Underunderstood
65 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 months ago - ★★★★★ - 507 ratingsThere are questions the internet just can't answer. But that doesn't mean we can't find them.
On each episode of Underunderstood, we find a question the internet can’t answer — maybe it’s a dead-end Wikipedia page, an abandoned Reddit thread, or an unanswered question on Twitter — and we fill in the gaps. It’s part chat show, part documentary, and almost always surprising.
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Episodes
The Incredible Shrinking Cap’n
December 17, 2019 12:03 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MB00:22 - Cap'n Crunch was created by Pamela Low in 1963. 01:50 - Urban Dictionary defines Cap'n Crunch Mouth as "When the roof of your mouth gets all torn up after eating Cap'n Crunch or some other rough food." 02:23 - Underunderstood: The 9/11 Hoax That Wasn't 03:15 - The Try Guys: Eugene Ranks The Most Popular Cereals 07:11 - A collection of tweets claiming Cap'n Crunch has shrunk 08:21 - My Brother, My Brother and Me 16:20 - Partially hydrogenated oils (or PHOs) were deemed to be no...
43 Years in Biscuitville
December 10, 2019 11:59 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBA small town fights for internet justice by boycotting biscuits. 2:23 - LulaRoe Defective Fail on Facebook 3:29 - Biscuitville page on Wikipedia 4:51 - Petition: BRING ABED HASSAN BACK on Change.org 13:53 - The First Pizzaville vs. The First Biscuitville 17:47 - Biscuitville announces a new president 18:56 - Jim Metevier (LinkedIn) 19:59 - Zaxby's (BONUS: Zaxby’s made it on My Brother My Brother and Me’s Munch Squad segment.) 21:48 - Mountain Mike's announces a new president
Brave Dot Com
December 03, 2019 12:00 - 28 minutes - 26.7 MBHow a misfit polka band scored a premium spot on the World Wide Web in 1995. 0:35 - "The Verge is an ambitious multimedia effort founded in 2011 to examine how technology will change life in the future for a massive mainstream audience." (The Verge) 4:05 - More Brave Combo accolades are on their Wikipedia page 4:11 - Bob Dylan's version of Brave Combo's polka arrangement of "Must Be Santa" (YouTube) 6:53 - Domain Name Journal 8:11 - What Brave.com/bo looked like in 1998 (Wayback Machine...
What happened to the McFlurry?
November 26, 2019 12:00 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBMcFlurries aren't what they used to be. Why did McDonald's stop stirring them? Show notes: 2:29 - McFlurry demo (YouTube) 6:40 - Adrianne's McFlurry 8:40 - Why Is the McFlurry Machine Down Again? (WSJ) 9:07 - Ice Check 10:10 - Are McFlurry's supposed to be mixed? (Reddit) 12:08 - On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane 15:06 - Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's? 19:55 - VitaMix VM0804A - McFlurry Ice Cream Mixer (Used) 23:51 - I Tried To Ge...
What Happened To the McFlurry?
November 26, 2019 12:00 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBMcFlurries aren't what they used to be. Why did McDonald's stop stirring them? Show notes: 2:29 - McFlurry demo (YouTube) 6:40 - Adrianne's McFlurry 8:40 - Why Is the McFlurry Machine Down Again? (WSJ) 9:07 - Ice Check 10:10 - Are McFlurry's supposed to be mixed? (Reddit) 12:08 - On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane 15:06 - Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's? 19:55 - VitaMix VM0804A - McFlurry Ice Cream Mixer (Used) 23:51 - I Tried To Ge...
Endless Thread: The Deadly Double
October 22, 2019 11:00 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBWhile we’re working on new episodes of Underunderstood, we we'd share an episode of another podcast we love: Endless Thread. It’s a show that brings Reddit to life by tracking down its strangest, most compelling stories, and talking to the folks involved in those stories. This episode is about an old dice game called The Deadly Double. In order to find the origins of the game, Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson fall into a series of rabbit holes, including an enormous dice collection, a ...
What To Do With Fake Money
August 27, 2019 11:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBAdrianne buys some money online in order to track down a rumor about Chinese bank tellers. 2:06 - Photos of the $100 bills: Front / Back 3:35 - Hell money 13:18 - Reporter Jon Christian 16:35 - Wayne Homren's blog post from 2011 19:00 - Money Makers (99% Invisible) 21:30 - Fascinating ways to count money! Bank teller shows quick counting skills (YouTube) 21:40 - Chinese cashier's amazing cash counting skills (YouTube) 21:50 - Chinese bank teller counts money by ear (YouTube) 25:59 -...
