Listeners voted for their favorites topics of the past year, so join us as we chat and relearn the best of everything! Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! The best awards in podcasting that feature hosts named Tom, Ella and Caroline, the best cohost award is a tie (for Charlie and Teddy) actually introducing ourselves again, Tom is the hot one and the funny one, everyone loves dinosaurs, satisfying questions I never thought to ask, no one at the Igs knows Tom, the nuanced sto...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 46 min
How many eyes do these animals have, and more importantly what are they doing with them? And how long has copyright piracy been around, and would YOU download a car? Also Ella finally drops her fake british accent. Images we Talk About: Bullfrog Parietal Eye Bumble Bee Ocelli Scallop Eyes Scallop Eye Mirrors The Home Taping is Killing Music Logo Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:01) Eyevolution II (00:56:16) Digital Piracy (01:45:06) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 50 min
Vote for your favorite topics at LetsLearnEverything.com/bestof before Sunday June 8th!!!
May 29, 2025•3 min
What is it about harmonies in music that just sounds so good? Can science (and our amazing musical guest David Bennet) help us get to the bottom of it? Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:06:24) Why do we like Harmony? (00:56:10) Our Music Theory Questions (01:24:04) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Listening to Carly Rae Jepsen academically, the musical expert said Caroline has good music taste, I’m down hereeeeee, harmony is just the interaction o...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 29 min
Can trees talk to each other? And how does that personifying metaphor square with the actual science behind it? And what can we learn from the stories of art on trading cards throughout history? Images we Talk About: Trade Cards 3 Modern Trading Cards Yuka Morii's Cards Terror Hyalopterus Lemure Preposterous Proportions Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:02:08) Tree Talk (00:52:16) Trading Card Art (01:33:47) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! The answer is yes maybe som...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 40 min
What is the most boring element, and just how boring could it possibly be? Turns out: VERY! And how can we decipher what Shakespeare sounded like, and who among us can lay claim to his accent? Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:52) The Most Boring Element (00:48:53) Solving Shakespeare's Accent (01:26:37) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We’re not going for the easy sappy answer, what makes something boring? all the oxygen stans updating wikipedia, the most boring i...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 33 min
What laws are there to worry about in the moon? And what does space law teach us about Earth law? And what can we learn about societies throughout history from the lens of stuffing dead animals? Images we Talk About: Orbiting Space Debris Fallen Space Debris Hanging Christian Crocodile Hanging Christian Crocodile Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:02) International Space Law (01:03:25) Taxidermy (01:46:48) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: The sp...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 52 min
Welcome to the (preview for the) Lab Rat Games! The GAME show where we compete to learn anything and everything interesting! We love putting games into our topics, so what happens when we make a whole show of them, with each of us hosting their own section! Plus! We're joined by friend of the show and competitive chaos combatant, Sabrina Cruz! Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord!...
Mar 27, 2025•38 min
How can scientist's unravel the mystery of what dinosaurs ate? Well the clues are right in front of our eyes, or should I say their teeth! And poop! And listener you may already know what a podcast is, but how did proto-podcasts in a chicken coop give us the DNA for what we love, and how did podcasts even happen? Images we Talk About: First Iguanadon Tooth Puffer Fish Teeth Fish Teeths Incisivosaurus Saurolophus Dinosaur Stomach Contents Fossil Ham Comic Sybil's Baby's Radio Rebut Timestamps: (0...
Mar 20, 2025•2 hr 13 min
It’s not MaxFunDrive without a wild kickoff spectacular! Former real-life VJ and host of MTV's Spring Break 1999, Dave Holmes, takes your favorite MaxFun hosts through some wacky ‘90s- and Spring Break-themed mini games!! Featuring: Dave Holmes, Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya, Dimitry Pompée, Tom Lum, Ellen Weatherford, Alex Schmidt, Brenda Snell, Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, Dan McCoy, Jordan Morris, Manolo Moreno, Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper, Ella McLeod, John-Luke Roberts, Justin McElroy, Clint Mc...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 20 min
Host of Um Actually and nerd of many domains Ify Nwadiwe joins us as Tom helps him deconstruct the infamous Peasant Railgun from D&D. Could it actually work? And can we come up with something even more powerful using real science? We also dig into nerdery old and new, and see if Ify can convince Ella and Caroline to embrace their home country's greatest export: Warhammer. Images we Talk About: A Real Railgun Firing Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:06:05) The Peasant Railgun (00:43:07) Q&...
