The BrainFood Show

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we discuss the surprisingly long history of the automobile, then move on to discussing what is generally considered the first “modern” car, the Model 3, made by Karl Benz, and how is amazing wife ultimately saved him and the vehicle from obscurity through her extreme audacity and faith in his invention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

On April 9, 1959, the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, introduced the world to a new breed of heroes: the Mercury Seven, America’s first astronauts. Selected from a pool of over 500 military test pilots, these men represented the best the nation had to offer, and its best hope in the intensifying Space Race against the Soviets. Almost immediately, the Mercury Se...

Humans being horrible to other humans is nothing new. Think of the most brutal thing you can possibly imagine, and it’s almost certain not only has some human done that to another human, but probably some nation did it as a general policy to other humans. Possibly even for the amusement of the masses. And as ever, one of the few universal truths, beyond that Star Trek the Next Generation is the gr...

While Ben Franklin was remarkably successful in keeping elements of his private life very private to the point that historians can only speculate about much of it, despite having a common law marriage, he was, shall we say, noted for his overt and unabashed love of women and their company, particularly if they were educated- something he even used in argument for why women should be encouraged in...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start out with a follow up to a previous episode in which we mentioned Teddy Roosevelt likely helped delay the start of WWI, but then never actually said in that episode how. Next up we discuss whether the Tyrannosaurus Rex could really not see you if you didn’t move as depicted in Jurassic Park, as well as a few other interesting Jurassic Park factoids....

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start out by discussing the fascinating story about how the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park, New York, got there, what John Wilkes Booth’s Brother did for Abraham Lincoln’s son, the real story about why Caesar dressing is called that, and a bunch of other interesting stuff! This is part 4 of our 4 part series on Julius Caesar.  Stay tuned next time...

Scapa Flow lies barely seven degrees below the Arctic Circle, in the cold, windswept Orkney Islands at the northern tip of Scotland. Measuring 10 kilometres wide by 8 kilometres long with an average depth of 30 metres, this natural anchorage is bounded to the north by the mainland, to the east by the islands of Burray and South Ronaldsay, and to the west by the island of Hoy. In 1904, Scapa Flow w...

On the first of April, 1945, a combined American and British Empire fleet appeared off Okinawa, the southernmost of the Japanese Home Islands. Operation Iceberg, the final naval battle of the Second World War, was about to begin. As hundreds of aircraft roared overhead and enormous shells fired from battleships pounded the shore, landing craft streamed ashore carrying tens of thousands of troops i...

Anybody reading remember the film Jingle All The Way, you know the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger body checks his way through a crowd of harried single mums, is an accessory to a bomb threat and physically assaults like 4 retail workers, all for the chance to get his hands on that year's hottest toy? Of course you do. That film is great. Okay so let’s talk about the time all of that happened for...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start out by discussing in more detail the events surrounding Caesar’s momentous decision to cross the Rubicon, then jump into the real story of what happened on the Ides of March which isn’t exactly the one popular history remembers largely thanks to the notable play by Shakespeare. Over the course of the episode we also discuss why likely most every quo...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start out by discussing how a teenage Julius Caesar became the head of his rather prominent family. We then move on to his little month-long or so pirate adventure and finally discuss where exactly the Rubicon was, which interestingly enough is only something that has been relatively recently discovered. This is part 2 of what will be a 4 part series on J...

People have been referencing sentient reptilian entities, sometimes humanoid, sometimes not, going back to some of the earliest written works and legends known to man. In more modern times, according to a survey done by the firm Public Policy Polling approximately 4% of Americans queried claimed they believe Lizard People are influencing world politics, with an additional 7% on the fence on this q...

Contrary to popular belief, a decent percentage of the human population has known definitely the Earth was roughly spherical for over two thousand years. Hardly impressive, as noted in our BrainFood Show podcast, bees also use this fact in their own absurdly fascinating navigation and in communicating directions to other bees. As for humans, we took a little longer to realize this, with Pythagoras...

