Or was it invented in Paris to fight a rat infestation? Or was it accidentally made in India when they ran out of tonic to serve with gin? This month on the bonus episode of Seemingly Unrelated we are travelling all around the world to find out exactly who invented that sweet, bubbly, bev popular at all the Japanese vending machines but not with people who have arthritis. Joining this month is our resident beverage expert and owner of Walkie Talky Brewing it is Michael Johnstone and the co-host ...
May 29, 2026•17 min•Ep. 20
What if Nessie helped discover the influenza virus? Or if Bigfoot was a willing test subject on the futile quest to cure the common cold? It's a shame that mythical creatures can't really help us cure diseases...or can they? On this month's bonus Seemingly Unrelated, guest presenter Phil W. Bayles will take us to the moon and back on the quest to find one cryptid that may have already saved your life... Bibliography: Branch, M.P. (2022). On the Trail of the Jackalope . Simon and Schuster. Mytho...
Apr 30, 2026•18 min•Ep. 19
Welcome to the season finale of Seemingly Unrelated! We've managed 46 episodes so far and we'll be returning in March with season 3 (bonus eps continually monthly patreon.com/seeminglyunrelated ) To cap it off this festive season we'll be traveling to Japan where holidays like Christmas should seem to be unrelated already, but it gets even weirder. Why is there a Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa Suit every December? What decidely un-Christian like business has its busiest day of the year on De...
Dec 09, 2025•47 min•Season 2Ep. 16
When you look at the back of the box of your favorite ready-to-eat meal, where does the list of macromolecules and daily requirements on the nutrition label come from? That's what we are going to find out this week on Seemingly Unrelated as we explore the unusually recent history of the nutrition label by asking: What did we do before we added these things in 1994? Why don't vitamins and minerals show up on every nutrition label? What role did World War II play in getting the governments of the ...
Nov 25, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 15
!!ALERT ALERT!! GO TO THE KICKSTARTER FOR WHITE CAT ENTERTAINMENT RIGHT NOW THE FUND ENDS FRI 14 NOV !!ALERT ALERT!! The gorilla enclosure seconds the motion to sanction the cave bats for their hoarding of fresh fruit resources. More like the Zoo-nited Nations amirite? I'll stop. On this episode we are diving into the other controversial history behind zoos as explore the ways in which zoos and zoo animals have been used in international diplomacy. Was the first ever zoo made up of trophies from...
Nov 11, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 14
It's the Seemingly Unrelated Spoooooktacular! We've got a terrifying and spinetingling episode for you this week as we look deep into the history of Witch iconography: the point hat, the broom, the black cat, not the nose though...the nose thing is just exactly what you think it is. Our guide through this spectre of deeply problematic horrors is in fact Michael Johnstone from Walkie Talky Brewing who has to take the reigns because of a Halloween curse placed on Andrew in 1987 that prevents him f...
Oct 28, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 13
We're talking about the very real and physical place that is Hollywood, CA on this episode of Seemingly Unrelated. Why are the hills around Los Angeles filled with the rich and famous while the valleys are home to much more socio-economic diversity? Did film studios set up shop in Hollywood because of the weather? Has the 9th circuit court of appeals been holding back patent law for 150 years? Were the seeds of the Great Recession sown in the Great Depression itself? We dig into these questions ...
Oct 14, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 12
At the time of this episode's release we are in the middle of a 10 day period of reflection and piety for the Jewish people. The window between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as the 'High Holidays' to many. So, we at Seemingly Unrelated want to take this confluence of events where the High Holidays overlap with an extra 3rd episode of the show inside of a calendar month to put the spotlight on these holidays. What are the High Holidays about? Why are they celebrated so much in the home an...
Sep 30, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 11
If it's 2 am in Denver Colorado and you've been out partying all night, where will you go to fill up on some fast food to tide you over? Well, if it's 1858 the answer is: oyster bars. This week on Seemingly Unrelated we are cracking open the shell that hides the secret history of the oyster asking big questions like: How dangerous were oyster beds to early European colonists? Why does anyone know about Altoona, PA? HOW much did the US government spend on the transcontinental railroad?! What putr...
