Let Me Google That

Thanks to a cognitive bias known as asymmetric insight, we tend to think we know other people better than they know us—or even that we know other people better than they know themselves.

So, in 2022, we're only getting a "supermoon" but back in 2018 we had a SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON. If you're a cryptid, it was a great time to emerge from the woods and terrorize the locals. 

You've heard of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, now get ready for MOTHERS AGAINST DECAPENTAPLEGIC!

Insulin has been saving lives for over 100 years. But one of the first Americans to be saved by the miracle drug, Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, never wanted you to know.

Yes, you can technically eat Play-Doh—but it’s not gluten-free!

#EasterSunday is the perfect day to contemplate the nanostructure of eggshells, which baby chicks must violently peck their way out of in order to enter the world.

According to a 2016 study, even though we've been promoting advance directives & living wills for over 50 years, only about a third of U.S. adults have one.

So, there’s a theory that 200-ish years in the Middle Ages never happened...but like, don’t worry about it.

The true legacy the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers left behind was an uprising of women who fought for worker's rights and a union in the year before the tragic fire claimed their lives.

Using AI to model human brain processes could help us better understand conditions like depression, but does that mean robots can get depressed? And if they can't...should we program them to? For SCIENCE?

Some places do permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST), which means no clock setting ever! But many experts don't think it actually makes any difference since we never adjust to DST anyway. 

Those little silica gel packets are actually not toxic and don't work the way you think they do!

50 years of secret nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk (“the Polygon”) is still making people in Kazakhstan ill. The nuclear fallout Russia never wanted anyone to know about was worse than Chernobyl.

Marinetti's #futurist manifesto was published more than 100 years ago. While it's an interesting read be warned: it's a lil' heavy on fascism & museum-hating.

 #HappyValentinesDay! So, who came up with that horticulturally-inaccurate "Roses are red, violets are blue. . ." ditty anyway? 

During every Winter Olympics we ask the same question: What the hell is CURLING?

Trapped in a black hole? If you're at the edge of the Cauchy horizon, maybe you could hitch a ride on a space elephant.

In the wild west a "gentleman bandit" named Charles Boles was known for being polite, robbing stagecoaches on foot instead of horseback, never shooting a gun, rockin' a dapper aesthetic & the poems he left behind.

Whatever the reason for ya sneezin' (which may or may not sound like "AH-CHOO") there are also many ways to respond when someone sneezes: "bless you," "Gesundheit," or "SORRY" (in case it's not ragweed, but rather, a sign of your impending death).

In the context of America's opioid epidemic, you've probably been hearing a lot about Narcan. But the "miracle drug" isn't new. It's actually been around since the 1960s. So how does it work? And can anyone use it to save a life?

Thanks for spending another year keepin' it weird with LMGT. Let's take a look into the weirdness that awaits us in 2022. You asked, we answered. Grab some LMGT swag! 💙🆕👁‍🗨

Well, it's been another shitty year so it's probably fine that we didn't end up making Undecember, the 13th month of the year, a thing.

In 1977, the so-called "WOW! Signal" was heard by the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University...and everyone thought it was aliens.

"Word fossils" are words that we don't really use anymore, except as part of an idiom or expression: "What in 𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣?!" "Good 𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚!" & "Moral 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚." But how do words become "fossilized" & how long does it take?

 Y'know how your weather app gives you the temperature outside but then warns you that it'll *feel like* a much colder temp, thus upping your risk of FROSTBITE? We're debunking the ol' New England adage, "Don't fuck with the wind chill, fam."

Thanksgiving used to mean "ragamuffin parades" but now it's just all about that giant, expensive, inflatable Snoopy. 

An eclipse is pretty cool unless you don't like being in the dark. 

"Master keys" are actually part of a much larger hierarchal system of keying. Master keys can be "Grand" or "Great Grand" (like grandpas) depending on how many lower key systems they can unlock.

Research has shown that more daylight means MORE TIME FOR CRIME.

Do you know the difference between horror & terror? Did you know there IS a difference between horror and terror?💀👻🎃 Also, if you're a horror fan, check out Maya's Stephen King podcast!

Being from Maine, we’re always prone to Stephen King Wikipedia wormholes. So that’s why we’re talking about killer clowns. Also, hi, we have a newsletter now. Sign up to get each week's new episode straight to your inbox! 

How many books are there in the world? In 2010, Google tried to find out. With at least ~130 million books to choose from, there's *bound* to be something for everyone.

