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PODCAST

Short and interesting

Each week, we bring you short readings about interesting things you haven"t thought about before. From philosophy and literature, to recipes and advice, occult and paranormal, theory and poetry, or just straight-up rumors and anecdotes. We read old, weird books so you don"t have to. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

arts books

All Episodes

27:00

[35] The Prince pt 2

Short and interesting ·

2025/12/25

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. Merry Christmas! Have you been good this year? Or have you been bad? What’s the difference? Is there a difference? If you ask Niccolo Machiavelli, author of ‘The Prince,’ he would probably say whether you are quote-unquote “good” or “bad” is irrelevant – but it would behoove you to at least appear to be good. So long as you are not actively hated, you’ll probably be fine.Download this public domain book for free from Project

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32:03

[34] The Book of Misers pt 1

Short and interesting ·

2025/12/18

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In the 9th Century, Arabic polymath Al Jahiz wrote ‘The Book of Misers,’ a collection of stories about greedy people. Sometimes you have such poor table manners and are so uncouth at the table, that we’re still talking about it, behind your back, a thousand years later.You can read this book on The Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/bookofmisersalbu0000jahi. Or why not buy a copy

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23:09

[33] Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted pt 2

Short and interesting ·

2025/12/11

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. There’s a great big book full of every dream there is and ever was. In 1901, businessman Gustavus Hindman Miller entered a trance and wrote this book through automatic writing. The feat of a powerful psychic, no doubt. Think your guess is as good as his what a dream means? Consider this:In your dream, a horse in human flesh descends on a hammock through the air, and as it nears your house is metamorphosed into a man, and he

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21:47

[32] Caves of Qud (item descriptions)

Short and interesting ·

2025/12/04

On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. This week is the poetry of Caves of Qud, winner of the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work. This sci-fi far future has many wonders, yet even the most mundane object is still full of deep intrigue. Listen to these descriptions of desks, tables, rocks, tools, creatures, and corpses.Please buy Caves of Qud on Steam or any other platform. This is a special game and really fun.

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24:08

[31] Salads Cookbook (Congealed)

Short and interesting ·

2025/11/27

Welcome to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. Happy Thanksgiving – why not make a classic midcentury salad from 1969? All you need is water, gelatin, pork, spaghetti, celery, gumdrops, and of course mayonnaise. It’s all here in this absolutely deranged “Salads Cookbook” from 1969. Believe me when I tell you these recipes are utterly demented.I couldn’t even begin to tell you where to find this book to read, but I did find a copy

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15:50

[30] The Prince pt 1

Short and interesting ·

2025/11/20

Welcome to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. ‘The Prince’ by Niccolo Machiavelli is kind of the perfect book for this project: well-written and highly-specific but with a lot of boring stuff that needs to be cut out. This week we’re just covering one short section about how mercenaries are just no good, and no sane prince would ever hire them.Download this public domain book for free from Project Gutenberg:

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18:51

[29] Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted pt 1

Short and interesting ·

2025/11/13

Welcome to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. What if you had a great big book full of every dream there is, so that when you have a dream, you can look up in a book to figure out what it means? In the early 20th century a businessman named Gustavus Hindman Miller set out to do this, and he wrote this book. Did he succeed? Judge for yourself.Download this public domain book for free from Project Gutenberg:

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19:49

[28] What Does It All Mean?

Short and interesting ·

2025/11/06

Welcome to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. Is there such a thing as free will? Do your choices matter? Can you be held responsible for your actions, good or bad? Weighty questions are covered in a quick and breezy manner in Thomas Nagel’s “What Does It All Mean,” from 1987.This book published by Oxford University Press, all rights reserved. Why not purchase a copy for yourself? You can do that here:

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23:38

[27] The Alchemists pt 3 [Gilles de Rais]

Short and interesting ·

2025/10/30

Welcome to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. For Halloween, we’re reading the single best story from Charles MacKay’s 19th “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” about alchemists throughout history. The notorious Gilles de Rais wanted gold, so he turned to alchemy, and then the devil. He became one of history’s earliest and most notorious serial killers, but as far as we know he never ended up

