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Stuff You Should Know

How did language evolve? What makes us happy? Each week Josh and Chuck explore everything from matadors to moonshine. Join the guys as they look into big and small questions alike -- seriously, it's all the Stuff You Should Know.

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Latest Episodes

  • How Willpower Works

    Released 02.07.13

    You use it to overcome your lower self (which wants you to eat cake until your vision blurs) in pursuit of the goals of your higher self (which wants you to avoid diabetes).

  • How Garbage-powered Cars Could Work

    Released 02.05.13

    We’re not so far off from being able to power cars using beer and banana peels, like Doc in Back to the Future.

  • How Gold Works

    Released 01.31.13

    Over the course of history, humanity has only mined 161,00 metric tons of gold. Considering about 85 percent of gold is recycled, there’s a chance your jewelry may once have been part of an Incan headdress or Mycenaean face mask.

  • How Stuntmen (and -women) Work

    Released 01.29.13

    They get blown up, shot, drowned and thrown out of windows on the silver screen – and we don’t even know their names.

  • TV Bonus: How Bees Work

    Released 01.26.13

    With less than a million neurons in their heads, bees shouldn’t be able to do much. Yet bees are capable of high functions like population economics and navigating by the sun on overcast days.

  • Fecal Transplants: You Gonna Drink That Poop?

    Released 01.24.13

    Medical ecology is concerned with understanding how microbes living inside us keep us healthy. The field’s first breakthrough is the fecal transplant, moving poop from a healthy person and into the gut of a sick person.

  • How the Frick Fracking Works

    Released 01.22.13

    Fracking, the process of breaking trapped resources like natural gas and oil from shale, has led to a revolution in energy production in the U.S.

  • How Autopsies Work

    Released 01.19.13

    How can experts determine a person’s cause of death? Join Josh and Chuck as they take a trip through the morgue and look over the shoulders of the often controversial coroners and medical examiners that open cadavers to determine how someone died.

  • How Autopsies Work

    Released 01.19.13

    How can experts determine a person’s cause of death? Join Josh and Chuck as they take a trip through the morgue and look over the shoulders of the often controversial coroners and medical examiners that open cadavers to determine how someone died.

  • How Alien Hand Syndrome Works

    Released 01.19.13

    When a person has alien hand syndrome, his or her hand can move involuntarily, and seemingly of its own volition.

  • How Alien Hand Syndrome Works

    Released 01.19.13

    When a person has alien hand syndrome, his or her hand can move involuntarily, and seemingly of its own volition.

  • Does the five-second rule work?

    Released 01.17.13

    If you drop a piece of food and pick it up within five seconds, is it still good to eat? Researchers have studied this and have also inadvertently shone a light on how utterly covered our world is with bacteria and germs.

  • How Death Masks Work

    Released 01.15.13

    The Myceneans kicked off the habit of creating a mask of a deceased person’s face in deathly repose, and what began as an ancient rite has only recently fallen out of practice.

  • Why do men have nipples?

    Released 01.10.13

    They’re always right there, taunting you: why do you have me, they ask? Why do men have nipples? It turns out there’s a good answer why and nipples on men aren’t entirely useless after all.Join Chuck and Josh for this heady investigation.

  • Can you outrun an alligator in a zig-zag?

    Released 01.08.13

    You’ve heard the warning before: If you’re being chased on land by an alligator, run in a zig-zag. Of course, the average person should be capable of outrunning an alligator.

  • What was America’s first terrorist threat?

    Released 01.03.13

    From the moment it was established, the United States had headaches with terrorism of the pirate variety.

  • How Bigfoot Works

    Released 01.01.13

    For centuries North American tribes have told stories of a hairy wild giant in the wilderness, and once Europeans arrived they claimed to see it, too.

  • How Dog Shows Work

    Released 12.27.12

    You know those shows where people wearing sensible shoes jog dogs around in circles? They actually represent the pinnacle of a long and complex path to glory for dogs and their owners.

  • Josh and Chuck’s Christmas Extravaganza 2012

    Released 12.21.12

    Kick back and raise a glass of eggnog to Josh and Chuck as they carry on a new holiday tradition of exploring the ins and outs of all things Christmas – and maybe even warm your heart along the way.