Mar 13, 2025•1 hr 16 min
Why is math both so easy and so hard for our brains, and how can the psychology of horses, babies, and mathematicians help answer that? And what wild journey did Sudoku take to become the popular puzzle that Ella adores? Things we Talk About: The Video of a Child Learning to Count The Melencolia Painting Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:59) The Psychology of Math (01:00:35) Sudoku (01:44:59) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: the Wonderful stude...
Feb 27, 2025•1 hr 51 min
Why is the common fruit fly the perfect model organism, and the reason for 6 Nobel Prizes?? And what is the british fascination around the meal deal, lunchtime, and the sandwich? Images we Talk About: Map of the Fruit Fly Brain Rat My Meal Deal The Sandwich Factory Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:02:57) Drosophila Melanogaster (00:49:46) The British Meal Deal (01:37:48) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Ella’s former favorite fun fact, are 6 nobe...
Feb 13, 2025•1 hr 43 min
What can we learn from the most modern - but overlooked form of pollution? And can mistakes in art be something actually... good? Images we Talk About: Navajo Rug Ch'ihónít’i Ramses II Statue Ecce Homo The Original Ecce Homo 3 Versions of Ecce Homo Lincoln Memorial Mistake Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:25) Light Pollution (00:48:06) Mistaeks (01:37:02) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Auctioning topics, the origins of pollution, pollution i...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 44 min
As we plan out the new year, please enjoy a recast of one of my (Tom's) favorite guest appearances on Spellbound and Gagged, hosted by the wonderful friend of the show Ellen Weatherford!
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 16 min
It's the start of the new year which means a bunch of new questions submitted by YOU! What are our favorite words from the podcast? What's it like to scrap a topic? Would we still love each other if we were worms? Things we Talk About: Contrapoints' Twilight Video Jenny Nicholson's Star Wars Hotel Video Shaun's Channel China's Artifical Sun XOXO 2024 Videos Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:07:42) Part 1 (01:13:53) Part 2 (01:54:30) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We...
Jan 02, 2025•1 hr 59 min
It's the HaLearn Days!! We've gathered a whole bunch of fun facts from each other and from friends of the show to share the gift of laughter and learning! Images we Talk About: The Rat Car Rat Car Video Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:07:57) Part 1 (00:59:11) Part 2 (01:37:06) Outro We also learn about: The Christmas Brussel Sprout Tradition, put christ back in halearn days, Where the Dog Ran, eclipses are more of a “huh?” moment, you migh...
Dec 19, 2024•1 hr 44 min
Where are we in the universe? And what can we learn from all the hilariously wrong guesses and bad maps that got us there? And just how much carrot propaganda was there? Well, we'll see a lot of posters and a few myths to debunk! Images we Talk About: Dunn's Earth & Moon Maps Herschel's Milky Way Map Wright's Island Universes Drawing The Image of M31 from 1919 First Full Image of Earth The World Carrot Museum Carrot Poster 1 Carrot Poster 2 Disney Carrot Characters Dr Carrot Timestamps: (00:...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 29 min
It's everyone's favorite holiday: the day we ask you to submit your Q&A questions!! Go to www.LetsLearnEverything.com/questions and submit your questions about truly anything at all from the science to the serious to the silly!
