Things I Learned Last Night

In 1991, eight people walked in a large glass dome in the Arizona desert. Camera crews captured the group as they disappeared into the void. The structure was built by billionaire Ed Bass who hoped to use the facility for research into what it would take to build a colony on an alien world. The philanthropist enlisted a crew of four men and four women to spend two years locked inside the biosphere...

Imagine you woke up one morning to find the sky is full of circular, triangular, and cylindrical objects darting to and fro in an apparent struggle for aerial supremacy. You might immediately think that you were witnessing an alien invasion. Maybe you'd assume you were hallucinating. But, imagine this happened while you were living in the year 1561. That's exactly what happened to the people of Nu...

What are the names that come to mind when you think of bank robbers? For many, names like Bonnie & Clyde, John Dillinger, and maybe even certain GTA V characters fill the mind. However, these robbers don't even scratch the surface. While, technically, not a bank robber, John Ruffo conned a few dozen banks out of more than $350 million. His case is the most expensive bank fraud in American history....

Marathon runners are a rare breed of humans. Few hobbies involve wheezing for miles and shopping for shirts that won't rub your skin off. Every year a new challenger appears for these hobbyists to overcome. However, there has never been a more formidable foe for the marathon runner than the Barkley Marathons. This infamous race tests not just its runner's physical endurance but also their mental f...

Moving into a new home can be stressful. In the best-case scenario, the new neighbors are helpful or maybe distant, depending on how social of a person you are. But we've all been in that scenario where our neighbors aren't exactly the type of people we wanted to live near. However, noisy or rude neighbors are nothing to the neighbor that the Broaddus family endured after moving into their New Jer...

These days just about anyone can tell you a thing or two about Scientology. Most of the public exposure to the church of Scientology has come from Leah Remini's documentary series on Netflix. Even though the average person knows the church, few understand exactly what it does or from where it came. Scientology's members' secrecy and financial actions have led most to label it a cult. It is a label...

Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the idea of other universes, timelines, and dimensions has become mainstream. We've all become well-versed in the possibility of other worlds out there. But how realistic is the idea? Some serious thinkers believe that the sort of universe in the MCU is possible. M Theory is a subset of string theory that seeks to explain all of the other possible dimension...

Imagine a theme park that surveyed the history of the United States while being shaped like the continental United States. How could that not excite you? In the '60s, the US of A was all the rage in the US, and C.V. Wood saw the hype as an opportunity to capitalize on patriotism. The disgraced Disney Park manager somehow landed a 13-million dollar investment from one of New York's most prolific re...

Point Pleasant. If you chose to stop for gas in Point Pleasant, you might be shocked to see a 12-foot-tall metallic statue of the mythological creature known as Moth Man. Both because it's shocking that a town would erect such a statue on their main crossroad and because it's an utterly terrifying statue. Nestled on the West Virginia and Ohio border, Point Pleasant boasts scenic views of the Ohio...

Few places have sparked as much public intrigue as Skinwalker Ranch. Dubbed as the most paranormally active place in America, the ranch has books and tv shows in its honor. We can learn much by looking at the ranch owners over the years. When did that haunting begin? What is the nature of the hauntings? Most importantly, what do UFOs have to do with it? The history goes back long before the United...

The life story of the man who helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is one that anyone would assume is full of intrigue. That is precisely the case with Jack Parsons, one of the lead members of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory which led to the founding of JPL. However, for Jack, his scientific exploits are some of the least exciting points of his life. Parsons dealing with the occult an...

Video games have long been a joyous escape for many throughout the world. Few other outlets provide people with the same expanse of experiences as that of gaming. However, the profit timelines for game developers have always been a dicey issue. Due to long development time and short sales windows, game developers are often left with many months straight without a profit. Microtransactions were bor...