Sep 16, 2025•55 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Up front this is just about which Europeans landed on the Americas first and set up shop. The actual answer beyond that is no one and there are many peoples and histories that populate both continents for millenia before any Europeans managed to cross the Atlantic (or vice-versa?). Either way, we are digging into the major competing narratives about which White guys traveled where to get at the heart of the question: Who cares? Along the way we'll talk about: Was the inventor of baking powder th...
Sep 02, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 9
How could the Three Little Pigs have stopped the most powerful military of the 1st century BCE? That's what we set out to explore on this episode of Seemingly Unrelated where we dive into the history of steel making, story telling, and how they connect the Battle of Carrhae with learning to code in Python. Our guest co-host this week is puppeteer extoridanaire Alicia Britt ! We'll be asking the big questions this week like: How do you court an armorer? What is so common about the 'Common Era?' W...
Aug 19, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 8
This week on Seemingly Unrelated pod we are getting into the villain's origin story behind the most USA of all snack cakes: Twinkies. Love them, or fear them, the twinkie looms large in the US imagination and in the vision of the US from around the world. It represents all things the USA loves: soft golden hydrogenated fats and corn syrup that is pure and white at its core. We're joined this week to help explore the depths of snack cake depravity by the owner of Walkie Talky Brewing in Leith, Sc...
Aug 05, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Protect yourself from invasion get a breeding pair of hamsters, today! This week on Seemingly Unrelated we are deep diving into the history of the cutest widdle guys you have witnessed do unspeakable acts for unknown reasons to find out why exactly did we start keeping these rodents as pets? Our special guest this episode is Dr. Rianna Walcott Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, and Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab . To get t...
Jul 22, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 6
There are so many chicken little's these days decrying the downfall of man at the hands of Large Language Models. There are also, a lot of grifters taking advantage of that panic to line their wallets or just feel alive if only for a moment. Which is why we are here to fight that misinformation and identify the Seemingly Unrelated truths behind the myths and fears around artificial intelligence. Joining us this week is a guest host for the first time. They are a researcher into health's role in ...
Jul 08, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 5
The 'House of Mouse' is a very litigious one which is why we are super wary about this week's episode of Seemingly Unrelated. We're taking a look at the very origins of both Disney the company and intellectual property rights on a journey to find out if Mickey himself might have had an impact on the cost of some prescription drugs. Along the way we'll take a journey by sea to solve the mystery of calculating longitude, laugh and cry alongside the tragically short life of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Must...resist...urge...to do hyper specific...group...choreography...!! On today's episode of Seemingly Unrelated we are the biaswreckers here to say you're not delulu, K-pop is having an all time comeback around the world. But are the Big 3 just the visual for a deeper and more sinister subunit bent on world domination? To find out we're going to have to take a tour back to the first K-pop idols from the 1960s and ask: What style of music is K-pop anyway? Did Tony Blair inspire the K-wave? Is P...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Given its association with Homer Simpson, the donut (or doughnut?or do-nut?) is perhaps one of the great icons of American culture filling our minds with corner shops and diners serving piping hot black coffee and delicious fried circles of sweet dough. The donut however, is not just a calorie dense delivery service that keeps you functional on the go, it is also a hero... On today's episode of Seemingly Unrelated we unpack an iconic pink box of goodness by exploring the impact the humble donut ...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 2
We're back from hiatus and for season 2 we are starting things off with our first ever theme month! This month, every episode is about that most basic of needs and builder of cultures: food. To get things started we have to ask a basic question: What is authentic parmesan cheese? The answer to that question is going to surprise you but it's only the beginning as we chart the unexpected waters of European national food history from disappointment of the continental breakfast to the bloody defense...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Did you know that Hitler has an IMDB page? It's true and also really weird! Join us this week as we explore the long tail of Hitler's impact on the silver screen. What was Hitler's favorite movie? How did his interest in one actress help create the first Schindler type who saved dozens of Jews from execution? How distant is Hitler really from those of us watching everyday blockbuster movies now? This is our season 1 finale y'all! Thanks so much for listening to the first season of this experimen...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 15
