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PODCAST

Smartest Year Ever

The Smartest Year Ever began as a 365-day experiment in curiosity. In 2025, I dropped a new fact every single day. History, science, language, word origins, and strange true stories, all the stuff that somehow makes you sound smarter in conversation. The goal hasn’t changed: help you become the world’s greatest conversationalist.

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All Episodes

00:05:06

Did We Hear Aliens in 1977? The Truth About the Wow!...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/16

In 1977, a radio telescope in Ohio picked up a mysterious 72-second signal from deep space. It was so precise, so powerful, and so clean… a scientist literally wrote “Wow!” in the margins.This is the Wow! Signal—one of the most puzzling and hotly debated moments in the history of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).Could it have been a genuine alien transmission? Why haven’t we ever heard it again? And how close are we really to explaining it?Gordy breaks down everything you need to

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00:08:17

The Voynich Manuscript: The World's Most Mysterious...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/15

What do you do with a book no one can read?In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy unpacks the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript—a 600-year-old book filled with unknown script, impossible illustrations, and strange zodiac charts that have defied every attempt at decryption.Discovered by rare book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, this artifact has since become the world’s most famous undeciphered manuscript. Experts from Alan Turing’s colleagues to modern AI models have tried to crack the

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00:04:38

Flor de la Mar: The Most Valuable Shipwreck Never Found

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/14

In 1511, a towering Portuguese warship vanished in the Strait of Malacca, loaded with what might be the largest lost treasure in human history. Gold. Gemstones. Royal tributes. Priceless porcelain. All gone. For over 500 years, explorers, governments, and treasure hunters have searched for the Flor de la Mar, but her wreck has never been found.In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy investigates the legend of the Flor de la Mar—from the sacking of Malacca to the modern-day legal and political

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00:05:15

The Strange Hum That Haunts Taos | Smartest Year Ever...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/13

What if you heard a constant low-frequency hum—but no one else could? In the early 1990s, residents of Taos, New Mexico, began reporting a strange auditory phenomenon. No one could find the source. No machines. No sounds on recording devices. Just a persistent, pulsing vibration that only a few people could hear—and it never went away.Known as The Taos Hum, this mystery triggered a federal investigation, drew in scientists from Los Alamos National Lab, and led to a flurry of theories—ranging from

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00:06:20

Kaspar Hauser: The Teen Who Appeared Out of Nowhere |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/12

In 1828, a teenage boy materialized in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany—barely able to speak, walking like a child, and holding two strange letters.He claimed he'd lived his whole life in isolation. But within a few years, he was stabbed under mysterious circumstances… and died.To this day, no one knows who Kaspar Hauser really was.Was he a lost prince, a psychological con artist, or a traumatized feral child raised in darkness?This gripping episode explores one of the most baffling unsolved

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00:06:09

The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste: History’s Greatest...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/11

In 1872, a merchant brig called the Mary Celeste was found adrift in the Atlantic—intact, seaworthy, and completely deserted. The sails were set. The cargo was still onboard. The crew’s belongings, untouched. Food on the table. No distress signal, no signs of violence, no obvious damage—and no crew.Gordy unpacks one of the most unsettling maritime mysteries of all time. Who was Captain Briggs? Why would an experienced crew abandon ship in calm weather? And what happened during those final 10 days

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00:06:15

Could the Titanic’s Lobsters Still Be Alive? |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/10

Lobster à l’américaine was on the menu the night the Titanic sank. But ever since, an internet meme has circulated claiming the real survivors of the tragedy were the lobsters in the kitchen tanks, who supposedly escaped their boiling fate and now live at the bottom of the Atlantic.Is that biologically possible? Could those lobsters have actually survived the sinking? Or would pressure, barotrauma, cold shock, or lack of oxygen have wiped them out instantly?In today’s episode, Gordy breaks down deep

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00:06:22

The Feral Cats Who Took Over a Frozen Island |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/09

On a remote, windswept island in the subantarctic Indian Ocean, an unexpected predator reigns supreme—not wolves, not seals, but feral house cats.Welcome to the Kerguelen Islands, one of the most isolated landmasses on Earth. Originally introduced to control rodents, these domestic cats escaped human oversight and evolved into fierce hunters, preying on penguins, seabirds, and anything else that moved. What started as a pest control solution became an ecological disaster—and a haunting case study in

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00:05:58

Cargo Cults: When WWII Supplies Became a Religion |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/08

During World War II, isolated island communities in the South Pacific witnessed something extraordinary: aircraft landing with radios, weapons, food, and medicine—then disappearing without explanation. When the war ended and the planes stopped coming, some local groups took a bold step.They built imitation airstrips, crafted wooden radios, and created rituals to summon the cargo back.In today’s episode, Gordy explores the strange, profound world of cargo cults—what they really were, how they

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00:07:51

What Went Wrong in Biosphere 2? | Smartest Year Ever...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/07

In the early 1990s, eight people sealed themselves inside a massive glass dome in the Arizona desert. Their mission? Create a completely self-sustaining ecosystem—no outside help, no resupply, no backup plan.What happened inside that dome was stranger and more revealing than most people realize. From plummeting oxygen levels to runaway banana plants, exploding cockroach populations, and silent psychological breakdowns, the Biosphere 2 experiment became a wild intersection of space colonization

