To Plant A Seed
In the early 1920s, horticulture teacher Art Combe and some students from the White River Agency School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation decided to explore an abandoned sandstone cave. Deep in the cave, safely nestled on a natural rock ledge, Combe found a tiny...
Against All Odds: Lone Survivor
More a warning about tone than content. All of the stories today are heavy, but they all have happy endings, more or less. In 1921, Alaska native Ada Blackjack was hired as cook and seamstress for an expedition to claim the isolated and uninhabited Wrangel...
Best Care Anywhere
Livestream for the Cure She was born into the Army and devoted her life to saving the lives of others, no matter how difficult the conditions. She ran a tight ship, by the book, but not without compassion. The war gave her a husband and took him away. ...
Marvelous Miss Miser
A friend asks you out to a nice dinner. The evening’s been swell, then the check comes. Your friend whistles an idle tune, stares blankly into the distance, does anything other than reach for the check. Finally, you give in and pay for the meal. Just like last...
Bored? Games!
At the 2017 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, one of the exhibitions was about board games, slightly different versions of the ones normally seen on shelves, games like Pandemic where players collaborate to solves global crises, Collection Deck, less Ren...
It’s The End Of The World! (Again)
BOOK, THANK PATRONS In the village of Gittisham, Devon, England, in the 18th century, lived a woman named Joanna Southcott. Southcott became convinced that she had supernatural powers and began selling seals of the lord, essentially tickets to heaven, which people...
Making Do
Today’s episode is brought to you by our amazing supporters at patreon.com/yourbrainonfacts and by the Your Brain On Facts book, available for pre-order now at ybof.com/book, chock full of articles that have never and will never be included in the...
Food, Dubious Food
Vocal Fries podcast In 2011, an Alabama law firm sued fast food chain Taco Bell for dishonest business practices, claiming Taco Bell's seasoned beef filling couldn't be called beef under USDA standards because they had it tested and it only contained 35% beed. The...
Around the World in 80 Birthdays
If you walk up to a random person on the street and ask their birthday, there’s only a 1:365 chance that they have the same birthday as you, about .27%. If you ask nineteen more random people, your odds improve, but only just. You’re still not up to even a 5% chance....