Where's My Chile?
August 20, 2019 11:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBJohn finds out if it is safe to eat a suitcase full of chili peppers that have been missing for three days. 5:45 - Where’s My Suitcase 8:16 - #wheresmysuitcase on Twitter is a harrowing scene 10:50 - Bags, Inc. 11:11 - Bags VIP 11:50 - Bags, Inc.’s corporate video on Vimeo 14:04 - We cannot link to F-14 Baggage because they have absolutely no web presence 18:40 - The Middle Seat at the Wall Street Journal 21:00 - The weather in Albuquerque in January 2019 22:56 - The weather in New ...
Little Theatre Goes Dark
August 13, 2019 11:00 - 11 minutes - 10.6 MBThe surprising history behind a charming marquee in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Show notes: 00:06 - Billy shot and edited Underunderstood's trailer video in one day. 00:24 - KCRW's 7th Annual 24-Hour Radio Race 00:58 - KCRW announced the theme on Twitter 01:09 - Wiktionary defines "where the sun don't shine" as "up or in the anus." 03:27 - Little Theatre on Cinema Treasures 03:36 - This little porn movie house learned to survive for decades -- until last week - NJ.com 04:51 - Whitne...
Recorded for Awesomeness
August 06, 2019 11:00 - 37 minutes - 35 MBAdrianne tries to order from a local sushi restaurant, but an unfamiliar voice answers, promising "awesomeness." Awesomeness for whom? Show notes: 2:16 - “GrubHub is buying up thousands of restaurant web addresses. That means Mom and Pop can’t own their slice of the internet,” published June 28, 2019 by H. Claire Brown at The New Food Economy. 13:07 - Dark patterns 13:54 - A report about Munish Narula’s class action lawsuit from Nation’s Restaurant News 14:19 - “Restaurateurs across the...
The 9/11 Hoax That Wasn’t
July 30, 2019 11:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBBilly’s sister thinks a photo that repeatedly goes viral on Reddit is suspicious. Show notes: 0:40 – All of the photos discussed in this episode are available on our website 2:02 – Snopes: “Is This a Photograph of a World Trade Center Tourist on 9/11?” 3:23 – Pinball Gallery 5:59 – The Balloon Saloon has nothing to do with this episode, but it is a place in Tribeca. 6:39 – In 2014, Austin Sansone popped up on Reddit to claim the photo. 8:05 – Former child actor Mark Lester 26:35 – r/...
What Happened To New Vietnam?
July 23, 2019 11:00 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBA Wikipedia stub about the worst Florida theme park idea ever sends John on a search for the reason it never opened. Show notes: 0:45 - New Vietnam on Wikipedia 1:12 - Dolly Parton's Stampede (formerly Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede) 2:16 - Carl McIntire on Wikipedia 3:52 - Wild West City 5:50 - New Vietnam in Uncle John's Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader 7:25 - Portable Press 8:11 - 20th Century Reformation Hour 8:44 - Some clips of the 20th Century Reformation Hour 9:37 - Christianit...
Underunderwear
July 16, 2019 11:00 - 34 minutes - 32.3 MBA tweetstorm about men’s role in pregnancy leads Regina to find a man who spent over a decade suppressing his sperm count with a piece of yarn. Show notes: 00:33 - Wikipedia page for heat-based contraception 00:57 - The movie 'Heat' is the first time Robert De Niro and Al Pacino starred in a movie together 01:31 - Regina would like to state for the record that said baby is now 1 year old, absolutely adorable, and spends significantly less time crying than she did at the time of the initi...
Gas and Gains
July 09, 2019 11:06 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBAfter watching an episode of “Catfish: The TV Show,” Billy goes on a deep dive to find the meaning of a curious ankle tattoo, the eccentricities of the Philadelphia accent, and one man’s fixation with the word “gas.” Show notes: 00:40 - Catfish: The TV Show - Wikipedia 00:57 - Catfish - Season 7, Episode 18 - Nick and Jasmine (video) 01:35 - To Catch a Predator - Wikipedia 01:46 - Definition of Catfish by Merriam-Webster The scene (video) from Catfish (the 2010 documentary) where the t...
Welcome to Underunderstood
June 28, 2019 18:24 - 1 minute - 1.05 MBThere are questions the internet just hasn't answered yet. We investigate those questions and get the answers.