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27:29

[26] Discovery of Witches

Short and interesting ·

2025/10/23

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird books. This week is the game plan for Matthew Hopkins, self-proclaimed Witch-Finder, from 1698. When you go into town to find witches, some villagers will try to stop you. Here’s how you respond to all their arguments and win the debate. Some men really do know everything.Download this public domain book for free from Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14015Music by Dan Mason

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37:37

[25] SUBJECT: Brainwashing

Short and interesting ·

2025/10/16

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird books. Like this declassified memo from the CIA to the FBI about communist brainwashing techniques. Of course, they still work even if you aren’t communist.This memo dated April 25, 1956 was formerly classified but was approved for release on February 8, 1984. I found this online a few years ago, but I’m currently unable to find a copy via web search … wonder when that changed? If I find it

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31:08

[24] How to Lie With Statistics

Short and interesting ·

2025/10/09

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. You’ve heard the saying about the three types of falsehoods: there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Well, Darrell Huff wrote “How to Lie With Statistics” (1954) to teach you how it works. A great little dose of skepticism and media literacy goes a long way in 2025.Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using

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38:35

[23] Meta Given's Cooking: Game

Short and interesting ·

2025/10/02

ou’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. Ever wondered how to cook bear, possum, raccoon, squirrel, or woodchuck? Well this week we’ve got some recipes and techniques from “Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking,” circa 1947.Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the

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38:17

[22] How Not to Make MDMA

Short and interesting ·

2025/09/25

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. Have you ever wondered how to make MDMA? It’s surprisingly do-able. All you need is a strong working knowledge of chemistry, a fair bit of laboratory equipment, a supply of various chemicals, and a recipe. This week, we’re checking out the recipe.But not really. For legal reasons we’re not actually going to tell you the recipe for MDMA. Instead, we took what purports to be a

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35:11

[21] The Lacerta Files pt. 2

Short and interesting ·

2025/09/18

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. We’ve got some more from “The Lacerta Files” this week, which is a 2004 interview with a purported Reptoid-being whose species lives underground. Adding insult to injury, not only are humans not alone in the universe, they aren’t even alone on this planet – and the so-called “aliens” couldn’t care less what happens to us. Can you blame them?This appears to have been

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30:34

[20] The Lacerta Files pt. 1

Short and interesting ·

2025/09/11

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. Ready for some alien stuff? Well too bad – the Reptoids aren’t aliens, they’ve lived on Earth much longer than us puny humans. You can call them many things – reptillians, ultraterrestrials, lizard-people, little green guys – but “alien” is just not accurate. All this and more in the famous 2004 interview-with-an-alien, “The Lacerta Files.”This appears to have been

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42:19

[19] The Ways of the Hobo

Short and interesting ·

2025/09/04

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. This week is a grand yarn from Leon Ray Livingston, a/k/a A-No.1, a/k/a ”The World’s Most Famous Hobo.” This is from his 1914 book “The Ways of the Hobo” which is a fun little book of folk tales told by hobos, to hobos. There’s a certain romance and charm to hobodom, but make no mistake, it’s a life of poverty, abuse, and exploitation. But you’ve got to find some way to laugh

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30:05

[18] How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found...

Short and interesting ·

2025/08/28

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. We’re back this week with part two of “How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found,” by Doug Richmond. The “how” is interesting enough, but not enough people are asking “why.” If you’re thinking about destroying your life and disappearing to create a new fake identity somewhere else, one thing you might try first is a little thing called “therapy.”This work is was published

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33:52

[17] How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found...

Short and interesting ·

2025/08/21

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. If you want to hear the worst, most depressing advice ever, you’re in luck today. We’re covering “How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found,” by Doug Richmond. Here’s how you can destroy your identity, disappear, and create a new, fake life to inhabit. This might have worked in 1986, but in 2025? Forget about it.This work is was published by Loompanics Unlimited in 1986

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22:17

[16] Democracy is Self-Government: the Money-God

Short and interesting ·

2025/08/14

You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. We’ve sure got an old weird one for you today! This is a selection from “Democracy is Self-Government” by the esoteric philosopher Harold W. Percival. We’re reading the chapter ‘Money, Or the Idolatry of the Dollar,’ a good old-fashioned rant about how we shouldn’t be slaves to money.This work purports to be copyrighted 1952 by Harold W. Percival, and copyrighted 1980 by The

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