Nov 28, 2024•4 min
Why do leaves change color? No... like really? Like, show-me-the-scientific-literature-really? After all how mysterious could the answer be? And holy frick we're finally doing a topic on swearing!! What are the eras of swearing, and what is swearing actually good for? Listen to our episode of Escape this Podcast: Oceananigans pt. 3 - The Bering-toss Strait Images we Talk About: Carotenemia Hands Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:34) Autumn Leaves (00:53:04) Swearing (01:42:57) Outro Support us...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 49 min
Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch of Lingthusiasm joins us to casually answer all of our pressing linguistics questions with the most mind blowing facts. Why does science use so much dang latin, and what is so unique about internet linguistics? Images we Talk About: Gretchen's Favorite Frogs Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:10:58) Latin in Science (00:54:49) Misc & Internet Linguistics (01:22:46) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Words that...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr 26 min
Cryptids may be spooky, but what about the spooky animals that turned out to be... real?? And what makes a good spooky story? Could it be something secretly... heartwarming?? Timestamps: (00:07:15) Intro (00:04:21) Former Cryptids (00:54:25) The Art of Spooky Stories (01:52:33) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Caroline have you never met a vampire? that was from episode number Four Three, what’s spookier than having to be known, Ella met Tom the ...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 57 min
For our birthday this year, we've each gifted a topic for one another! For Caroline, an environmental hot take: can invasive species ever be... good? For Tom, an entire topic about one of his favorite hobbies: rock climbing! And for Ella, interviews from the Ig Nobel Laureates this year. Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:09:04) Good Invasive Species (00:46:31) Rock Climbing (01:18:05) Ig Nobel Interviews (02:01:14) Outro We also learn about:...
Oct 10, 2024•2 hr 6 min
What's actually going on in the center of the Earth, and just how interesting and useful could it be? And how did the now ubiquitous Planned Obsolescence start with... bicycles?? Images we Talk About: An Early Bicycle Bilhert's Animations Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:05:06) The Core (00:58:24) Planned Obsolescence (01:45:52) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Core Memories, we live on the zest of a lemon, there’s something neapolitan icecreamy ...
Sep 26, 2024•1 hr 52 min
Longtime inspiration and friend of the show Hank Green joins us for a very special episode! How do colonial organisms with just one queen avoid incest? How many Ig Nobels have gone to sex science? Can the team figure out the identity of the Reverse Platypus? When was the first dick grafitti, and could the story actually be... wholesome??? Watch: The video of the unexpected moment Images we talk about: MRI of Sex Rat Pants Diagram The Phallodeum Image Venus of Hohle Fels The Debatable Dick Hadria...
Sep 12, 2024•2 hr 1 min
It's an infamous pseudoscience, but what haven't we learned from the rise and fall of Phrenology? And Lego are ubiquitous, which means there's a lot to learn and a lot of nuance for our love of these stackable bricks. Things we Talk About: The Phrenology Pamphelet The Lego Cullen House Lego Seismometer CERN Lego Device The Brick Experiment Channel Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:32) Phrenology (00:56:34) Lego (01:38:25) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also le...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 43 min
While we're sending Tom "Well Wissage" and a speedy recovery, enjoy Ella & Caroline on this tremendous episode of one of our sibling shows on the network, Secretly Incredibly Fascinating!
Aug 15, 2024•1 hr 6 min
You may have heard Epigenetics used as a buzzword, but what is it really? Is it something we know about, something still new, or... both? And what in the world are the World Games, and what makes them better than the Olympics? Links we Talk About: Ella's SciShow Video on X Chromosome Diseases Sport Casting Fin Swimming Haudenosaunee Flag Christopher Root's Incredible Paper on the Colonization of Lacrosse The Adorable NYMuseum Haudenosaunee Video Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:21) Epigenetic...
Aug 01, 2024•1 hr 57 min
It's a word we say all the time but... what IS a species? How has it been used in the past, and could the different answers all be right? And how does voting work in the UK? It starts with voting for knights, and could hopefully end in the future with something even better. Images we Talk About: Ella's Zoom Moustache Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:23) What is a Species? (01:01:54) UK Voting (01:50:46) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Jenny L...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 56 min
After much deliberation, the academy (listeners of the podcast) has voted on the best topics from the past year! If this is your first episode, you'll get a sampling of our favorite moments of science and sillyness, and if you're a long time listener, you'll hear some behind the scenes thoughts about the topics, as well as... a secret teaser at the very end?? Images we Talk About: The Jacobin Pigeon The Pouter Pigeon Timestamps: (00:04:37) Intro (00:03:59) Part 1 (00:55:00) Part 2 (01:51:28) Out...
Jul 04, 2024•2 hr
