What exactly is this durable ceramic anyway?

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Home economics seems antiquated – a class that teaches high school kids how to bake a cake and sew doesn’t sound super useful. But would you believe that everything from the obesity epidemic to student debt can be chalked up to home ec disappearing?

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Playing miniature golf is a very fun thing to do and, you’re about to find, learning about its origin and history is very fun as well. Join Josh and Chuck in this classic episode as they tee off on the mini golf story!

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In this special Christmas Day episode, we get cuddly with one of the all-time great holiday gifts, dolls! Where did they come from? Why are the so cute? Why are they sometimes creepy? Why do they tell us to do things we don’t want to with their minds?

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Holly is waxy and super sharp, not exactly the kind of thing you'd want all over your house. Yet it happens every holiday season. Today we dig in to discover why.

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Deck your tidings and get your halls nice and gladded because it’s time for maybe the best episode of the year, where SYSK loosens our ties, puts on our smoking jackets and Santa hats and create holiday nostalgia in real time. Happy holidays, everybody!

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When your life is as outsized as the World’s Greatest Showman PT Barnum it’s pretty easy to - you know - gloss over the grimmer aspects when you turn it into an uplifting musical movie. But the way to understand a person is to look at them, warts and all. Josh and Chuck take a full accounting in this classic episode.

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The story of Doggerland is pretty fascinating. The idea is that mainland Europe and the UK were connected not only by a land bridge, but a place where plants, animals and even humans, thrived. 

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At the end of WWII in Europe, one of the strangest battles of the war took place between German troops fighting alongside Americans and French to beat back an assault by the Nazi SS.

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Everybody’s always bagging on pessimists and telling everybody they should be more optimistic. Well, nuts to that! There are plenty of benefits from being a pessimist. Although being an optimist still wins in basically every category ?

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Long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, George Lucas allowed the Star Wars Holiday Special to be made. What happened on the night of November 17, 1978 can never be fully explained, but we make our best effort in our annual special edition of SYSK. May the force be with us all.

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Ever since Cabbage Patch Kids came along in 1983, there’s been an annual holiday frenzy around one particular toy – the must-have Christmas toy of the year. But what makes a toy a must-have toy? Josh and Chuck investigate (and kick off the holidays).

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Do you love Play-Doh? Chuck and Josh certainly love to talk about it, from its interesting history as a wall cleaner, to its more scientific chemical properties. It's everything you ever wanted to know about the pliable children's toy.

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You may have played with a yo-yo before -- perhaps you've even walked the dog -- but do you know about the physics behind what makes a yo-yo sleep and wake up? Learn all about inertia, angular momentum and the history of the yo-yo in this episode of SYSK.

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Action figures have a long and glorious history. From GI Joes to Star Wars figures, these offshoots of dolls came along at just the right time to capture the hearts and minds of children everywhere. Learn all about the partial history of action figures right here.

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Surprisingly, Cabbage Patch Kids have turned up on SYSK almost as much as the Nazis or Seinfeld. It’s finally time to dive all the way into CPKs, from their controversial origins to the Christmas craze of ‘83 to their alter egos, Garbage Pail Kids.

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We've covered our fair share of pop-culture icons and here is another - Hula-Hoops. They've been around since ancient time in some form or another, but made their name in during the Hoop Boom of the 1950s. Learn all about this popular fad and more.

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Since more than 1 billion people have played it, you're probably familiar with the board game Monopoly, but we bet you don't know its secret origins as a left-wing socialist teaching tool. Learn about the history, rules and cultural impact of Monopoly.

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The world has seen a lot of weird investment bubbles in its time, but few of them rival the fever that gripped the world in the 90s after Beanie Babies took off. Let’s visit this strange chapter in toy history together.

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The Etch A Sketch is yet another classic toy that Josh and Chuck love and respect. Learn all about this Hall of Fame entry today.

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For the holidays in 1986 (and ’87) (and ’88) the most stupendous, most wanted, most amazing thing any kid could possibly get – outside of a pony, *maybe* – was the NES. That year, video games came back from the dead and changed forever.

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If you're an American who had a childhood, you probably have some nostalgia for Hot Wheels. Get your engines revved for this trip down memory lane as we discuss these fun and iconic toys.

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Easy Bake Ovens are as iconic as a toy can get, as American as apple pie or baseball. Learn all about these light bulb cooking, working ovens that endanger children to this day, in this classic episode.

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The BBC has been around as long as there has been radio. Today we salute the venerable institution that's as British as tea and crumpets. 

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In 2003, a tiny – really, really tiny – humanoid skeleton surfaced that had been taken from Chile. The only possible explanation is that it had to be an alien mummy. Right?

