In this show, the team behind the wildly popular TodayIFoundOut YouTube channel do deep dives into a variety of fascinating topics to help you feed your brain with interesting knowledge.
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Legend says that brewing tea dates back to around 2737 BC, when tea leaves fell into water being boiled for Emperor Shennong of China. There does not appear to be any hard evidence of tea being discovered this way, but evidence we do have suggests that brewing tea did indeed likely start in China, first as part of a medicinal elixir. The first documented reference to this is found during the Shang…
During the 1986 beach volleyball film Top Gun, U.S. Navy aviators and ultimate bros Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw are flying dogfight exercises in a Grumman F-14 Tomcat when they accidentally fly into the jet wash of another aircraft, causing both their engines to flame out. The Tomcat immediately snaps into an unrecoverable flat spin and hurtles towards the earth, giving…
Edgar Allan Poe is probably best known for his raven that squawks “Nevermore,” but he’s also one of the first American short story writers and is often credited with being the “inventor” of detective fiction. He also contributed heavily to the genre of science fiction. Not only that, but he was one of the first American writers to earn a living from his writing alone. What’s not as well-known…
On April 11, 2026, the Orion spacecraft Integrity splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Koch (cook) safely back to earth after an epic 10-day journey from the earth to the moon - the first such mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. Aside from some minor issues with the spacecraft’s toilet and Microsoft Outlook, which……
In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start by looking at a rather fascinating fact about dogs and cats that you probably didn’t know. Next up we begin by debunking a variety of common whale related myths, most notably frequently depicted in movies the world over. Among other things, we then look at what exactly the uvula does (that dangly thing in the back of your throat), whether cats…
In the "Forgotten History" compilation video today, we're looking at the United States' biological warfare program tested on its own citizens, the women who were used for breeding by the Nazis, the amazonian arrow poison that revolutionized medicine, the only axi prisoner to escape from Canada and make it back to Germany, the forgotten and extremely tragic valcartier grenade incident, and much,…
On November 10, 1865, Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville prison in Georgia (a.k.a. Camp Sumter), was executed for his actions during the Civil War. A Swiss immigrant, Wirz was the only Confederate officer convicted and put to death for war crimes. (Even Confederate President Jefferson Davis ultimately got off more or less scot free.) Built in 1864, Andersonville, or Camp Sumter, was the…
Laser guns are a staple of science fiction. Engineers are very good at making science fiction, science fact, with a lot of money and awesome science and engineering. So how close are we to creating a handheld sci-fi laser gun? “Ancient weapons and hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” In this memorable line from 1977’s Star Wars, loveable smuggler and rogue Han Solo…
In the field of aviation, few figures loom larger in the popular imagination than Amelia Earhart. Over her relatively brief 10-year career, the legendary aviatrix became an icon and inspiration for women everywhere, becoming the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo and setting dozens of long-distance flight records. Her mysterious disappearance during an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937…
Long before the Apollo Program was officially announced in 1961, engineers and science fiction writers recognized the value of giving future moon explorers some kind of wheeled vehicle to increase their mobility. Most early concepts for such vehicles were large truck-like contraptions with pressurized cabins, allowing the astronauts to operate in so-called “shirt-sleeve” conditions, not unlike in…
In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start with a Simon rant, then look at what the M’s stand for in M&Ms. Next up we look at when exactly humans started putting living things in food items for the purpose of entertainment, the origin of “That’s What She Said” and “Said the Actress to the Bishop”, and then all leading up to the first “Trial of the (20th) Century” and what exactly that had…