Denim jeans don't start out blue, but science gets them there.

LISTENER CALL-IN! How were the weird and beautiful Pinnacles of the Western Australian desert formed?

After their daughters died in a car accident, the Pollocks had twin baby girls that they became convinced were the reincarnated souls of their children who died.

Ever wondered how coupons work? The whole cycle (from when you hand your $1 coupon to the cashier to when the store gets reimbursed by the manufacturer) takes about a month.

"For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." — said literally everyone but Hemingway, ever.

America is one of the only places where you'll find milk in the cold aisle of a grocery store. The rest of the world just puts it on a regular, unrefrigerated shelf. How's that possible?

You should know the difference between heat exhaustion versus heatstroke because heat-related illness kills! ☀️

This week, the hosts of the What's Going On podcast are here to tell us everything you never thought to ask about hamburgers. If you like LMGT, you'll love their show!  Website: whatsgoingonthepod.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatsgoingonthepod Anchor: https://anchor.fm/whatsgoingonthepod

If you happen to catch the #perseidmeteorshower this weekend you have a specific and vaguely terrifying comet to thank!

Do lobsters feel pain when they get dropped into a pot of boiling water or are we (looking at you, Switzerland) just anthropomorphizing them?

Robert Recorde invented the equals sign (=) because he got HECKIN' TIRED of having to write "is equal to" over and over again when he was creating mathematical texts for non-Latin reading folk in the 16th century England.

13 works worth $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Their empty frames still hang in the museum as placeholders.

Could you have the rarest blood type in the world? If you have the golden blood type, all the more reason to become a blood donor.

Not saying these caverns turned out to be a portal to hell or another dimension, but...

SInce it’s 4thofJuly weekend in the States, let’s talk about what makes fireworks so beautiful and loud. 

This week we're discussing italic font (which is not the same as ~oblique) with typography designer Brian Willson. 

It’s #CephalopodWeek! Have some giant squid content! Not big enough for ya? Have some COLOSSAL SQUID CONTENT!!!

Stars are bright, right? And there's a lot of 'em. So why isn't the night sky lit up!?

Pre group chat = party lines. In the 1980s, a bunch of Swedish teens used one to plan IRL meetup that went viral.

Also, important: how do fish yawn?

The term “trigger warning” gets thrown around and mocked, but at the most basic level, it’s an attempt at self-preservation. But is there an opposing force to a trigger? That’s the idea behind “glimmers.” Additional reading: The blog post mentioned in this episode: The Nervous System, Triggers & Glimmers! More about the Polyvagal Theory.

Um, best name for a volcano ever???

These bugs are millions of years old and have too many damn legs!

The optimum number of Os (of which there are *4* different sizes) per can is 1,750.

An arrest was made in the Golden State Killer case on April 24, 2018—some 30 years after the serial rapist & murderer went quiet. Aside from dying or getting caught, do serial killers ever just. . .stop?

What does it take to get rid of an infectious disease forever? Could we ever eradicate COVID?

Not mine lol 

Plants do have senses—in a sense.

Anatoli Bugorski stuck his head in a particle accelerator and LIVED — but that's not even the strangest part of this story.

I have no logical explanation for this but my first thought upon waking today was SPIRO AGNEW! Was not expecting this Wikihole to lead to Frank Sinatra, but here we are.

This week our friend Chelsea Gohd aka Foxanne, senior writer at Space.com and an analog astronaut, is here to talk about how she recorded a song with the first sounds ever from Mars with some help from the Perseverance Rover. Be sure to check out her debut EP: It's real (I knew it).

You might want to reconsider that slow cooker recipe with red kidney beans.

The terms we use to describe groups of animals aren't just for animals, apparently.

In the early 1900s, the U.S. banned blackcurrants because the seeds were vectors for a fungus that threatened the logging industry. That means that most Americans have never tasted blackcurrant. Which means they've never experienced RIBENA.

We have a frustrated pharmacist to thank for the chalk-and-talk-tastic Valentine's Day candy. *I apologize if the sound/editing has been inconsistent! I have changed locations/set-ups and am still working things out. 

Call in with your best vanity plate idea!

It's "Earth" in English, but that's hardly the universal term. Each language has its own word for our home planet.

Like many great inventions, Silly String was an accident: it was meant to be spray-on casts.

Bobby Dunbar disappeared. The boy found, returned to his family, and raised as their son — was not him. Check out the episode of This American Life I reference here: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunbar 

You might want to, but is it possible? Or advisable?

