topic of today, so called enhanced radiation weapons, a special...

Why did Al Gore lose despite winning more votes? Discover the complex and controversial role of the U.S. Electoral College and how it determines the nation's president in this deep dive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at what literal battleships had to do with the creation of the Slinky. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show looking at what is largely considered the greatest of the so-called Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and then look at the guy who burned it down just so history would remember him, as well as what steps the ancients to...

In the episode today, we're looking at Does Hand and Foot Size Really Correlate with Penile Length? Why Can’t You Mix Blood Types? Is It True Women Retain the DNA of Every Man They’ve Ever Slept With in Their Bodies? Do Beards Really Grow Faster in the Winter? The Mad Aussie Who Stung Himself and His 9 Year Old Son With a Deadly Creature FOR SCIENCE!!! Can You Really Make Yourself Immune to Poison...

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The U.S. Department of Defense apparently has a plan in place in case of a zombie apocalypse. So what is it and why did they make it? “Although it sounds ridiculous, this is actually the only proven class of zombie that actually exists.” - This is a quote from an official government document about zombie chickens, which are totally a thing. More on this later. But to begin with, while zombie ficti...

Discover the dark history of unethical dental experiments on vulnerable patients at Vipeholm Mental Hospital. Uncover the shocking secrets behind Sweden’s quest to solve the mystery of dental cavities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather interesting fact about Pulp Fiction and Samuel L Jackson’s character’s most famous lines in the film. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show looking at the surprisingly old first computer and the truth about who really was the first computer programmer. (Note: Not Ada Lovelace, contrary to popular belief.) Next we jum...

In the episode today, we're looking at what being shot actually feels like, the NRS-2- The Gun Knife, How Silencers Work, and How Silent Do They Actually Make Guns? The CIA’s Undetectable Poison Dart Gun Can Shooting Plastic Explosive Really Set Them Off? That Time an English Dude Invented a Gun that Fired Square Bullets, and the Waterfowl’s Nightmare. The Ridiculously Oversized Punt Gun. The Pivo...

Explore the life behind *The English Patient*: meet László Almásy—a Hungarian aristocrat, desert explorer, and WWII spy. From daring expeditions to espionage, uncover the real story that inspired the novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was the winter of 1957, and Charles Tanny was in agony. A bad dental filling had triggered a severe case of trigeminal neuralgia (tri-gem-in-al), leaving the 42-year-old snowblower salesman and father of three with crippling facial pain which no doctor seemed able to relieve. Suspecting the problem might be psychological, doctors eventually referred Tanny to the Allen Memorial Institute, a stat...

Neil Armstrong will likely be remembered by humans as long as there are humans to remember. The first man to set foot on the moon. His first words will likewise reverberate throughout history... But what was the second thing he said on the moon. And how did Neil Armstrong die? This is the story of one of the greatest astronauts in history. Authors: Melissa Blevins, Daven Hiskey, Matt Blitz. Host:...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a the absolutely bizarre way bedbugs mate. Next up, we jump into the main part of the show on who invented the Internet and how it works. We also look at who invented email and the web, and what Al Gore had to do with all this. On another note, if you could do us a huge favor and rate and review this show in whatever podcasting platfor...

In today's compilation, we're looking at a series of "What Happens When" topics including What Happens If Parents Don’t Give Their Baby a Name? What Happens to the Bodies if a Cryogenic Company Goes Bankrupt? What Happened to Dead Bodies After Big Battles Throughout History? What Happens to Your Stuff When You Get Sent to Prison for Life? What Happens when You Ask a Surgeon For Your Amputated Limb...

He is one of the most famous serial killers of all time, but who actually was Jack the Ripper and what actually happened during his reign of terror. Just before 4 am on August 31, 1888, on London’s seedy Buck’s Row, a cart driver named Charles Cross saw the body of a woman lying on the ground. In the early morning gloom, it was initially impossible to tell if she was drunk or dead. Cross was soon...

Everlong. Learn to Fly. Best of You. All My Life. The Pretender. These are but a few of the top-charting songs by American rock band The Foo Fighters, founded in 1994 by legendary former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. But what actually is a Foo Fighter? Well, it turns out the band’s name is not just merely a random string of nonsense words, but rather refers to strange phenomenon observed by pilots o...

Glenn Miller was on the top of his game in 1944. He led the most popular recording group in the world. His only rival for king of Big Band music was the great Benny Goodman. During World War II, 40-year-old Miller was serving as a major in the United States Army Air Force while performing for the troops. On December 15, 1944, he boarded a small plane for the short flight across the English Channel...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a quick fact surrounding what Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Genesis had to do with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. After the sponsor spot, we then jump into the main part of the show on how the QWERTY keyboard came to be. We also dig into whether the Dvorak keyboard layout is actually superior to QWERTY or if that’s just s...

In today's compilation episode, we're covering a myriad of Whys, from Why the United States doesn't use the metric system, why fingernails on chalkboards make us cringe, why we have moles on our bodies, why doesn't the heart get tired like other muscles, and much, much more. 0:00 Why Doesn’t the United States Use the Metric System? 20:55 Why Does the Sound of Fingernails on a Chalkboard or Scrapin...

When we think of the most influential books in history, we often think of books that have a wide readership. Something that if not most literate people read, surely, many of the elite did. But it turns out, some of the most influential books in ancient history were only read by, quite literally, a handful of people. You see, Rome had a set of holy books, divinely revealed to a mysterious prophetes...

In the 1990 sci-fi comedy sequel Back to the Future Part III, intrepid time travelling late 20th century duo Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown find themselves trapped in Hill Valley, California, back in the year 1885. With their DeLorean time machine out of gas and it being, well, 1885, Doc and Marty are forced to take creative measures to accelerate their ride up to the required 88 miles per hour...

Dr. Harini Bhat is a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell us something. Hidden History doesn...

J.R.R. Tolkien created one of the greatest and most influential works of fiction in history. But how did he come up with it, what was his life like, and how did it end? This is the story of the man behind the Lord of the Rings. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in South Africa. His family returned to their native England when he was a small child. Tolkien’s parents had died by...