Regardless of your politics, I think we can all agree that Donald Trump is by no means a humble man, and he’d be the first to admit that the Trump Family comprises something of a rich and powerful dynasty. As it turns out though, Trump’s wealth and influence can all be traced back to a bizarre confluence of good fortune that befell, ironically, an unemployed barber who immigrant to the United Stat...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start out by discussing the fact that, contrary to what we speculated in a previous episode, World’s Fairs are actually still a thing. We then jump into the meat of the show, discussing whether Julius Caesar was actually born via a Caesarean operation and then look at the remarkable story of Margaret Bulkley, who is better known in history as Dr. James Ba...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show podcast, we wrap up our discussion (for now) on one of the more remarkable individuals in modern history- Theodore Roosevelt. In particular we look at the truth about how and why the Teddy Bear was named after him and a boatload of fascinating Teddy Roosevelt facts conclusively demonstrating he was more awesome than we could ever hope to be. And as a little b...

At 11:15 PM on August 3, 1958, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower received a historic radio message: “Nautilus 90 North.” U.S.S. Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, had just reached the North Pole while sailing beneath the Arctic ice cap. Known as Project Sunshine, this submerged voyage to the top of the world was designed to show off the superiority of nuclear power f...

In February of 1958, the Ford Motor Company unveiled an extraordinary concept for the automobile of the future. Dubbed the Nucleon, the vehicle was a showcase of mid-century styling and technology, featuring sleek, futuristic lines, optional tail fins, one-piece wrap-around front and rear windscreens, electric torque converters, proximity sensors, and automatic climate control for the cabin. Oh, a...

At 10 PM on New Year’s Eve, 1963, a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster transport aircraft touched down on a runway in North Bay, Ontario. Under the cover of darkness, seven large metal canisters were unloaded from the aircraft and placed aboard a truck marked EXPLOSIVES. This truck then spirited the canisters through the security gate to the nearby Royal Canadian Air Force Base, where they were secu...

In this episode of The Brain Food Show podcast, we discuss one of the more remarkable individuals in modern history- Theodore Roosevelt. In particular we look at that time he risked life and limb on what amounted to a “principal of the thing” matter, and another time he quite literally shrugged off a bullet to the chest to immediately after give an hour and a half long speech… Learn more about you...

“Come on, Daddy needs a liveable planet he can rule with an iron fist.” - Sheldon Cooper This is a quote from a season 9 episode of The Big Bang Theory released in 2016 called The Sales Call Sublimation. An episode that is largely noteworthy, at least for the purposes of discussing studios and advertising, for being about 18 minutes long despite being a show that was specifically made to fill a ha...

What was the worst military aircraft of the Second World War? Given the sheer number of designs fielded by all sides throughout the conflict there is no shortage of candidates - many of which we have already covered on this channel. There was the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, a German rocket-powered fighter whose engine had a nasty habit of blowing up or dissolving the pilots alive. And the Messersc...

At 10:30 AM on January 17, 1966, an enormous explosion shattered the silence over the small farming village Palomares in Spain. An enormous fireball erupted in the sky overhead, and pieces of flaming debris began raining down over the surrounding countryside. Two U.S. Air Force aircraft had collided during a routine aerial refuelling operation, killing all but four of the eleven men aboard. Within...

There you are. Sitting on your couch, watching a movie, when suddenly you decide you want popcorn. So you get up and cross the room to the kitchen. But the moment you cross the threshold between the two rooms: bam! you suddenly stop in your tracks. You glance about the kitchen in confusion like Gandalf in the Mines of Moria, unable to remember why you came here in the first place. Your mind is bla...

A speeding bullet ripping through an apple, a split second before the fruit disintegrates. A drop of milk splashing off a red plate, forming a perfect miniature coronet. An atomic bomb frozen just after detonation, the fireball like a giant, surreal jellyfish. The movement of a golfer captured at split-second intervals, revealing the practiced elegance of his stroke. You have probably seen these i...