On this very special seasonal episode we are digging into the unrelated tales that make up the internet as we know it. We'll be answering questions no one has ever asked while sober such as: What is the internet anyway? How does it work? Does it have to work this way or are there alternatives? What is, and always has been, the most popular thing on all the different forms of the internet regardless of time, place, language, or really any factors? That's right we'll be globetrotting all episode l...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In 1992, a Baptist pastor sought to distill his marriage counseling advice into five, easy concepts that couples could use to build happier relationships. In 1996, a call to end dependence on cash welfare and 'Get America Back to Work' resulted in sweeping reforms and a new state based block grant system for welfare in the US. By 2009 somehow, some way, the state of Oklahoma managed to put these two together... On this episode of Seemingly Unrelated we are performing an act of service to let you...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 13
The hot button issue for Gen Z (according to media run by not Gen Z) is the impact of photo filters on body image and mental health. This sudden surge in access to easy to manipulate tech has launched a thousand think pieces about FOMO, impossible fitness standards, and a host of ills directly connected to too much social media and too much envy for outrageous lifestyles. Is this trend particularly new? What is the underlying mechanism that pushes people to slavishly follow the latest filtered t...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Is there a secret, dark history lurking behind those friendly lucky cat statues that welcome you into your favorite Chinese take out place? This week on Seemingly Unrelated we dive into the Maneki-neko, aka Beckoning Cat, aka Lucky Cat, which has become a symbol of pan-Asian businesses around the world. All in pursuit of answering the question: why is this guy so popular? We'll explore the potential heroic legend of the Maneki-neko, it's brief stint as a symbol of the Yoshiwara pleasure district...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Sometimes, things that are so completely different and range wildly in their impact have a single, slender, fascinating thread that binds them together. Pulling on that thread, not just merely remarking upon it, but finding out what it means and how it matters is exactly what we do on this podcast. Today's episode finds the tie that binds three disparate elements: The CIA's attempt to win the Cold War through culture with the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The assassination of Robert Kennedy by ...
Feb 04, 2025•55 min•Season 1Ep. 10
There's been a buzz in the news lately about immigration causing all sorts of issues around the world. This isn't the first time that proposals to ban entire groups have been championed, and that has caused some serious problems in the past. This week on Seemingly Unrelated, find out how Spelling Bees helped bring an end to the disastrous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and proved that diversity is a strength, not a problem needing to be solved. Anna P. Kambhampaty, “How Indian Americans Came to L...
Jan 21, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Does January 1 make any sense as New Year's Day? Why not March 21 or even the first day after Labor Day just like school used to be. It turns out there is a very convoluted story to answer that question and it might be connected to how successful you are in keeping your resolutions this year. Dickson, Joanne. ‘Where Did the New Year’s Resolution Come from? Well, We’ve Been Making Them for 4,000 Years’. The Conversation, 1 January 2023. http://theconversation.com/where-did-the-new-years-resolutio...
Jan 07, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Subscribe to Seemingly Unrelated on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotfiy or go to seeminglyunrelatedpod.com to subscribe however you like. Find us on Patreon where we have a bonus episode about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for just $2. https://www.patreon.com/c/seeminglyunrelated/ Happy Holidays from Seemingly Unrelated! We're here just ahead of Santa Claus himself to look into the rise and fall of that seemingly most festive food of all, chestnuts. Are chestnuts roasting on an open fire actually ...
Dec 24, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Look up in the sky it's...well nothing because this week we're talking about some low hanging fruit. Is it possible that the so called 'bullet train' of Japan was designed with owls and kingfisher birds in mind? Or, is this yet another example of a story that makes the rounds on podcasts and social media that is based entirely on myth? Come join us this week on Seemingly Unrelated as Andrew does a deep dive into the truth behind the Shinkansen's connection to wildlife and Jason makes some inappr...
Dec 10, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Avast ye mateys! 'Tis time to set sail for adventure, and delicious fried delicacies. This episode on Seemingly Unrelated we are talking about the once and future global fast food chain Long John Silvers. What is a pirate constitution? Has America ever properly taken care of its veterans? What is the correct term for a place that sells fish and chips? Also go learn more about pirates at Jamie Goodall's website https://jamiegoodall.com/ . Footnotes: Aratani, Lauren. ‘Jon Stewart Celebrates after ...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 5
Do McDonald's employees secretly make terrible fries and burn customers with coffee while raking in huge amounts of money? No.
Nov 15, 2024•4 min•Ep. 2