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00:05:10

Why Do Cats Have That Weird Flap on Their Ear? |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/06

There’s a strange little flap of skin on almost every cat’s ear—but what is it? Why is it there? And who the heck is Henry?In today’s episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy dives into one of the weirdest features in feline anatomy: a mysterious skin fold called Henry’s Pocket. Also known as the cutaneous marginal pouch, this odd ear structure shows up in cats, foxes, and even some bats—but science still isn’t sure exactly what it’s for.Gordy explores the leading theories, from sound wave filtering to

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00:05:35

Frank’s Sign: The Earlobe Crease That Might Predict a...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/05

Frank’s Sign is a subtle crease in the earlobe that just might carry a much deeper meaning—one that’s been the subject of serious cardiovascular research for decades.In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy explores the strange and surprising connection between a diagonal earlobe crease and heart disease, a phenomenon first documented in the 1970s. Known as Frank’s Sign, this small fold has been linked in numerous studies to coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, and even sudden cardiac

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00:04:50

The “Dead Cat” Strategy: How Politicians Hijack the...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/04

Why do politicians say outrageous things right when they’re under fire? It’s not a coincidence—it’s a calculated distraction technique with a grotesquely vivid name: the “Dead Cat” strategy.In today’s episode, Gordy breaks down one of the most audacious media manipulation tactics in modern politics. From British election scandals to viral outbursts designed to dominate headlines, this maneuver thrives in the age of outrage-driven news cycles.Linked to political strategist Lynton Crosby and

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00:05:49

The Tiny Mistake That Changed Fire Forever | Smartest...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/03

A wooden stick. A forgotten chemical paste. A scraped hearthstone. When British chemist John Walker tried to make an explosive compound in 1826, he never meant to invent one of the most useful tools in modern history: the friction match. But that accidental spark reshaped daily life—pocket fire, on demand.In this final episode of Accidental Genius Week, Gordy explores how fire-starting technology evolved over centuries—from flint and steel to early chemical lighters, and how the humble match wasn’t

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00:06:31

The Accidental Invention of LSD—and the Bicycle Ride...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/02

In this episode of Accidental Genius Week, Gordy unpacks one of the strangest scientific surprises of the 20th century: how a Swiss chemist trying to create a circulatory stimulant instead unlocked one of the most powerful psychoactive substances in human history.Before the 1960s counterculture, before the CIA’s secret programs, before the mind-expanding experiments of modern psychedelic therapy—there was a lab in Basel, a toxic rye fungus, and one wild bike ride that changed everything.It’s the

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00:04:56

How a NASA Engineer Accidentally Invented the Super...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/08/01

Lonnie Johnson wasn’t trying to change the toy industry.He was trying to fix a heat pump.This episode of Smartest Year Ever uncovers how a NASA engineer, working on eco-friendly refrigeration tech, ended up launching one of the most iconic inventions of the 1990s. With a background in nuclear engineering, contributions to the stealth bomber and space missions like Galileo, Johnson’s career was already remarkable—but it was a bathroom experiment gone wrong that sent him on a path toward creating the

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00:05:59

The Plastic Accident That Changed the World |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/07/31

A failed chemical experiment. A forgotten chemist. And an accidental discovery that quietly reshaped the modern world.In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy dives into Leo Baekeland's surprising invention of Bakelite—the first fully synthetic plastic. Originally just trying to replace an expensive bug-based resin used in electrical wiring, Baekeland ended up creating a material that didn’t melt, didn’t burn, and could be molded into almost anything.What followed was a full-blown plastics

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00:06:04

Post-it Notes Were Never Supposed to Exist | Smartest...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/07/30

In 1968, a 3M chemist accidentally created one of the weakest glues ever made—and nearly threw it away.But a few years later, another 3M employee remembered that oddball adhesive during a completely unrelated church choir problem…and together, they helped launch a billion-dollar office supply empire that’s still sticking around today.This is a story about failed glue, unexpected creativity, and the kind of accidental genius that only makes sense in hindsight.Join Gordy on today’s Smartest Year Ever

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00:05:47

The Accidental Discovery of X-Rays | Smartest Year...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/07/29

In 1895, a German physicist named Wilhelm Röntgen was tinkering with cathode rays in a sealed vacuum tube when something strange happened: a nearby screen started to glow. What followed wasn’t just a fluke—it was one of the most world-changing accidental discoveries in science history.On this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy tells the mind-blowing true story of how X-rays were discovered entirely by accident—and how one image of a woman’s skeleton hand changed medicine forever. This was the

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00:05:21

The Dog Walk That Accidentally Invented Velcro |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/07/28

What do burrs, a dog walk, and a Swiss engineer have in common?This episode kicks off Accidental Genius Week—a celebration of ideas that were never supposed to happen, but changed the world anyway.In today’s story, Gordy explores how a curious hiker came home from the Alps covered in annoying seed pods…and accidentally sparked one of the most widely used inventions of the 20th century. It’s a tale of biomimicry, NASA, and why one man’s refusal to ignore a clump of burrs led to a multi-billion-dollar

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368 results

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