  • How Barbie® Doll Works

    Released 12.20.12

    In this episode, Josh and Chuck explore the history, cultural impact and feminist ire raised by the Barbie doll.

  • Lab-grown meat: Order up!

    Released 12.18.12

    Since Winston Churchill predicted we’d grow meat in a lab by 1981, researchers have considered doing just that.

  • How Condoms Work

    Released 12.13.12

    The earliest depiction of a condom is found in a 15,000-year-old cave painting. Ever since humans realized sex led to children, we’ve been using condoms to prevent pregnancy.

  • Why isn’t the U.S. on the metric system?

    Released 12.11.12

    The U.S. stands proudly defiant and the world looks at Americans as dopes for the U.S.’s stubborn refusal to go metric.

  • Will we reach peak oil?

    Released 12.06.12

    A 2012 report showed that the U.S. may be energy-independent in just a few years, but not too long ago the specter of peak oil loomed large on the political and economic landscape.

  • How Vampires Work

    Released 12.04.12

    Out of obligation, Chuck and Josh mention Twilight, but it is the longstanding vampire lore that gets the most attention in this examination of how the bloodsucking undead evolved from baby-stealing demonesses to suave counts in our collective psyche.

  • How Caving Works

    Released 11.29.12

    Entrances to the underworld have been places of wonder for eons, and humans have ventured into caves to sleep, hunt, create art and explore.

  • Why do leaves change colors in the fall?

    Released 11.27.12

    Ah, autumn – arguably the most beautiful time of the year, thanks to the vibrant colors trees put on display as they close up for the winter.

  • Philanthropy: Humankind and Loving It

    Released 11.22.12

    Sure the fatcats get all the credit for donating millions, but did you know US households making $20,000 or less contribute the highest percentage of their income to charity?

  • Should we be designing our children?

    Released 11.20.12

    In 2009, a fertility clinic controversially offered parents the ability to customize their children. How will society take the idea of designing children?

  • How Meth Works

    Released 11.15.12

    You know how when you do a lot of crystal methamphetamine you get meth mouth, where your teeth decay?

  • How Meth Works

    Released 11.15.12

    You know how when you do a lot of crystal methamphetamine you get meth mouth, where your teeth decay?

  • How close are we to holographic environments?

    Released 11.13.12

    Star Trek was famous for its holodeck, a completely immersive holographic environment that could be any space a user wanted.

  • What will happen when we reach the Singularity?

    Released 11.08.12

    Futurists have unnervingly predicted an impending moment in human history: the Singularity, when a superhuman artificial intelligence is created.

  • Yakuza: From Samurai to Slot Machines

    Released 11.06.12

    The Yakuza trace their lineage back to the 18th century samurai, left masterless following political upheaval, who turned to lives of crime.

  • Is Stockholm Syndrome real?

    Released 11.01.12

    Since a hostage standoff in Sweden took place in 1972 a peculiar and mysterious psychological phenomenon has had a name.

  • SYSK’s Halloween Horror Fiction Winner!

    Released 10.30.12

    Josh and Chuck have been planning this thing since spring and it’s finally here! Tune in to hear which listener’s scary story won the SYSK Halloween Horror Fiction Contest -- and prepare to have your socks scared off just in time for All Hallow’s Eve.

  • Exoskeletons: How’s it coming?

    Released 10.25.12

    Since the 1960s, the Pentagon has called for a suit that can make a soldier jump higher, run faster longer and generally be a badder dude.

  • How Commercial Jingles Work

    Released 10.23.12

    You probably can recite five right now. Commercial jingles are designed to hijack your working memory and implant a product or service and they really work.

  • How Lion Taming Works

    Released 10.18.12

    Bossing a lion around in front of a crowd at a circus has been an attraction for 200 years, but exactly how lion tamers get their captive wild animals to comply has evolved over time.

  • How Black Holes Work

    Released 10.16.12

    It wasn’t too long ago when black holes were strictly predictions in theoretical math. Over decades, astronomy has gotten better at uncovering these cosmic phenomena.

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