Stuff You Should Know is a free podcast and video series published by HowStuffWorks and hosted by Josh Clark and Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant, both writers at HowStuffWorks. The podcast educates listeners on a wide variety of topics, often using popular culture as a reference giving the podcast comedic value. Episodes are normally around 45 minutes in length, although for more in-depth topics the show has run longer than an hour.
The winner of the 2014 and the 2016 People's Voice Webby Award, the show is downloaded more than 1 million times per week and is consistently on iTunes’ Top 10 podcast rankings. Stuff You Should Know's "beautifully, beautifully done" production has set "the audio standard," according to podcast reviewers Pod on Pod. They added that the audio quality "could not be improved" on the NPR-level production. One reviewer said of it: "It is never not fun to listen to."
Since 2014, a listener and fan, dubbed The Minister of Stats by Clark and Bryant, has maintained a spreadsheet |title=SYSK episode spreadsheet listing all episodes with original publishing dates, run times, and fun facts. Short Stuff and Selects episodes do not contribute to the overall episode count.
Series overview Year Average length Longest episode Shortest episodeOverall 41 minutes "How LSD Works" (106 minutes) "How Evolution in Isolation Works" (4 minutes) 2020 54 minutes "How COVID-19 Works" (71 minutes) "Short Stuff: Hawaiian Night Marchers" (11 minutes) 2019 54 minutes "Guardian Angels: Behind the Red Beret" (105 minutes) "Short Stuff: Unspent Campaign Money" (13 minutes) 2018 63 minutes "SYSK Live: Back When Ford Pintos Were Flaming Deathtraps" (80 minutes) "Short Stuff: Unique Snowflakes" (14 minutes) 2017 55 minutes "SYSK Live: The DB Cooper Heist" (95 minutes) "SYSK Selects: How Exorcism Works" (24 minutes) 2016 49 minutes "How LSD Works" (106 minutes) "Living Underground in Beijing" (32 minutes) 2015 46 minutes "Live in Chicago: How Public Relations Works" (77 minutes) "Rainbows: Delighting humanity since forever" (32 minutes) 2014 44 minutes "How Police Interrogation Works" (67 minutes) "How Leper Colonies Worked" (30 minutes) 2013 36 minutes "How Dying Works" (64 minutes) "How Alien Hand Syndrome Works" (15 minutes) 2012 37 minutes "Why does music provoke emotion?" (64 minutes) "What is a shotgun house?" (23 minutes) 2011 36 minutes "What Saved the American Bison" (54 minutes) "How Tickling Works" (21 minutes) 2010 32 minutes "SYSK's Guatemalan Adventure, Part One" (55 minutes) "How Scabies Work" (20 minutes) 2009 25 minutes "The Real How Jack the Ripper Worked" (39 minutes) "How Hypoallergenic Cats Work" (15 minutes) 2008 11 minutes "Did the CIA test LSD on unsuspecting Americans?" (26 minutes) "How Evolution in Isolation Works" (4 minutes)
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References Due to a size limit, some references are shown in a shortened form. See the year articles for the full references.
External links Podcast Episodes