We assign a great deal of significant to last words. We expect them to be deep and profound, the sort of thing you immortalize on a $3,000 headstone. We hope we’ll say something really clever when it’s our turn, and not “what’s this button do?” or “hold my beer.” But you may end up with last words like American author Henry David Thoreau, who simply said “moose...Indian.” From the profound to the prophetic, from the ironic to the ignominious, from founding fathers to TV stars, we look into the f...
Jun 05, 2018•34 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Some actors fall victim to typecasting, but others have a single character they can't disassociate themselves from. Sometimes that means always being cast as a character similar to the one they made famous or that made them famous, or not really being cast at all. Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Music by Kevin MacLeod and sound effects from freesound.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 29, 2018•31 min•Season 1Ep. 18
If a monkey takes a picture in the woods, can the monkey claim the copyright? Trademark and copyright laws can get pretty sticky. For the layperson, trademark, copyright and patent sound interchangeable. Find our who called dibs on phrases like "you're fired," "one more thing," and "let's play." Learn about cases where people tried to claim things they couldn't, only to get smacked down in court. If you work in advertising, stay tuned for a list of words and phrases that will cost you a lot of m...
May 22, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 17
In this episode, we cover the way people in Victorian Europe used (and abused) Egyptian mummies, whether or not mummies were burned for fuel, Catholic saints who do not decay, natural mummies preserved in ice, moss, and salt, child mummies of the Andes, and Buddhist monk mummifying themselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 15, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 16
From the skin between your thumb and forefinger to the stringy things you have to pick off bananas, today's episode will teach you dozens of names for everyday items, even if you can't tell your natiform from your weenus. Here are your new vocab words, in order of appearance: acnestis niddick feat glabella caruncula philtrum weenus rasceta pericule lunules Morton's toe minimus Brannock device hallux throat vamp aglet paresthesia obdormition dysania armscyes nurdle wamble borborygmus crapulence c...
May 08, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 15
When you think of big heists, your mind probably goes to banks, jewelry, and fine art, or maybe a casino vault; carefully organized plans by people dressed in black turtlenecks with plenty of cool gadgets and close calls. What we remember as the daring heist of one of the world’s most famous paintings was really neither of those. The theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa wasn’t even noticed when it happened. That story, plus a stolen art technique that made a man world famous, credit stolen for...
May 01, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 14
A microphone is a good enough platform for getting back at people, but an entire recording studio is even better. Popular music is littered with songs getting back at an ex lover, from Waylon Jennings to Taylor Swift, but a fair number of the tracks you know by heart are actually clap-backs to the people in the mixing booth or the record label offices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 24, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 13
From trolls and griefers, to crashing virtual funerals and spreading digital plagues, we look at online gamers ruining everyone else's fun in the first of our series We Can't Have Nice Things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 17, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Small things can have reverberating effects on history, both good and bad. In 1453, the great walled city of Constantinople, which had withstood sieges for 1,100 years, fell to the Ottomans...because someone left the door open. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 10, 2018•31 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Mel Brooks said it best, “It’s good to be the king.” There’s the seemingly limitless power and unspendable amounts of wealth. On the flip-side, though, there’s the back-stabbing, political intrigue, and of course, the inbreeding to deal with. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 03, 2018•33 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Hop on down the bunny trail as we examine the origins of some beloved Easter traditions and teach the goyim a little about Pesach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 27, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In the age of bigger, better, faster, more, it’s easy to default to thinking that we invented everything, that the complex things that make up our lives couldn’t have existed in the times we view as primitive. Oh, how wrong we are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 20, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 8
We dip our toes into the deep water of "the first woman to..." with pilots, daredevils, doctors, and athletes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 13, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 7
There exists a small deserted town, which has been seized by eminent domain and condemned by the state. Why would an entire town that once housed over a thousand residents be shuttered? Because the ground under their feet was on fire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 06, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Take, for example, George Washington’s youthful proclamation on the lumberjacking of his father’s cherry tree - “I cannot tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.” It’s one of the first presidential facts American children learn in elementary school. The trouble is, that story is a complete fabrication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 27, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Gutenberg may have gotten all the press, but he wasn't the first to use movable type. Think you know the first video game or who was the first to fly across the Atlantic? Listen in and see! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 22, 2018•24 min•Season 1Ep. 4
You say potato, I say a dangerous tuber that people will only eat in the face of actual starvation. You say tomato, I say a poison apple from the mysterious new world that’s killing the aristocracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 17, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 3
From a lone example of a trilobite in Hunan, China named Han Solo to a butterfly pea flower reminiscent of a Georgia O'Keefe painting, called clitoria ternatea, the naming of species offers almost as much in the way of entertainment as it does scientific classification. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 14, 2018•21 min•Season 1Ep. 2
From rainbow parties to Spiritualism to two bands touring as a band they're not, we take a look at some noteworthy hoaxes and false panics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 12, 2018•20 min•Season 1Ep. 1
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Feb 01, 2018•45 sec
