Tennis Balls Are Optic Yellow Thanks To David Attenborough (Cool Weird Awesome 550)

In the old days, tennis balls were white, but when documentary film legend David Attenborough pushed the BBC to carry the Wimbledon tournament in color, the tennis world realized those balls weren't showing up very well for home viewers. Plus: the community of Fitzgerald, Georgia is hoping to attract tourists with - what else - a giant steel topiary chicken. 

By |2021-06-04T08:44:37-04:00June 4, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , |

A Sustainable Pacific Island Community That Floats (Cool Weird Awesome 510)

As sea levels rise, small island nations like Kiribati face some tough choices. A European design studio has an idea that might help: sustainable buildings that can collect rainwater, generate electricity, and help grow food. And they float. Plus: Boston's Museum of Science joins with Leonard Nimoy's family to mark his 90th birthday in a fascinating way.

By |2021-04-01T08:35:25-04:00April 1, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Elizabeth Prettejohn, The Last Person In Hallsands Village (Cool Weird Awesome 467)

On this day in 1917, a massive storm destroyed most of the small village of Hallsands, in southern England. Nearly everyone in town moved away after that, but one resident, Elizabeth Prettejohn, stayed for the rest of her life, until the mid 1960s.

By |2024-01-26T09:58:30-05:00January 26, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Victorians Made Art Out Of Locks Of Hair (Cool Weird Awesome 380)

A lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair just sold for $81,000 at auction, a reminder that a) people will pay lots of money for lots of things, and b) hair was a pretty important keepsake in the 19th century - people back then even made it into art.

By |2024-02-12T09:36:28-05:00September 14, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Humans Actually Do Perk Up Their Ears At Interesting Noises (Cool Weird Awesome 339)

Our entire show is based on the idea that we might say something interesting enough that it might get you to perk up your ears, figuratively speaking. Or, as a team at Saarland University has found, maybe not so figuratively speaking. Plus: a sculpture garden in Dublin, Ohio pays tribute to ears of a different kind.

By |2021-08-24T08:19:15-04:00July 10, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Sometimes Towns Just Have To Build Statues To Invasive Pests (Cool Weird Awesome 190)

Today marks one hundred years since the community of Enterprise, Alabama, put up a very special monument in the middle of town: a statue of a Greek woman holding a boll weevil, an invasive pest that had ruined the local cotton crop. Wait, what? Plus: meet the most destructive holiday force ever, Treezilla!

By |2023-12-11T09:09:12-05:00December 11, 2019|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

When You’re Tracking Migrating Eagles, Always Get Extra Roaming Data (Cool Weird Awesome 158)

A project in Russia tracks the movements of steppe eagles through trackers that can send text messages back to research HQ about their whereabouts. There's one problem: the eagles have been crossing into other countries and their trackers are using roaming data!

By |2021-03-09T08:04:49-05:00October 28, 2019|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , |

Can We Get Mac and Cheese To Mars? (Cool Weird Awesome 138)

A mission to Mars would take years of travel - but today's space food doesn't last long enough. Scientists at Washington State University are working on a way to fix that.

By |2024-02-28T09:12:29-05:00September 30, 2019|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |
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