Interesting Things with JC

Interesting Things with JC #1524: "Ratification of the 11th Amendment (1798)" – A guy from South Carolina sued Georgia and nearly blew up the Constitution. What came next? A fast-track amendment that pulled federal courts back in line.

Interesting Things with JC #1523: "Manganese" – It hides in nuts and leafy greens, works inside your bones and brain, and shapes desire itself. This unsung mineral is doing more than you think.

Interesting Things with JC #1522: "Project Echo" – In 1960, a huge silver balloon crossed the night sky, reflecting human voices without ever hearing them. This episode traces the moment a simple idea bent the future of communication and accidentally tuned into the birth of the universe.

Interesting Things with JC #1521: “Itzhak Bentov and Consciousness” — He escaped the Holocaust, rewrote heart medicine without a degree, then aimed his mechanical mind at the deepest problem of all: how consciousness works when the system finally locks into place.

Interesting Things with JC #1519: "What Is a Surge Wrasse Fish?" – Some animals wait for calm. This one is built for chaos. Living where waves never stop pushing back, the surge wrasse survives by timing the ocean itself and thriving where most creatures can’t.

Interesting Things with JC #1519: "Can Dogs Eat Bones?" – It feels like common sense: dogs chew bones. But what used to be food is now one of the biggest risks we hand them without thinking. This episode sits right at the line between instinct and modern life.

Interesting Things with JC #1518: "The Original Alien Soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith" - Jerry Goldsmith's original Alien score was hopeful and exploratory until Ridley Scott's cuts turned it into chilling dread. Eerie alien wind effects and lost experimental cues survive on the 2007 Intrada release. This episode uncovers Goldsmith's iconic patient terror. Thank you to the legendary Wani for inspiring this episode.

Interesting Things with JC #1517: "Austin’s Coffee Crafters" – In Ripon, a coffee shop became more than a café, it became a promise. What happens when that promise is passed on? And to whom?

Interesting Things with JC #1516: "When New Year’s Eve Finally Changed Television" – For decades, no scripted series dared to end on the noisiest night of the year. Then one show rewrote the rules, by making midnight the main character.

Interesting Things with JC #1515: "Brigitte Bardot" – The goddess has left us at 91. Brigitte Bardot didn't chase stardom, she embodied it with ballet grace, barefoot sensuality in "And God Created Woman" and the courage to walk away untamed. This episode mourns the legend while celebrating the woman who redefined feminine freedom on her own terms.

Interesting Things with JC #1514: "Artificial Photosynthesis" – Plants have always made food from sunlight. Now scientists are finding new ways to turn light into fuel with more power and purpose.

Interesting Things with JC #1513: "What Makes Cheese Sharp?" – You grab a slice thinking it’ll be mild, and it hits harder than expected. Let's find out why!

Interesting Things with JC #1512: "Learned Helplessness" – When effort stops changing outcomes, something subtle shifts. Born in a 1967 laboratory, learned helplessness explains why people stop testing exits that are still open. Sometimes the hardest step is believing the barrier can be crossed.

Interesting Things with JC #1511: "Faith No More – Midlife Crisis" – By the time “Midlife Crisis” hit the radio, Faith No More had already survived success. This wasn’t a song about age or fame…it was about what happens when attention replaces meaning, and a band decides it won’t play along.

Interesting Things with JC #1510: "Jesus Outside the Bible" – By every normal historical measure, Jesus should have vanished without a trace. Instead, Roman officials, Jewish historians, and rival faiths kept writing about him, often in opposition. When even his critics can’t ignore him, history itself is telling a story.

Interesting Things with JC #1509: "Christmas Eve, Earthrise" – Christmas Eve 1968: Three astronauts orbit the Moon and witness Earth rising over the lunar horizon. Bill Anders’ spontaneous photograph captured our fragile blue planet like never before, sparking wonder, unity, and the modern environmental movement in a single frame.

Interesting Things with JC #1508: “The Log That Gave Gifts” – They feed it. They cover it. They sing threats... then beat it with sticks until it finally poops out presents. Meet Catalonia’s Caga Tió: the wildest, most joyful Christmas tradition you’ve never heard of.

Interesting Things with JC #1507: "The Orange in the Stocking" – In a hard winter, a single piece of fruit could carry the weight of hope. This episode traces a quiet Christmas tradition born of scarcity, kindness, and the power of small things to last a lifetime.

Interesting Things with JC #1506: "Eating the Top Tier of the Wedding Cake" – Saving the cake wasn’t romantic at first. It was practical, hopeful, and rooted in an uncertain future. What we taste now is really a measure of time.

