Today

How Did Beer Help Sell the Myth of Custer's Last Stand?

The idea of General George Custer's deadly military blunder being a heroic last stand was constructed over decades to encourage U.S. colonization of the West. Learn how Anheuser-Busch helped in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/a ... Show More

10m 8s

Yesterday

How Does Bioluminescence Work?

When organisms like fireflies, fungi, and fish glow with cold light, there's chemistry at work. Learn what we know (and don't know!) about bioluminescence -- including how humans are harnessing it -- in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffwo ... Show More

12m 16s

May 8

How Is Maillardet's Automaton Still Wowing Us After 200 Years?

Around the year 1800, Swiss clockmaker Henri Maillardet created a mechanical doll that moves like a person as it produces drawings and poems with a pen on paper -- it's programmed for seven in total, without having any electrical parts. Learn how it and other automata work in thi ... Show More

9m 28s

Jan 2015

So Cute I Could Eat You Up

What do tears of joy and the desire to pinch a baby's cheek have to do with one another? Quite a lot. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, find out about dimorphous expressions, as well as the siren call of baby scents that lure the joyful aunt to its cheek in the first ... Show More

25m 14s

Jun 2022

Short Stuff: What did we use before infant formula?

There's an infant formula shortage. But infant formula is relatively new. So what did we do before it was perfected? Listen in and learn already!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12m 41s

Jul 2020

Why New Habits Have to Be Tiny (w/ Dr. BJ Fogg) and Why Human Infants Are Late Bloomers

Stanford behavior scientist Dr. BJ Fogg, author of “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything,” explains why the best new habits are tiny ones. Then, learn why human infants are late bloomers compared to other baby animals.More from Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford behavior scie ... Show More

12m 16s

Apr 2012

Body Odor: You Stink

Chuck and Josh end up making reduxes of past episodes on things like sweating and deodorant in this all-new episode on the science beneath what makes people smell. Learn all about your odor in this episode of Stuff You Should Know. Learn more about your ad-choices ... Show More

45m 24s

Dec 2021

Bringing Up Baby

Bababa, dadada, ahgaga. Got that? Babies are speaking to us all the time, but most of us have no clue what they're saying. To us non-babies, it all sounds like charming, mysterious gobbledegook. To researchers, though, babbling conveys important information about a baby's read ... Show More

50m 25s

Sep 2019

Baby Talk

Babies are speaking to us all the time, but most of us have no clue what they're saying. To researchers, though, the babbling of babies is knowable, predictable, and best of all, teachable to us non-experts. This week, we revisit our May 2018 primer on how to decipher the secr ... Show More

29m 16s

Dec 2009

How will we have babies in the future?

In this episode of Stuff Mom Never Told You, Molly and Cristen ponder baby technology of the future -- from designer babies to robot children. Learn more about your ad-choices at <a href="https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com">https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com</a ... Show More

19m 59s

Apr 2022

Why does rain smell?

#029 Rebroadcast What's that smell? This week, Melissa and Jam explore the chemistry of smell. Now a lot of smell science has to do with our physiology and neurology. We'll talk some about that, but the chemistry has to do with the actual smells in the ... Show More

35m 52s

Sep 2023

Selects: Body Odor: You Stink

Chuck and Josh end up making reduxes of past episodes on things like sweating and deodorant in this all-new episode on the science beneath what makes people smell. Learn all about your odor in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

46m 58s

What Causes 'New Baby Smell'?