You can sing a tipsy rendition of it with your friends tonight to ring in the #newyear but elsewhere in the world, Auld Lang Syne pops up at funerals and...closing time at your local watering hole.

You can never unlearn that "snowboarding" began as "SNURFING."

The tradition has worldwide appeal, but there's actually one generous dude who was *the* Secret Santa.

You're not imagining it.

Cold War-era dumpster diving at Soviet HQ revealed they were wiping their butts with intel.

Chronic sinusitis from 1918 pandemic flu meant flying wasn't easy for Amelia Earhart. 

Ahead of Thanksgiving in the age of COVID, we’re revisiting a podcast of holiday seasons past to ask an important question: Does your Nana's sterling silver really disinfect itself?

If you're a non-Brit watching The Crown and you're like, "Why are they talking like that?" than this episode is for you.

If you live in a country where access to the Internet is a part of your daily  life, you might not have considered what it would mean to lose that access—or never have had it at all. 

Ahead of Halloween, let's learn all about banshees & the not-so-subtle art of keening.

On the night of October 20, 1973 (a Saturday), a series of events unfolded that culminated in what became known as Watergate.  

The interaction was discovered in a study where the juice was used to mask the taste of alcohol.

The most popular use of licorice is *not* for candy, though it can be dangerous if you eat enough of it. (ALSO: Sorry for the audio, I need a new pop screen for my mic!) 

In the '80s researchers identified a new penguin…or did they?

In September of 1859, The Carrington Event solar flare caused telegraph systems to literally shock their operators.

September is #FoodSafetyEducationMonth so let’s celebrate by remembering the men who volunteered to get food poisoning for science. #poisonsquad 

Turns out yellow school buses have quite a history. And only require seat belts in one state!

Why do we do this THING with our ONE EYE (that is ... those of us who can wink).

Since August is #NationalCrayonCollectionMonth this seems like a good time to talk about FICTIONAL COLORS. 🖍

Who do we have to thank (or blame?) for the mouth-staining marvel that is BLUE RASPBERRY?

Can animals really smell fear? Can *humans* smell fear? And if the military were to, say, use pheromones to psych out enemy troops would that count as biochemical or psychological warfare?

The largest impact event in recorded human history was 1,000 x the strength of the atomic bomb & destroyed *80 million* trees in the Siberian wilderness. But what was it? 

Last week the mysterious #FennTreasure was found deep in the Rocky Mountains after a decade of intriguing puzzles, poetry, and DEATH. ☠

So, when did humans start in with the whole "rinse, lather, repeat" nonsense?

Whenever someone died and the family opened the mausoleum, they’d find the coffins inside had MOVED.

JFK'S birthday is on Friday, so in his honor ... consider that Gallup polls since 1963 show most Americans believe JFK’s assassination was part of a conspiracy. And that it did not help that JFK's brain went missing after the autopsy. See: Wikipedia of JFK assassination conspiracy theories.

Happy Mother's Day! Did this woman really have ~69 children? Is that humanly possible? Also...why?

Everything you never knew you wanted to know about giraffes: the even-toed ungulates formerly known as CAMELEOPARDS. Did you know that young male giraffes practice mating. . .with each other?

7UP wasn't just ANY lemon-lime soda, it wanted to be *the* lemon-lime soda. Adding lithium probably helped. As did the enduring mystique around its name. Oh, and the whole "upside down" thing in the early 2000s. . .

Why not celebrate #EarthDay this week by having a lil' ocean with your plastic? 

Eyelashes are in the growing phase of the hair cycle for about a month while head hair can be there for 6 years!

Apparently, the so-called Waffle House Index annoys the shit out of FEMA. #covid19

Um, "Kick 'em Jenny" is the best name for an undersea volcano ever? 🌋

Seems like a good week to talk about the risk of cough medicine, eh? #covid19 #coronavirus  Read more: FDA panel says risk of opioid use in kids’ cough medicines outweighs benefits (STAT News, 2017)

Happy #ReadAcrossAmericaDay! Why not celebrate by reading a mysterious 2,000-page spiritual tome supposedly bestowed upon humanity by celestial beings and that we don't know the author of?

You've heard of #leapyear now get ready for leap SECONDS.

An artist named Howard Hallis has spent the last decade painting a massive picture of literally everything.

For #ValentinesDay take your display of love to the next level and catheterize your own heart like Werner Forßmann.