Interesting Things with JC #1505: "Misheard Lyrics" – Your brain does not hear what singers sing. It hears what it expects. From “kiss the sky” to “kiss this guy,” this episode explores why the wrong words feel so right, and why you can never unhear them.

Interesting Things with JC #1504: "The NCAA Football Playoff Bracket" – The outrage in 2025 wasn’t about one team getting in. It was about watching wins matter less than brands, records lose to ratings, and a system bend without needing to. When did winning stop being enough?

Interesting Things with JC #1503: "Gravity and Heavy Energy" – For most of history, gravity wasn’t debated. Things fell because that’s what they did. This episode looks at how height and position carry real consequences, and why something that isn’t moving can still do serious damage.

Interesting Things with JC #1502: “The World’s Largest Pinecone Isn’t What You Think” – Hidden inside Vatican City stands a bronze pinecone taller than a house, cast nearly two thousand years ago and quietly endured ever since. It’s not novelty or record chasing...it’s scale, symbolism, and survival that outlived an empire.

Interesting Things with JC #1501: "When Metal Touches Metal in Space" – In orbit, metal doesn’t behave. When clean surfaces meet in a vacuum, they can fuse into a single piece, locking parts forever. It’s a physics trap that nearly ended missions, and still shapes every move made in space.

Interesting Things with JC #1500: "James Brown - Inmate 155413" – On December 15, 1988, the Godfather of Soul woke up as a prisoner, not a performer. This is the moment when unmatched influence collided with consequence, and fame offered no shield.

Interesting Things with JC #1499: "Dance Hall Days" – Before the neon, before the synths, there were floors that creaked and shoes that scuffed. This one hit track holds more ghosts than glitter.

Interesting Things with JC #1498: "The History of Hot Tubs" – From ancient stone pools to backyard bubbles, people have been sinking into hot water for the same reason: relief. Greeks soaked, Romans socialized, presidents healed, and engineers added jets!

Interesting Things with JC #1497: "French Fries" – What we call fries began as a way for families to get through the bitter cold when the river froze. A simple food with a tougher story behind it.

Interesting Things with JC #1496: "The Mysterious Death of Sam Cooke" – A man who mastered control of his music lost it in a single night. Conflicting accounts, missing evidence, and a silence in the timeline keep the questions alive.

Interesting Things with JC #1495: "The Grand Island Bridges - 90 Years of Steel and the People Who Took Care of It” – They did not replace them. They repaired them. For 90 years, these steel spans stood because people took them personally. Because someone climbed them in the heat and the cold, checked every beam, every bolt, and fixed what time and weather tried to take away. People like Karen Fischer, and the men and women of the New York State Thruway Authority, who carried the responsibility of keeping others safe, often without recognition. This episode is dedicated to them, and to the...

Interesting Things with JC #1494: "What Is Auracast and How Does It Work?" – In rooms where sound never reaches you, a free broadcast is already moving through the air. Auracast lets your earbuds lock onto it, revealing the audio the space has kept just out of reach.

Interesting Things with JC #1493: "Donald Ewen Cameron" – A respected psychiatrist pursued a radical idea he believed could remake the mind, while patients never knew who was really funding the work. A story of authority, secrecy, and the cost carried by the vulnerable.

Interesting Things with JC #1492: "10,000 Days – Wings for Marie" – A son tries to make sense of the years he spent watching his mother hold on, and the music that became the only place he could speak to her strength without saying a word.

Interesting Things with JC #1491: "Judith – A Perfect Circle" – A rock anthem wrapped in disbelief. Not anger. Not protest. Just a son trying to understand a mother's faith, while the world mistook it for rage.

Interesting Things with JC #1490: "What Are Moop Eyes?" – A single widened glance becomes a whole new language online, turning playful exaggeration into a cultural signal shared across millions. A tiny look, suddenly loud with meaning.

Interesting Things with JC #1489: "Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 5402" – In the middle of a crisis, a watch no one asked for changed everything. Steel instead of gold. Screws instead of polish. It shouldn’t have worked…until it did.

Interesting Things with JC #1488: "Cold Showers and Ice Baths" – The body meets cold with shock, steadies itself with reflex, and finds clarity in the discomfort. A brief plunge becomes a test of focus, resilience, and control.

Interesting Things with JC #1487: "The Laurel Run Mine Fire" – A forgotten lamp. A weekend without crews. And a coal seam that kept burning long after the miners left. A century later, the heat still rises through the ridge.

