Did A Finnish Skier Actually Spit Out His Dentures On His Way To A Gold Medal? (Cool Weird Awesome 1240)

Kalle Jalkanen's Finnish ski team won a big come from behind victory in the 1936 Winter Games, but what legend says happened along the way is an even more unusual part of the story.

The Outtakes From Orson Welles’ Wine Commercial Might Be His Most Legendary Work (Cool Weird Awesome 1236)

Today was the birthday in 1915 of Orson Welles, a one of a kind creative force. And yet somehow one of his most viewed works is also a set of apparently drunken outtakes from a wine commercial in the 80s!

Bonnie Richardson Won A State Track Team Championship By Herself – Twice (Cool Weird Awesome 1233)

This month in 2008, a high school athlete from a very small town competed as a team of one in the Texas track championships, and finished first two years in a row.

Willie Nelson Once Recorded An Album To Pay Back Taxes To The IRS (Cool Weird Awesome 1231)

Today in 1933 the birthday of Willie Nelson, a country music legend who once put out an album so that he could send royalties to the IRS to pay some overdue taxes.

The Minor League Baseball Game That Took Three Days To Play (Cool Weird Awesome 1224)

Today in 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings started playing a minor league game, and it just kept going and going and going, eventually becoming the longest ever.

By |2024-04-18T08:54:12-04:00April 18, 2024|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Baseball Player Ping Bodie Once Won An Eating Contest Against An Ostrich (Cool Weird Awesome 1213)

Today in 1919, one of the strangest moments in the history of professional baseball, when major leaguer Ping Bodie took on an ostrich in an eating contest and won.

Musical Alarms Could Help Save Lives In Hospitals (Cool Weird Awesome 1199)

There's a phenomenon in hospitals called "alarm fatigue" that can actually cause problems for patients. An anesthesiologist and a music cognition researcher have teamed up to find alternatives to the jarring beeps.

By |2024-03-08T08:47:13-05:00March 8, 2024|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

How Ski Ballet Ended Up At The Olympics In The 80s And 90s (Cool Weird Awesome 1186)

Today in 1988 the Winter Olympics began in Calgary, Alberta. There were plenty of eyes that year on the demonstration sport known as ski ballet. 

By |2024-02-13T08:51:13-05:00February 13, 2024|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , , |

ELIZA Was An AI Chatbot Decades Before ChatGPT (Cool Weird Awesome 1183)

For all the talk these days about the potential of generative AI, the systems still have a long way to go. For example, some recent research finds that some human users think ChatGPT comes off as less realistic than a famous chatbot from the 60s known as ELIZA.

By |2024-02-08T08:45:42-05:00February 8, 2024|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Dogpiles Are How Baseball Teams Celebrate Big Wins And Sometimes Hurt Themselves (Cool Weird Awesome 1113)

Today in 1982, the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals made baseball history with the first major league team-wide dogpile, in which players who are celebrating a big moment can sometimes inadvertently hurt each other.

By |2023-10-22T11:20:04-04:00October 20, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , |
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