Spoiler: Um, yeah. 

Before Meghan Markle, Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz shook up the ultra-white House of Windsor. 

"There was malice in the thrust," — NYT report c. 1906 on aggressive confetti throwing.

Also, wtf is ALLSPICE? 

Step 1. Listen to today's episode on the physics of figure skating. Step 2. Use @disneyplus to watch Ice Princess (2005) Step 3. GO FOR THE GOLD 🥇⛸️

When it was invented in the 1880s, ChapStick just wanted to soothe your chapped lips. How then, about a century later, did it find itself with a starring role in the Watergate scandal?

Imagine buying a balloon that costs more than a house. 

Guest host Vieno from Trans Field Guide podcast is here to explain what gender is (and isn't) in celebration of #TransAwarenessWeek! You can learn more at transfieldguide.com. Follow them on Instagram @transfieldguide1 and www.facebook.com/TransFieldGuide/🌈

Spooky season is in full swing here at LMGT so today we're talking about will-‘o-the-wisps a.k.a. Spooky Ghost Lights That Wanna Kill You! 👻

Is this creepy abandoned park full of presidential busts in Virginia a symbol for our crumbling democracy?!

The rules about car safety inspections aren't the same everywhere and some places don't require you to have your car inspected ever?? Read more!

Will you get ice cubes faster if you fill the tray with hot water? 🤔 Learn more: http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/mpemba_effect.html

Just wanted to introduce myself?? And also give you the chance to guest host!  More about me/my book/my dog here: abbynormanwriter.com LMGT on social: @letmeglglthat on Twitter / instagram.com/letmegooglethat  Signup with the Google form here: https://forms.gle/H4AsJbfaxWXvSBfg9

On August 26, 1883 a volcanic eruption shook the whole world - literally.

Not unlike humans, many social insects have very specific protocols for handling the dead in the name of infection prevention. Though "undertaker ants" sometimes just drop corpses in the trash heap.

So, here's what nuclear war would be like probably. 

It’s not officially #sharkweek until we talk about the bajillion year old Greenland shark.

The Moon Landing was the best thing that ever happened to Ted Kennedy.

America’s public pools are full of bacteria and classism!

It's still #CephalopodWeek! Today we're talking about the mighty nautilus: oldest damn things in the deep blue sea.

A historic journalistic endeavor that required an epic amount of Xeroxing.

Can animals be allergic to other animals? More importantly, can your pet be allergic to YOU? 

Before you hit that #MemorialDayWeekend BBQ, make sure you know what the legal definition of a sandwich is! 

On May 8th 1980 the WHO announced smallpox had been eradicated. Here's how we did it — and why we haven't managed to eradicate any other disease in the decades since.

On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, sinking 2 days later. Over the next 87 days, millions of barrels of oil leaked into the ocean — the economic & environmental impact of which many are still reeling from today.

It's #DNADay! Let's talk about a DNA structure that's *not* the classic double helix: the i-motif! Which kind of looks like a uterus. . .

Here's the history of audiobooks (abridged!) and preview of Abby's audiobook, which you can download wherever audiobooks are sold and/or bartered for.

#otd in 1937 Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky coined the term SUPERNOVA in a paper about neutron stars. He later coined the term NUCLEAR GOBLINS. 

In Ireland, #StPatricksDay was just a minor religious holiday for centuries — and not one that involved drinking. Then Americans appropriated it in the 1960s and now we have the #shamrockshake. 

Is #MercuryRetrograde a thing or do we just want to believe it's a thing? 

Barbie turns 60 this month! Since her debut in 1959 she's had many looks, careers, and amassed quite an impressive collection of friends and extended family. 

On January 17th, 1982 hundreds of U.S. cities broke records for low temperatures — many of which still stand today. Near Tower, Minnesota, temps dropped to -52 °F (-47 °C).

Epidemiologists use statistics to track outbreaks. One important value to know is the R₀ — for measles, it's 12-18. Ebola is like ~1.5 

 Which county in the United States has area code 321? And why is that the case? 

 Who is "Jenny Everywhere" — and why is she everywhere? Also: hi to Richard Belzer!!

 So, meat pieces fell from the sky in Kentucky once. 

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope has detected the second-ever mystery space sounds known as "fast radio bursts" or FBRs. The sounds were first heard back in 2007 and have puzzled scientists ever since. But what *are* they? Or what could they be? 