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If we told you that World War III was in danger of happening over the trimming of a tree would you believe us? This was Operation Paul Bunyan.

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In the 1960s, a very cool machine debuted at the Seattle World's Fair - the Mold-A-Rama. It made real plastic toys on-demand from melted plastic pellets, to the delight of children and adults alike. They didn't last too long, but can still be found at various locations all over the United States and their retro-cool stylings are still a hit. Learn all about these cool machines in this classic episode.

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You've always heard about "the bar" but what do you really know about it? Unless you've taken it, probably not much. Well join the club. Let's discuss.

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Camberley Kate was the nickname for the first independent animal rescuer in England, rescuing hundreds of dogs and cats over her lifetime. Come get acquainted with a great lady! 

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The idea of prison labor is relatively new in the annals of crime and punishment. And it's just as bad as you think.

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On the day after Thanksgiving, Americans go kind of crazy for the deep discount sales that kick off the holiday shopping season in stores. So crazy, in fact, at least four people have lost their lives and as many as 63 others have been injured during Black Friday sales. But as profitable as Black Friday is, some retailers are thinking about discontinuing the tradition to find ways to make even more money. Learn all about this bizarre, uniquely American holiday custom in this classic episode.

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Julia Child is one of the most recognizable names in the cooking world, but even still so many of her accomplishments aren’t widely known. And the impacts she had on American culture, whoa! Join Josh and Chuck as they savor the flavor of Julia Child!

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We’ve done episodes on cake, cookies and, at long last, pie. Belly up to your pod player and prepare to crave some pie!

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Rice may be the most eaten food on the planet, accounting for 50% of the caloric intake of Asian countries and 25% worldwide. Learn all about this edible cereal crop today.

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Tune in to this classic episode to learn all about the legendary NYC Rockettes, who actually got their start in Missouri.

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Graffiti – the good kind, done with lots of style and skill – developed when some kids in NYC took up cans of spray paint and started to figure out how to outdo one another. They laid down styles that are so fine they’re still being used by artists today.

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What do you do when you want to tell someone you’re smitten with them but you live in a society so repressive decorum prevents you from even speaking such things? Why, you can say it with flowers! And that’s just what people in the Victorian Era did.

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The era of AM radio isn't over, but it's well past its heyday. Dive in today for a trip down memory lane. 

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For millennia, we have tried to put human personalities into neat types, an effort psychology took up early in its history in an effort to legitimize itself. But is the idea of types – which all personality inventories are based on - flawed to begin with? Find out in this classic episode.

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Pop Tarts are a legendary breakfast treat in the United States. They're fruit-filled toaster pastries with very little fruit. But who cares right? It's all about that toasty goodness. 

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People who’ve found themselves in life-or-death situations with their endurance at its limit have reported sensing another presence with them, urging them to continue on and survive. No one knows what the heck is going on here but it sure is interesting.

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In 1905, an engineering mistake created a brand new 400-square-mile sea (lake?) in the California desert. People made the most of it at first, but it didn’t take long to become a toxic brew that now threatens the health of anyone in breathing distance.

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Conversion therapy is a misguided attempt by religious zealots to convert people from gay to straight. News flash - it doesn't work. Learn all about this abhorrent practice in this classic episode.

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In 1996, a small group of German tourists disappeared in Death Valley National Park without a trace. Fifteen years later, the tenacity of one man solved the case.

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Did Native Americans really smoke peace pipes? Well yes and no. They smoked pipes for many reasons, sometimes to commemorate peace. But they never called them peace pipes.

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You can make a case that it’s a little off-putting to learn the world doesn’t really have any idea what to do with the nuclear waste we’ve been generating for several decades. The best we’ve come up with so far is bury it real deep and forget about it.

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Scientists believe that 99% of the estimated 50 billion species that have ever lived on Earth have disappeared through extinction. This is a natural process typically, but it can also be cataclysmic and it's becoming clear we are amid a massive one. Find out more with Josh and Chuck in this classic episode.

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Co-producer Ben knocked it out of the park again, taking the two classic horror stories we read for our annual Spooktacular - Caterpillars and The Deep Drowse – and creating a moody Halloween masterpiece for your spooky listening enjoyment. So enjoy it!

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A legend in Tennessee tells of the real-life Bell family, who were haunted back in 1817 by a ghost witch - arguably the worst kind of either of those things.

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There aren’t too many independent horror movies that make the British Film Institute’s 250 Best Films Ever Made list – AND – make an appearance in the teen comedy Summer School. That makes sense because there’s no other movie quite like The TCSM.

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