Half as Interesting
S2023 · E51 — How The Pentagon Became The World’s Most Secure Building
S2023:E51 · How The Pentagon Became The World’s Most Secure Building
76 episodes in this season
Why Building Ski Lifts Is Incredibly Hard
7 min
The Massively Complicated Task of Buying Insurance for a Satellite
6 min
Why Canada’s Teachers Run an Investment Firm in Singapore
The Navy’s Obscure, Super-Efficient Swim Stroke
The Weirdly Complex Science of Snow Removal
Why the IRS Taxes Illegal Income
5 min
The Corporate Conspiracy Behind California’s Smallest Town
How Amish People Get Around Not Using Electricity
Why Soda Cans are Shaped Differently in Hawaii
Why the US Gov Reshapes the Mississippi River
The Genius $250 Toll Road from Minnesota to Minnesota
How Science Made You Finally Like Brussels Sprouts
Why Every Baseball Stadium Has Different Rules
Why It’s Impossible to Build a Crochet Machine
Why American Lawns All Look The Same
The NY Subway's Weirdly Successful Lost and Found System
North Korea’s Bizarre New Propaganda Program
How Witness Protection Manages to Keep a 100% Success Rate
How Amazon Broke the US Patent Office
The Continent-Sized Algae Blob That’s Coming for Florida
How To Spot a Really Good Art Forgery
The Court That Settles Wikipedia Editor Drama
The Material So Classified We Forgot How to Make It
This Diabetes Drug Causes Weight Loss (and Chaos)
Why You Can Legally Steal From a Sinking Ship
The Giant Propaganda Show That’s In Almost Every City
How the White House Reads Every Letter it Gets
How Much Happiness Can Money Buy?
The Super Obvious Ways to Get Around Campaign Finance Laws
Why We're Reaching the Theoretical Limit of Computer Power
Why It Took 13 Years to Engineer The Taco Bell Crunchwrap
The Website Where You Can Order The Bubonic Plague
Dyson’s Disinformation War with Big Paper Towel
How Planes Forecast Turbulence
Why Tape Storage is Making a Sneaky Comeback
How the Fake Meat Industry Saved Dippin’ Dots
How the World’s 4 Cryogenics Companies Actually Work
The Intense Logistics of Truffles
Why the US and China Are Squabbling Over This One Wire
How Argentina Accidentally Gave Germans 40% Off Everything
We've Made 400 Videos for the Internet. Here are the Worst Ones.
Why The US Navy Really Needs This One Forest in Indiana
Why This Airline Only Has One Commercial Flight Per Month
Trains’ Weirdly Massive Problem with Leaves
How Porsche Owns Volkswagen and Volkswagen Owns Porsche
Why the US Government Has No Idea How Many Buildings It Owns
The Weirdly Lucrative Business of Searching for Old Jeans
Chicago’s $10 Billion Street Parking Mistake
Why Only 24 Pilots Are Allowed to Land at This Airport
The Remote Town Where 13.2% of People are Millionaires
How The Pentagon Became The World’s Most Secure Building
The Surprisingly Complex Logistics of Product Returns
Every Mistake We’ve Ever Made VI: Return of the Jed-lie
The 3100-Mile Longest Official Running Race in the World
Why It Takes 7+ Years to Shut Down a Nuclear Plant
The Only River That Flows Into Both the Atlantic and the Pacific
How to Fail a Kitchen Inspection
How The President’s Official Vacation Home Works
8 min
Why Venice’s New €8 Billion Flood Barrier Only Kinda Works
The Design Flaw That Made Hyundais Absurdly Easy to Steal
Australia’s Huge Mistake of Selling All Their Water
How Submarines Survive at 36,201 Feet Below
Why China Built an Antenna Bigger Than NYC
Why Qatar Airways Flies An Almost-Empty Flight to Adelaide
How 70% of Britain’s Cash Went Missing
How This Utah Hotel Legally Became a Town
Why The US is in 42 Different National Emergencies
The 128 Airlines So Dangerous They’re Banned in the EU
Why the US Gov Pays $10 Million a Year for This Yacht
The Arctic Vault That Protects Data from the Apocalypse
NASA’s Year-Long, Totally Fake Mission to Mars
The Vault That Holds 5% of the World’s Gold
The Controversial Machine That’s Ruining Bowling
What Exactly Happens When You Check a Bag
The Super-Secure Delivery Service That Only Diplomats Can Use
Why China Took the US’ Pandas