Interesting Things with JC #1486: "December" – A month named for ten, yet placed at the end of the year, still carries the weight of old rituals and returning light. December holds the quiet tension between darkness and renewal, asking what we choose to keep alive.

Interesting Things with JC #1485: "Professor Abel Wolman" – Clean water seems automatic, until you learn what it took to make it that way. One civil engineer rewrote the rules of sanitation, and reshaped the modern world. Thank you to long time listener and friend of the podcast the Tech Ed Teacher for suggesting today’s topic!

Interesting Things with JC #1484: "Indoor Plumbing" – It’s the quiet system that reshaped human survival, hiding its power behind every faucet and drain. A story that begins in ancient streets and ends in the walls of your own home, still holding secrets worth hearing. This episode was insired by Dr Igo!

Interesting Things with JC #1483: "100 Years of the Grand Ole Opry" – A fiddler in a small Nashville studio started something bigger than he knew. A kitchen radio show grew into a Saturday night tradition that stuck with folks through moves, floods, and change, still carried forward by that old circle of wood. This episode is dedicated to long time listener Justin! Thank you for suggesting today’s topic.

Interesting Things with JC #1482: "The First NFL Thanksgiving Game" – A cold Ohio field. A rising league. A fight for pride that shaped a holiday tradition. The roots of Thanksgiving football still echo with grit and stubborn joy.

Interesting Things with JC #1481: "The Real History Behind Eleven" – Behind Stranger Things is a darker reality: secret experiments, Cold War paranoia, and psychological tests on real kids. Eleven wasn’t invented. She was based on something real.

Interesting Things with JC #1480: "Nina Sergeyevna Kulagina" – A woman in a Soviet lab, a compass that won’t stay still, and a Cold War desperate for proof of the impossible. Her story leaves one question hanging: what moved, and what only seemed to?

Interesting Things with JC #1479: "The Montauk Project" – A Cold War outpost, sealed bunkers, and decades of denials form the fault line where rumor meets record. The mystery endures because the silence under Montauk feels louder than the facts.

Interesting Things with JC #1478: "Sensory Deprivation" – When the world goes silent, the brain doesn’t shut down, it shifts. What happens when you take away all the noise? You start to hear yourself.

Interesting Things with JC #1477: "Telekinesis" – The claims were bold, the tests were careful, and each new setup revealed something the stories never mentioned. The mind is powerful, but not in the way people hoped.

Interesting Things with JC #1476: "Do Dogs Sweat?" – You sweat. Your dog pants. But why? And what’s with those damp paw prints? A closer look at how dogs handle heat, when sweating just isn’t an option.

Interesting Things with JC #1475: "Coriolis Effect Explained" – A breeze feels simple enough, but its path hides an influence turning just beneath our feet. A subtle shift in motion reveals how the planet gently redirects the world above it.

Interesting Things with JC #1474: "Do Hard Things" – When you face one tough task, the mind shifts from threat to control. Hard work shrinks imagined problems and restores the world to its real size.

Interesting Things with JC #1473: "Can a Thought Move Faster than Light?" – When nerve signals crawl at human speeds yet decisions feel instant, the mystery isn’t distance but design.

Interesting Things with JC #1472: "Rumi and Poetry" – Rumi’s days ran the same for years until a stranger showed up and challenged everything he thought he understood. Then the man disappeared, and the fallout pushed Rumi into writing that still grips readers centuries later.

Interesting Things with JC #1471: "The Importance of Alpha and Gamma Brainwaves" – There’s a moment when your brain shifts gears, and it changes everything from how you calm down to how you solve a problem. Most people never notice it happening, but it’s running the whole show.

Interesting Things with JC #1470: "Forbidden City, Beijing" – A palace built in fourteen years with quake-flexing timber, golden bricks that rang underfoot, and a cosmic axis meant to bind an emperor to the stars. Step inside and you find a city engineered to survive fire, war, and anyone who dared to cross its gates.

Interesting Things with JC #1469: "Subjectivity and Judging" – From courtroom rulings to puppet shows, we’re not as rational as we think. What shapes our gut reactions, and can we ever judge fairly?

Interesting Things with JC #1468: "The Hobbit of Flores" – A skull the size of two hands rewrites what endurance looks like. On an island no one could reach without crossing open sea, a small human lineage held on far longer than it should have, and left questions modern science still can’t answer.

Interesting Things with JC #1467: "History of the Electricians Wire Stretcher" – A lost Roman tool. A Da Vinci sketch. A telegraph miracle. Across centuries, one device keeps reappearing... when wires come up short.

