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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.

education

All Episodes

00:03:47

Why Do We Have a Uvula? | Smartest Year Ever (Apr 18,...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/18

You know that little dangly thing at the back of your throat? It’s called the uvula, and it’s not just hanging out for decoration. In today’s episode, Gordy dives into why we have a uvula, what it does, and how it quietly helps us speak, swallow, and stay healthy.Turns out, this squishy little grape-shaped structure is involved in everything from making certain consonants possible to preventing food from going up your nose. It even contributes to your immune defense — and yes, it can swell up and

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00:05:29

Why Didn’t the Industrial Revolution Happen in...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/17

If Ancient Rome was so brilliant, why didn’t they invent trains? Or steam engines? Or, you know… industrialize?In this episode, Gordy explores why one of history’s most advanced civilizations never sparked an industrial revolution, even though they had brilliant engineers, sprawling cities, and even a proto-steam engine over a thousand years before James Watt.From the invention of Hero’s aeolipile to Rome’s heavy reliance on slave labor and rigid social hierarchies, this episode breaks down the

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00:05:35

Where Do Food Idioms Come From? | Smartest Year Ever...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/16

Why do we call someone the “salt of the earth”? Or say someone’s “all that and a bag of chips”? In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy breaks down the surprising, strange, and sometimes murky origins of common food idioms. From medieval soup to colonial slang, we’re digging into five of the most popular phrases — including one submitted by a listener on TikTok.Language is messy, and idiom histories aren’t always crystal clear — but these stories give you the best-supported theories we’ve got

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00:04:30

Why You Can’t Sell Your Oscar | Smartest Year Ever...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/15

Since 1951, Oscar winners have been legally blocked from selling their statuettes. Why? Because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wants to keep the Oscars about artistic merit—not money.Gordy breaks down the unusual contract every winner enters: they must offer the Oscar back to the Academy for one dollar before trying to sell, gift, or even bequeath it. That dollar isn’t random—it’s a legal requirement called “consideration.” Without it, the agreement wouldn’t hold up in court.So

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00:06:16

Why Do Cicadas Sleep for 17 Years? | Smartest Year...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/15

Why Do Cicadas Wait 17 Years to Emerge? The Evolutionary Secret Behind Prime Number Broods Cicadas don’t hibernate for 17 years—they strategically wait underground, avoiding predators with one of the most fascinating evolutionary timelines on Earth.In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy dives into Brood XIV, the massive group of cicadas emerging in 2025 across 13 U.S. states. Why do they come out every 13 or 17 years? And why those weird prime numbers?Turns out, it’s a brilliant move called

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00:05:31

Is It Illegal Not to Have a Last Name? | Smartest...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/13

Can you legally go through life in the U.S. with just one name? In today’s episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy explores the strange paradox of naming laws in America: it’s not illegal to be nameless—but try living without one, and you’ll hit a bureaucratic wall. From government forms to bank accounts, our systems are built on two-name assumptions. Gordy investigates whether going mononym like Prince is actually possible, and what happens if you try.Plus: the story of a girl named Talula Does the

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00:05:36

1925's Crazy Predictions for 2025—What Actually Came...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/13

In this episode, Gordy digs into some wildly optimistic (and occasionally insulting) predictions made in 1925 about the world we’d be living in today, in 2025. From flying cars and rooftop airports to the disappearance of beauty itself, futurists from a century ago weren’t exactly short on opinions.Featuring forecasts from scientists, novelists, and newspaper editors, this episode unpacks five of the most striking predictions made in the roaring 1920s. Some came close—like H.G. Wells’s vision of a

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00:04:02

Why Do Donkeys and Your Backside Share a Word? |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/11

Why do donkeys and your backside share the same word? It’s not what you think.In today’s episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy unpacks the linguistic mix-up that gave us the same word for both a pack animal and your posterior. Spoiler: it has nothing to do with donkeys being stubborn.The term for a donkey comes from Latin asinus, while the word for your rear end traces back to Old English ærs, which became arse, and later the modern American version we all know—just spelled the same as the animal.So,

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00:03:28

Does Birth Order Really Shape Your Personality—or Is...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/10

Does your birth order actually influence your personality—or is your older sibling just using it to justify being bossy?In Episode 100 of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy explores the classic theory that birth order shapes personality. Are firstborns really more responsible? Do youngest siblings actually tend to be rebellious? And what happens to middle children—besides being forgotten at Walmart?From Alfred Adler’s early theories to modern scientific studies, we dig into whether there’s any real science

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00:02:25

Humanity’s Backup Plan: The Doomsday Seed Vault in...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/09

What’s humanity’s backup plan if farming fails? Gordy explores the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a secure facility tucked inside a Norwegian mountain that stores over a million seed samples—a real-life "save game" button for civilization.From war zones to climate change, agriculture has always been vulnerable. But Svalbard’s frozen vault preserves the genetic future of crops, offering hope if disaster ever strikes. And in 2015, it already proved its worth when seeds were withdrawn during the

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00:04:41

Did a Melted Candy Bar Accidentally Invent Your...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/08

