Episodes

  • How Do We Actually Know We Landed on the Moon?

    How Do We Actually Know We Landed on the Moon?
    Jun 30 2025
    On July 20, 1969, the world looked on in awe as 39-year-old astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off a ladder of the Lunar Module Eagle and onto the surface of the moon, becoming the first human to set foot on a natural celestial object. This moment, watched on television by over 650 million people worldwide, has gone down in history as one of mankind’s greatest triumphs, redefining what humanity is capable of achieving. Over the next three years a total of six Apollo missions and twelve astronauts would visit the moon, leaving behind scientific instruments and returning mineral samples that helped expand our understanding of the moon, the earth, and the solar system. …or so most of us have been led to believe. Despite the Apollo program being one of the largest, most expensive, and most public undertakings in human history, for nearly 60 years a once small but ever growing dedicated group of conspiracy theorists have maintained that the whole endeavour was in fact an elaborate hoax, a piece of Hollywood flimflammery aimed at pumping up America’s self-image and winning a propaganda victory against the Soviet Union. According to this theory, no humans have ever set foot on the moon, and the famous images beamed into millions of households were instead filmed on a soundstage on earth. While anyone with a passing knowledge of history and conspiracies should be able to recognize these claims as total nonsense, they have gained a surprising amount of traction, with a 2005 poll revealing that nearly 25% of Americans aged 18-25 doubt that humans had ever walked on the moon, Yes, 1 in 4, despite living in an era when humans have access to more information than ever showing we did, in fact, land on the moon... But how did this conspiracy theory come about in the first place, and what hard, observable evidence is there that the Apollo moon landings actually took place? Author: Gilles Messier Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    41 mins
  • Heinz 57, The Lord of the Pumps, and a Tasty, Tasty Dunkin' Empire

    Heinz 57, The Lord of the Pumps, and a Tasty, Tasty Dunkin' Empire
    Jun 26 2025
    In today's BrainFood Show episode, we are discussing three rather inspirational business tails, starting with the extremely humble origins of the now many billion dollar behemoth in Heinz, then on to Karl's favorite all time script in the story of soft soap and the brilliant business man that gave it to us, and finally how an 8th grade dropout created one of the tastiest empires on Earth. Hosts: Karl Smallwood and Daven Hiskey Authors: Karl Smallwood and Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen 0:00 Intro 3:18 The Rise of Heinz 15:36 The Spiteful Reason McDonald's No Longer Uses Heinz 18:40 The Incredible Story of the Pump Baron 1:01:54 From 8th Grade Dropout to a Tasty, Tasty Billion Dollar Empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 43 mins
  • The True Story of the Amistad

    The True Story of the Amistad
    Jun 25 2025
    On June 28, 1839, a ship departed Havana, Cuba en route to Puerto Principe. Along with a crew of 7, including two slaves serving as a cabin boy and ship’s cook, the vessel was also packed with cargo worth approximately $60,000, or about $1.7 million today. This included items ranging from wine, saddles, iron castings, mill rollers, fabrics, soap, leather goods, over 600 pounds of rice and many other foodstuffs, and, most important to our story today, some 53 slaves. Among those 53 were 49 adults recently bought by a 24 year old man named Jose Ruiz, with fellow Cuban plantation owner 58 year old Pedro Montes purchasing four children, three girls and one boy as well. All of these slaves, comprising about 1/3 of the total value of cargo on the ship, were slated to go work on plantations in Puerto Principe. However, unfortunately for Ruiz and Montes, thanks to a taunting remark by the ship’s cook, their newly purchased slaves had other ideas. What followed was a two year bid for freedom by the surviving captives of the Amistad. This all culminated in none other than former U.S. President John Quincy Adams’ impassioned defense of the captives’ before the Supreme Court, while then current U.S. President Martin Van Buren’s side pushed hard for their deportation back to Cuba. Here now is the real story of the Amistad and the harrowing bid for freedom of the men and women held captive aboard it. Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 mins
  • How Vladimir Putin Came to Power (And How He Has Held on to it for So Long)

    How Vladimir Putin Came to Power (And How He Has Held on to it for So Long)
    Jun 23 2025
    When Boris Yeltsin resigned as president of the Russian Federation, it was expected, but sudden. He resigned so his Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin could become president on January 1, 2000 – the start of the new millennium. Since then, Putin has been the most powerful man in Russia and one of the most powerful men in the world. Today that power has been felt worldwide as the war in the Ukraine rages, contributing to gas price hikes, food insecurity in many countries, and not exactly helping the soaring inflation felt around the world. It may surprise many to learn that this man who was only the Russian Federation’s second president is not a career politician and had his position more or less thrust upon him precisely because of this. So how did Vladimir Putin come into power in the first place, and how has he managed to maintain his position as the leader of Russia for so long? Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 mins
  • Does Any Government Have a Plan if Aliens Invade the Earth?