Interesting Things with JC #1466: "What is a Veteran?" – From ancient Rome to today’s armed forces, the word “veteran” has carried centuries of honor. What does it really mean to serve, to return, and to keep faith long after the battle ends?

Interesting Things with JC #1465: "250 Years of the Marine Corps" – Forged in a tavern, tested in war. From Tripoli to Iwo Jima to Kabul, the U.S. Marines built 250 years of elite grit where precision meets chaos.

Interesting Things with JC #1464: "NCO vs Officer" – Two ranks, one mission. Officers chart the course; NCOs make it real. Where strategy meets grit and every Marine is a Rifleman first.

Interesting Things with JC #1463: "The Red Ball Express" – In 1944, thousands of trucks raced across France to fuel an army on the move. Most were driven by Black soldiers who never got the glory, but kept victory alive.

Interesting Things with JC #1462: "Cream City Brick" – Milwaukee didn’t get its look from a catalog, it got it from the land. Bricks made from ancient seafloor clay gave the city its warm hue, its strength, and its soul.

Interesting Things with JC #1461: "Inside the Black Hole We Call Home" – What if our universe isn’t floating in space… but folded inside it? A radical cosmology flips collapse into creation, and changes where we think we live.

Interesting Things with JC #1460: "Katharine Story: The Designer Who Trusted Her Eye Over Tradition" – She shaped her world by feel, not formula. From Camden to Laguna, Katharine's instinct carved a career that tradition would never have greenlit.

Interesting Things with JC #1459: "The Woman Who Danced Between Two Worlds" – She didn’t ask to belong. She proved she did. King Lan Chew stepped into history not by force, but by grace and grit. A Chinese-American woman who danced her way through barriers, on her own terms.

Interesting Things with JC #1458: "How a Wardrobe Malfunction Invented the Modern Bra" – A ruined dress, two handkerchiefs, and a flash of frustration led to one of fashion’s most quietly radical inventions. What started in a mirror reshaped the world.

Interesting Things with JC #1457: "The 1492 Ensisheim Meteor" – In 1492, a thunderous roar split the skies over Ensisheim, and a blazing stone crashed to Earth. Villagers saw a sign from God. Centuries later, science revealed something far older...a fragment of creation itself.

Interesting Things with JC #1456: "The Invention of the Time Zone" – Before the trains, every town kept its own noon. Then one day in 1883, a single telegraph signal reset an entire continent. The moment time itself was standardized, and trust was synchronized.

Interesting Things with JC #1455: "The Houdini Séance" – Every Halloween, a candle flickers for a man who escaped everything…except death. Houdini swore he’d return from the grave. What happens when the world keeps listening?

Interesting Things with JC #1454: "The Sordid History of Black Cats" – A vanished boy. A papal decree. A plague. For centuries, one animal took the blame. But what were people really afraid of?

Interesting Things with JC #1453: "Bear Lake Monster" – Along the Utah-Idaho border, a ripple in the water has stirred more than just curiosity. For over a century, people keep seeing something that shouldn’t exist.

Interesting Things with JC #1452: "Okapi – The African Unicorn" – Locals swore a secret animal roamed the Congo, with stripes like a zebra and a neck like a giraffe. No one believed them… until proof showed up. The okapi is real!

Interesting Things with JC #1451: "The Dancing Plague of 1518" – In the summer heat of 1518, hundreds danced themselves to death in the streets of Strasbourg. Was it hysteria, hunger, or something buried deep in the brain? Science still can’t say for sure.

Interesting Things with JC #1450: "The Alkonost" – In the frozen heart of old Slavic myth, a bird with a woman’s face sang of joy so pure it could destroy. Her song promised paradise, but at a cost no mortal could bear.

Interesting Things with JC #1449: "The Encantado" – In the Amazon, a pink dolphin dances as a man. He laughs, he charms, then vanishes into water, with someone missing beside him. Myth or biology? The river knows.

Interesting Things with JC #1448: "Fall Foliage" – The forests turn to fire each autumn, but behind that color lies an interesting secret, one the trees have been keeping all year. This episode was inspired by a dear friend of the podcast and lover of NY Islanders, Dr. Igo.

Interesting Things with JC #1447: "The Invention That Rewired the World" – A ring of iron. Two coils. And a spark that crossed space. From a flicker in 1831 to the highways of the future, Faraday's experiment never stopped moving.

Interesting Things with JC #1446: "Transmitting Electricity Through the Air" – A century ago, Nikola Tesla dared to electrify the sky. Today, his once-abandoned dream flickers back to life, lighting the path between science and imagination.