How did a melted candy bar lead to a kitchen revolution?In this episode, Gordy dives into the accidental invention of the microwave oven—a story that starts not with culinary ambition, but with a confused radar engineer and a pocket full of chocolate. Learn how microwaves work, why they don’t cook from the inside out, and what really happens when you put metal inside one. From dancing water molecules to the explosive first test with an egg, this episode breaks down the science and the strange origin

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00:04:54

Why Do We Even Have Middle Names? | Smartest Year...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/07

Ever wondered why your name comes with a bonus round in the middle? Gordy dives into the unexpected history of middle names—from ancient Roman status symbols to modern-day family dramas.Discover how "Julius Hairy Caesar" wasn’t just a bold branding choice, why John Quincy Adams helped make middle names mainstream, and how adding a middle initial makes you seem smarter (seriously, science says so).Gordy also explores cultures that skip the middle name entirely, like Japan and Iceland, and drops a

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00:04:47

Were Neanderthals Actually Better Than Us? | Smartest...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/06

Neanderthals had bigger brains, stronger bodies, and possibly even faster sprinting speed than modern humans. So… why are we the ones still around?In this episode, Gordy dives into what made Neanderthals such a powerhouse species—from their barrel-chested strength and visual-spatial superbrains to their survival skills in the Ice Age wilderness. We now know they weren’t just primitive brutes—they buried their dead, used medicine, maybe even made early art.So what happened? Why did we make it, and

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00:03:00

Which City Was First to Reach 1 Million People? |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/05

Rome had traffic jams before cars were even invented. In this episode, Gordy reveals which city in history was the first to reach a population of one million—and why the answer might surprise you.Spoiler: It wasn’t New York. Or London. It happened over 2,000 years ago in a marble-and-mud metropolis powered by aqueducts and political drama. After that ancient milestone, it took more than a thousand years for another city to hit the same mark.Gordy breaks down the next big leaps: • Chang’an in the

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00:03:41

Why Do We Save Money in Piggy Banks? | Smartest Year...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/04

Why do we stash our savings inside a ceramic pig? Why not an owl? Or a vault? Or literally anything else?In this episode, Gordy digs into the surprisingly strange history of the piggy bank—a financial icon born not from porcine symbolism, but from a Middle Ages typo. It turns out that “piggy” used to mean something very different… and one potter’s confusion changed the shape of savings forever.You’ll learn:What the word “pygg” originally meantWhy breaking the bank was literally how you got your

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00:04:27

The Neck Ligament That Helped Humans Outrun Antelope...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/03

The nuchal ligament is a weird little strap in the back of your neck—but it might be one of the reasons humans became the sweatiest, slowest apex predators on Earth.In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy explores why humans are built to run, and how a hidden ligament connecting your skull to your spine helps keep your head from bouncing like a bobblehead. This simple structure shows up in horses, dogs… and us. And it may have been crucial in the rise of persistence hunting—the strategy our

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00:04:16

Why Rain Smells So Good | Smartest Year Ever (Apr 2,...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/02

After a rainstorm, you know exactly the smell—that earthy, oddly comforting scent that makes you want to bottle the sidewalk. It’s called petrichor, and today, Gordy breaks down what’s actually causing it, why our noses are absurdly sensitive to it, and how it might’ve helped early humans survive.From geosmin (a compound made by soil-dwelling bacteria) to the way raindrops launch micro-particles into the air, this episode dives into the biochemistry of nostalgia, plant oils, and even the camel's

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00:03:39

Is April Really the Rainiest Month? | Smartest Year...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/04/01

April is known for showers, fertility goddesses, and Easter eggs—but how much of that reputation holds up? In today’s episode, Gordy cracks open the surprisingly weird truth behind April’s soggy rep, name origins, and ancient roots.You’ll learn: • Why April isn’t actually the rainiest month in most places • Where the phrase “April showers bring May flowers” comes from • What Aphrodite, Venus, and Ēostre have to do with April • How Easter got its name—and why most languages call it something elseFrom

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00:03:09

Why Did Young Ben Franklin Pretend to Be a Woman? |...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/03/31

At 16 years old, Benjamin Franklin pulled off one of the greatest literary pranks in colonial America—he catfished Boston as a snarky, opinionated widow named Mrs. Silence Dogood.In today’s episode, Gordy uncovers the wild true story behind the Silence Dogood letters, the essays that tricked Franklin’s brother, captivated readers, and launched Ben’s obsession with fake names. From mocking the elite to receiving marriage proposals, Franklin’s teenage troll campaign helped launch his career.Learn why

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00:04:20

Why Do We Prank People on April 1st? | Smartest Year...

Smartest Year Ever ·

2025/03/30

Why do we prank people on April Fools’ Day? And how did it get so weirdly universal? In this episode, Gordy untangles the strange, murky origins of one of the world’s most chaotic non-holidays. From French calendar reforms to fake spaghetti trees and medieval mistranslations, this lighthearted deep dive is part history lesson, part conspiracy theory, and part cultural facepalm.Find out:Why some people think April Fools’ Day began in 1582 FranceHow a bad translation of Chaucer may have fueled the

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368 results

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