    Does Any Government Have a Plan if Aliens Invade the Earth?
    Jun 18 2025
    Thanks to Hollywood, as well as words written on the mangled inked corpses of the leafy fellow occupants of our little planet we’ve successfully subjugated, there are a number of common ideas about how an alien invasion of Earth would go. From clandestine infiltration where our celestial enemies walk among us undetected, to these brothers from another primordial goop mother coming with energy weapons a-blazing. But in real life, what would likely happen if aliens did invade? Are aliens currently visiting us? And does any government in the world have a plan to deal with this situation? Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • An Ultra Deep Dive Into How to Get the Best Possible Sleep According to Science and Why It's Literally Killing You When You Don't

    An Ultra Deep Dive Into How to Get the Best Possible Sleep According to Science and Why It's Literally Killing You When You Don't
    Jun 16 2025
    We don’t mean to alarm you, but it turns out, despite how much we all fight it like a toddler who’s just been told it’s bedtime, sleeping is a basic, and critical human need. All animals known to man sleep. Humans, however, are seemingly the only ones who voluntarily forgo it, outside of cases like if an animal is starving or the like… And to our extreme detriment. We’ll dive into all the ways and why shortly, but we’re guessing even the most astute of you who consider sleep important don’t realize just how much it is. It’s not just about feeling rested or not, it’s about an amazing amount of things that are going on in your body that require proper sleep to remain where they should be for both your short and long term physical and mental health. Skip consistent, sufficient sleep, and you may be able to cope with coffee on the alertness side, but that’s just how you feel. Your body? Let’s just say what’s going on inside chemically is screaming at you to put the coffee down and change, both for your present mental state and health, and because you absolutely are increasing your risk factors for every major way humans commonly die by a huge margin. But fear not! You are in the right place to learn about all of this. And while this video is extra long because we thought it worthy of doing a super deep dive on given its importance to all of us, might we recommend if you’re otherwise crunched for time putting it on audio only and listening while you drift off to sleep? And then, just, like, do that every night on our channel. We’d really appreciate it. Either way, in this video we are going to be looking at what’s going on in the body when you sleep. The mind boggling number of ways it’s, quite literally, killing you mentally and physically when you aren’t getting adequate sleep, and why. How much sleep is required for most to be in the optimal health range. And how exactly to ensure you get great sleep every night, and in so doing have better quality of life and make yourself more likely to outlive all the lesser mortals who didn’t watch this video. So get out your PJs and condoms- trust me you’ll need those by the end- and let’s dive into it all, shall we? Authors: Scott Hiskey and Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    57 mins
  • What was it Really Like to Be a Lighthouse Keeper?

    What was it Really Like to Be a Lighthouse Keeper?
    Jun 11 2025
    For anyone sitting in gridlocked traffic on the way to a soul crushing job surrounded by other humans nattering on all day about their TPS reports as you truly internalize the pointlessness of everything because we’re all going to die and everything we ever said or did will be forgotten someday, you may at some point find yourself daydreaming about the life of a lighthouse keeper- kicking back, enjoying the sounds of the ocean waves, and, similar to with your current job, periodically checking the light is still on. But, you know, the light in the lighthouse, instead of the ever dimming one in your soul… And otherwise enjoying peace and quiet in a stress reducing environment. But does this bear any resemblance to what it is actually like to be a lighthouse keeper? Just what do such individuals get up to throughout their days and nights historically and in more modern times? Well, put on your galoshes and rain slicker, prepare to go positively straight jacket mad, and let’s dive into it all, shall we? Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    44 mins
  • The Mysterious Death of Yuri Gagarin

    The Mysterious Death of Yuri Gagarin
    Jun 9 2025
    On a snowy, blustery morning in March 1968, a two-man MiG-15 UTI jet took off from Chkalov air force base outside Moscow on a routine training flight. Barely ten minutes later, the aircraft’s pilot radioed air traffic control, announcing it was cutting its flight short and requesting permission to land. Then, the transmission went dead. At nearby Kirzhach airfield, a group of cosmonauts undergoing parachute training heard two loud explosions in the distance, and dispatched a flight of six helicopters to investigate. Three hours later, the search team discovered a smoking crater in a birch forest just outside the village of Kirzhach. And though the aircraft had been all but vaporized on impact, it did not take long to identify the pilots. One was Colonel Vladimir Seryogin, an experienced test pilot, flight instructor, and war hero who had flown more than 200 combat missions during the Second World War. The other was possibly the most famous man in the Soviet Union - if not the world: Colonel Yuri Gagarin, who seven years earlier on April 12, 1961 had made history by becoming the first human to travel beyond the atmosphere and orbit the earth. The death of this national hero at the age of only 34 shocked the Soviet people and sent the nation into mourning. It also raised questions as to the exact circumstances of his death - questions that linger to the present day. Was it a simple accident? A case of negligence or pilot error? Or were there more sinister forces at play? This is the story of the mysterious death of the first man in space. Author: Gilles Messier Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    58 mins