It kind of sounds like a headline from The Onion, but the tasty & scientifically-sound hypothesis was tested by researchers several years ago.

"The years start coming and they don't stop coming." — Aristotle 

Well, monkeys.

BAG PIPERS THAT IS

Ok but like...swans are elegant and mean. 🦢

Not leaping, just lording.

And centuries of institutionalized misogyny!

And infectious disease!

Okay, taking a little detour on this because fuck birds. Why do we call people a "silly goose?"

OK NO BIRDS TODAY. Also: wedding bands.

Well, I guess birds would have to call because they sure as hell can't text.

OH GOD MORE BIRBS I'M SO SORRY

Oh look ... more birds.

We've all been mishearing "pear trees" for like 10,000 years.

Each day between now and December 25th we're unpacking a lyric to the 12 Days of Christmas! #MerryPodmas

Putting away Grandma's good sterling silver after Thanksgiving? Did you skimp out on cleaning it first? What if I told you that shit disinfects itself?

Do you call this time of year FALL or AUTUMN? Here's why the season has 2 names.

From BBS chatrooms and Compuserv to Geocities, AOL, and Myspace — when it comes to social media, how did we get to. . .whatever it is we're doing now?

As long as humans have been living we’ve been dying. And as long as we’ve been confronting our mortality, we’ve been asking: what happens when we die? Part of that is telling ghost stories. Here's one of mine.

In 1962 a hunk of Russian space junk landed in the middle of a street in Wisconsin. What was the U.S. to do? This was Cold War-era Space Race time, so they weren't gonna call up the Soviet Union like: "It's 10 PM do you know where your Sputnik is?"

Why do we award them? And what about that time some medals were hidden from the Nazis in an acid bath?

ヽHEAT｀、｀LIGHTNINGヽ｀ヽヽ IS ヽヽFAKEヽ｀ヽ｀、｀NEWSヽ｀

Technically, you can turn in your social security card and renounce your U.S. citizenship just because you want to (but maybe don't).

What's happened (or is happening or might happen) between Trump & Putin, between the U.S. & Russia, is unethical, illegal, and unprecedented — but here's the reason it's *not* treason.

The MBTI personality test wasn't designed to measure  aptitude — it actually measures *preference.* You might *prefer* introversion to experience the world, but that doesn't mean you're *incapable* or *lacking* extraverted qualities.

Guest host Johnathan Blade is diving deep into "computers before computers." Find him on YouTube Johnathanblade1 where he makes videos about “commercial tech-related content and film reviews, with a focus on mostly mobile editing.”

Ever wondered why we point at things? Or how dogs *know* we're pointing at a thing? Guest host Chris Thrasher has answers.

Guest host Lydia Sigwarth is going to tell you about some of the most morbidly fascinating (ha — see what we did there?) deaths in history. SPOILER ALTER: Watermelons appear more than once.

Guest host Pedo Graterol is going to tell you about one of the coolest and strangest phenomena of his home country, Venezuela: Catatumbo lightning!

Guest host Chelsea Gohd (aka Foxanne) explains everything you wanted to know about Jupiter's weird AF new (to us, anyway) moons. Also, be sure to check out her EP & catch her on tour!

Guest host Amanda Laird of the Heavy Flow Podcast made sure to include this image from “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” along with today’s a-rousing episode!

Today’s guest hosts Keven & Jofre of the Rant Debate and Repeat Show (The RDR Show on Anchor) are discussing Utah University's "cry closet" which you may not have realized is A THING THAT HAPPENED.

Guest host Lily Jenness, a librarian-in-training, artist, and writer from southern Indiana is here to tell you all about the clusterfuck that is the Dewey Decimal System!

Guest host Jacquard Isaiah Wyze @OmegaOneYT is explaining the life force known as Ki. No, not “chi” — and if you remember Dragon Ball Z you already know this!

Explore a wealth of fun facts with guest host is Moxie LaBouche, former burlesque dancer who turned her creative powers toward podcasting as a way to vent the wealth of useless information that clogs up her brain, which she does on her podcast: This Is Your Brain on Facts!

. . .and more of the happiest/weirdest facts I know!

Here's a ROOTY TOOTY FRESH 'N FRUITY® history of IHOB — the eatery formerly known, and forever in my heart known, as IHOP.

Why did so many famous musicians die at the age of 27? Hendrix, Morrison, Joplin, Cobain & Winehouse are among the most notable, but the "27 Club" has over ~60 members to date.