Interesting Things with JC #1445: "Ace Frehley" – From a Bronx basement to arenas blazing with smoke and sound, Ace Frehley turned guitar solos into starlight. The Spaceman’s story isn’t just rock history, it’s proof that identity can roar louder than fame.

Interesting Things with JC #1444: "The Plane Crash that Changed Music Forever" – A night of music turned into history when a flight carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd fell from the sky.

Interesting Things with JC #1443: "Carbon Fiber" – Metal was strong but heavy. Plastic was light but weak. Carbon found the space between...threads thin as hair, strong enough to reshape flight. From Edison’s glow to hypersonic shells, the lightest answers carried the most force. This episode was inspired by Dr. Igo.

Interesting Things with JC #1442: "Albrecht Dürer" – He carved apocalypse from wood, measured beauty with calipers, and turned art into a science. What happens when precision becomes philosophy?

Interesting Things with JC #1441: "A Simple Riddle 12" – What starts with a question, stalls for suspense, and ends with a smile? This riddle waits patiently for you to press pause… if you dare.

Interesting Things with JC #1440: “Start of the Cuban Missile Crisis” – A single flight over Cuba revealed the weapons that nearly ended the world. Thirteen days, two superpowers, one narrow escape from nuclear war. How reason and restraint kept humanity alive.

Interesting Things with JC #1439: "Shenzhou 5 – China’s First Human Spaceflight" – One man. One orbit. A nation’s arrival in space. Discover how a single rocket launched China into the spacefaring elite.

Interesting Things with JC #1438: "Diane Keaton" – She turned down the spotlight, and still changed what it meant to be a leading lady. A life built on quiet defiance and stunning reinvention.

Interesting Things with JC #1437: "The Silkworm" – It starts small but spins big. A little worm gave the world silk, built trade routes, and still beats high-tech materials. Not bad for something that never makes it out alive.

Interesting Things with JC #1436: "Quantum Entanglement – Spooky Action at a Distance" – Einstein called it “spooky action at a distance.” Two particles, light-years apart, moving in perfect sync. Physics says it’s real. The universe says everything might be connected.

Interesting Things with JC #1435: “The Tiny Sausages of Nuremberg” – In a city once scarred by war, the first thing to return was the smoke from the grill. Nuremberg’s tiny sausages still tell the story of survival, pride, and the taste of home.

Interesting Things with JC #1434: "Thelonious Monk and the Shape of Modern Jazz" – He didn’t chase the beat; he bent it. From gospel roots to Harlem’s late nights, Thelonious Monk shaped jazz by refusing to sound like anyone else, and changed how music thinks.

Interesting Things with JC #1433: "The James Webb Space Telescope" – A grain of sand held at arm’s length reveals thousands of galaxies in the dark, light that began before Earth existed. The James Webb Space Telescope proves human hands can reach back to the dawn of time.

Interesting Things with JC #1432: "The Lowell Observatory" – On a hill above Flagstaff, one man’s private telescope reached for the unknown, and found it.

Interesting Things with JC #1431: "Viewing 3I/ATLAS from Mars" – When an interstellar comet swept past Mars, our machines looked up. From the red soil to orbit’s edge, they captured a visitor from beyond the Sun, our first interplanetary glimpse of an interstellar traveler.

Interesting Things with JC #1430: "Richard Dedekind Redefining Number Theory" – He didn’t invent numbers. He defined what they are. From infinite sets to algebraic ideals, Dedekind gave mathematics its solid ground, and changed how we measure everything.

Interesting Things with JC #1429: "Alternate and Special Uniforms in the NFL" – From leather helmets to chrome facemasks, football’s look has mirrored America’s own evolution. This episode traces how nostalgia, marketing, and meaning collide every time a team takes the field in something new, or something old.

Interesting Things with JC #1428: "Jane Goodall" – She began as a girl with a dog and a dream, and left as the voice of a planet. At 91, Jane Goodall’s story is still unfinished, because it lives in us.

Interesting Things with JC #1427: "GPS Trackers on Birds" – A bird vanishes into the horizon, yet its path is traced across continents. Migration turns from mystery into maps, revealing endurance, surprise, and change in the skies.

Interesting Things with JC #1426: "The Tunnel of Whiteface Mountain" – Beneath the Adirondacks, a hidden passage carved in billion-year-old stone leads not only to a summit, but to a promise: that even those who could not climb could stand at the top of the world.

Interesting Things with JC #1425: "The Steam That Moved a Nation" – It wasn’t made for looks. It was made to pull half a mountain. At Steamtown, the ghost of American industry still breathes iron and fire. Step aboard.