Curious State

20/12/2022

Dear listener: Thank you. I come to you one last time to say goodbye. And to thank you for joining me on this journey of being curious for its own sake.

My Fond Farewell:

Dear listener: Thank you.

09/12/2022

Pigeons. How much do you really know about these incredible creatures? Author Andrew Blechman is here to share the jaw-dropping details.

08/12/2022

Under the right conditions, hobbies and physical activities become deep play. But what exactly is it?

07/12/2022

Whales are textbook beauty and grace—and they’re a helluva lot of work to clean up when they die.

06/12/2022

Only 80 known people have highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM). What's it like to be one of them?

05/12/2022

The shows we refer to as guilty pleasures may be more insightful than we think. Danielle J. Lindemann, author of True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us, takes us on a journey into ourselves.

02/12/2022

Jackson Galaxy is America’s Cat Daddy. Does he think cats are as****es? Or is there more to those furry enigmas than meets the eye?

01/12/2022

How do you navigate going from buddy to b***y call? Dr. Justin Lehmiller has the answers.

30/11/2022

A photo album made with rabbit fur. A secret breeding project. A lost alligator. The story of Project Angora is truly stranger than fiction.

30/11/2022

In a world where your data is the gateway to a thief’s payday, all is not lost.

Cybercrime vigilantes like The Ransomware Hunting Team volunteer their time to make the digital world a safer place. Chances are, one day you’re going to need help from them. And when you do, this band of cyber wizards will be ready.

Easy money is hard to come by. Unless you’re in the ransomware business. Then tens of millions of dollars can be yours in a single, unsuspecting click.

29/11/2022

29/11/2022

Underwater pogo-sticking. Extinguishing matches with your tongue. Ashrita Furman's broken hundreds of world records...and he has a secret weapon to do it.

28/11/2022

Movie and TV trailer production is a game of chess. Except in this game, millions of dollars are at stake with every move.

28/11/2022

On Chris’s investigations (To Catch a Predator), the predators are real—so is the danger. And one night in Florida, that danger came with a car full of guns.

To Catch a Predator's investigations were real—so was the danger. And one night in Florida, that danger came with a car full of guns.

23/11/2022

Imagine the Ultimate Fighting Championship…but with pillows. That’s the basic recipe for the Pillow Fighting Championships. And it just might be the next big sport.

Imagine the Ultimate Fighting Championship… but with pillows.

22/11/2022

Impossible floor plans. Broken rules of architecture. Capitalizing on the creep factor. It's all in a day's work for haunted house designer Leonard Pickel.

21/11/2022

Michelle Belanger is an occult researcher, author, and television personality. She also happens to be a vampire.

18/11/2022

Howard Berger started working in the movie industry at the young age of 13. Today, he has over 100 films to his credit as a professional makeup artist. He's worked on movies like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, From Dusk Till Dawn, and the blood-filled Kill Bill movies. But things on set don't always go as planned.

Movies and blood go together like PB&J. And Howard Berger is the head chef.

17/11/2022

Stranger Things has killer tunes. But it’s not just what music plays—it’s when.

16/11/2022

Fun fact: Cannibalism in nature is incredibly widespread. In fact, it covers the entire spectrum of the animal kingdom. Just ask Bill Schutt, the author of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History.

15/11/2022

Cyanide has made quite the name for itself.

Take the Jonestown murder-suicide, for example—where cult leader Jim Jones called for over 900 of his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch. Cyanide also sits centerstage with a popular spy movie trope: the cyanide tooth. In case of capture, pop out the fake tooth that’s actually made of cyanide. Swallow it. And boom, a quick death is on its way.

But how exactly does cyanide kill you?

Cyanide causes a swift, gruesome death. But how exactly does it kill you?

15/11/2022

Back in the day, Princeton eating clubs were the pulse of the Princeton experience. But for many Jews in 1958, that experience was denied.

19/10/2022

Howard Berger started working in the movie industry at the young age of 13. Today, he has over 100 films to his credit as a professional makeup artist. But things on set don't always go as planned. Let's talk movie blood.

Movies and blood go together like PB&J. And Howard Berger is the head chef.

18/10/2022

Have you ever wondered where movie blood comes from? We've got answers - tomorrow.

29/09/2022

This week, Steve Williams, CEO of PFC, joins me to share pillow fighting’s journey into worldwide popularity (and possibly into the list of Olympic sports).

Imagine the Ultimate Fighting Championship… but with pillows.

27/09/2022

Imagine the Ultimate Fighting Championship… but with pillows.

21/09/2022

Loved working on this episode with my friends at Twenty Thousand Hertz! If you haven't already, give it a listen and let me know what you think.

21/09/2022