William Walker, The Diver Who Saved Winchester Cathedral (Cool Weird Awesome 1275)

Today in 1912, high honors for William Walker, who saved the UK’s famous Winchester Cathedral from partial collapse through five years of foundation work… all of which he did underwater.

By |2024-07-15T07:57:06-04:00July 15, 2024|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Potatoes Could Help Astronauts Build “Cosmic Concrete” On Mars, Or Even Here On Earth (Cool Weird Awesome 977)

A team at the University of Manchester has developed a kind of “cosmic concrete” for building structures on Mars - and the key ingredient comes from potatoes. 

By |2024-03-23T08:44:29-04:00March 23, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

A Chef Got Irritated With A Wealthy Diner And That’s Why We Have Potato Chips (Cool Weird Awesome 731)

It's National Potato Chip Day, so of course we’re going to take you through the history of potato chips and the story of chef George Crum, the man sometimes called “the Edison of grease.”

A Wooden Clock That Writes Out The Time (Cool Weird Awesome 684)

Our last show of the year is about the Plock, a very unique clock that doesn’t so much tell the time as it writes the time out.

By |2024-01-01T10:08:15-05:00December 31, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

NestFlix Is The Internet’s Home For Shows Within Shows (Cool Weird Awesome 602)

Web developer/creator/artist Lynn Fisher's new project is NestFlix, a website that looks like a streaming service but features the fictional shows and movies that are within real world ones.

By |2024-10-10T07:02:06-04:00August 31, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

Boeing Once Used Potatoes To Test In-Flight WiFi (Cool Weird Awesome 594)

It’s National Aviation Day and National Potato Day, and amazingly, there's a story that brings them both together. Boeing used sacks of potatoes in place of humans when it began testing in-flight WiFi. Plus: in 1994, American Airlines released an 18 page book of its in-flight recipes, for anyone looking to recreate airline food at home. 

By |2023-11-29T09:12:14-05:00August 19, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Ernest Hemingway’s Brother Tried To Make Half Of A Raft Into A Country (Cool Weird Awesome 578)

Like his famous brother Ernest, who was born today in 1899, Leicester Hemingway was a novelist and a storyteller. But Leicester did something even Ernest never did: he created his own micronation.

By |2024-07-21T09:21:00-04:00July 21, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , |

In Belgium, Eating Fries Is Patriotic (Cool Weird Awesome 290)

Authorities in Belgium are calling on citizens to do their duty and help the country's potato farmers by ordering frites twice a week - fitting, since Belgium is home of the world's only Frietmuseum and considers itself the birthplace of the fried potato.

By |2024-05-04T12:28:52-04:00May 4, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |
Go to Top