Bank Robbery is no easy feat. Many have seen the dollars that move in and out of banks every single day and dreamt of ways to procure the money moving within bank walls. However, few have gone through with a bank heist, and even fewer have pulled off a successful bank robbery. Anthony Curcio is responsible not only for a successful bank robbery but for one of the most well-planned bank heists in r...

In the mid-'90s, the internet took the world by storm. For the first time in history, everyone had access to an unprecedented amount of information. In those early years, the entire web was curated by skilled webmasters who understood the inner workings of the internet. Over time, new technologies allowed everyone to share their thoughts and ideas with the world. Recently, bots were let loose onli...

Fifty years ago, pieces of an ancient wall peaked out from underground all around Rockwall, TX. Today, much of the wall has been buried, but this quiet Dallas suburb may be host to the oldest surviving structure in the United States. It seems pretty clear that this wall is man-made, or at least intelligently made. Yet, despite all the signs, the public discourse regarding the wall is that it is a...

The globe is dotted with beautiful columns and archways popularized by the Beaux-arts style of architecture. Beaux-arts caught on and took the world by storm, as with many trends. Or did it? According to a relatively new internet, conspiracy buildings in this style are relics from a long-lost empire known as Tartaria. Much of our nation's capital buildings are really just repurposed Tartarian stru...

Humanity has been expanding and advancing for as long as we have existed. It seems like we have an insatiable desire for creating new things and developing our influence as far and wide as possible. Logically, and based on some recent experience, we will eventually expand past our world and begin to colonize the cosmos. However, such a feat will require massive amounts of energy. In 1964 Nikolai K...

Sixto Rodriguez was an aspiring musician in the late '60s. After little success, he retired from music and worked as a day laborer in Detroit, Michigan. While Rodriguez spent his days doing odd jobs, his music made waves overseas. This is the story of Sixto Rodriguez, the rock icon that sold more records than Elvis Presley in South Africa. The only problem? He had no idea. Learn more about your ad...

Walt Disney had an issue with the way cities were built in his day. He spent much of his adult life in Los Angeles, notorious for traffic and dangerous corridors. Disney believed he had all the answers, and after the success of Disney land, he began formulating a plan for a new city. Eventually, Epcot would become the project's name, which stood for the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow. Thi...

We've all had these questions before. What is the Internet? Who invented it? When was the internet invented? How does it even work? The story is often treated like a mythic tale, but it's a timeline that we can somewhat pinpoint. The way it works seems almost ethereal today. It's a collection of data that floats through space and into our devices, right? The explanation of the inner workings of th...

This story isn't for you if you have a weak stomach. Honestly, if you're human this story isn't for you. This is easily the most disgusting story we've ever told on this show. But, here it is. The Dave Matthews Band Chicago River Incident. Trust us, nothing can prepare you for what you are about to learn. We're deeply sorry about this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know Dasher and Dancer and vicious misuse of a historical figure for profit. But, do you know the story of how St. Nick turned into the Santa Claus we know today? The story is a long one that flows through many changes throughout history. The jolly bearded man didn't become what he is today until relatively recently. It wasn't until Capitalism got its greedy hands on old St. Nick that he becam...

How do you know what you know? That's a weird question. It's an important question to ask, though, and that question is at the heart of epistemology. Briefly, epistemology is a philosophical school of thought that seeks to understand knowledge. At its core, the hope is to determine if evidence can justify our beliefs. The system of thought has birthed all forms of skepticism. Therefore, many have...

Throughout history, generations watched as the younger generation took the helm. With each transition of power, the older generation has often disapproved of the behavior and decisions of the younger. This was particularly evident in the early 20th century. Events like the roaring '20s, the world wars, and the great depression left people wondering if the world was ending. Some in that era believe...

Let's talk about Satan. The devil is one of the scariest creatures in the whole Biblical story. The problem? Well, the Bible never describes the devil in the way the creature is described today. The Bible rarely ever refers to Satan as a single figure or the chief of evil. The picture we are given from the Bible is far different. So, where did our modern understanding come from? Years and years of...