Your Brain On Facts

Hop on down the bunny trail as we examine the origins of some beloved Easter traditions and teach the goyim a little about Pesach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the age of bigger, better, faster, more, it’s easy to default to thinking that we invented everything, that the complex things that make up our lives couldn’t have existed in the times we view as primitive. Oh, how wrong we are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We dip our toes into the deep water of "the first woman to..." with pilots, daredevils, doctors, and athletes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There exists a small deserted town, which has been seized by eminent domain and condemned by the state. Why would an entire town that once housed over a thousand residents be shuttered? Because the ground under their feet was on fire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take, for example, George Washington’s youthful proclamation on the lumberjacking of his father’s cherry tree - “I cannot tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.” It’s one of the first presidential facts American children learn in elementary school. The trouble is, that story is a complete fabrication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gutenberg may have gotten all the press, but he wasn't the first to use movable type. Think you know the first video game or who was the first to fly across the Atlantic? Listen in and see! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You say potato, I say a dangerous tuber that people will only eat in the face of actual starvation. You say tomato, I say a poison apple from the mysterious new world that’s killing the aristocracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From a lone example of a trilobite in Hunan, China named Han Solo to a butterfly pea flower reminiscent of a Georgia O'Keefe painting, called clitoria ternatea, the naming of species offers almost as much in the way of entertainment as it does scientific classification. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From rainbow parties to Spiritualism to two bands touring as a band they're not, we take a look at some noteworthy hoaxes and false panics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices