Completely Optional Knowledge
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Completely Optional Knowledge
The podcast where we answer the questions you never knew you had. Produced by Andrew Norton with music by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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Why Do Frozen Lakes and Rivers Sound So Creepy?
Brigitta Green from the perennial winter wonderland of Minnesota has a fitting question for us about ice. After a mysterious, late night howling sound...
What's The Coolest Species Name?
What's the coolest or weirdest official name for a species of plant or animal? And how do they get those funny sounding Latin names anyway?
Why Distinguish Between Fruits and Vegetables?
Is a watermelon a vegetable? Biologically it’s logical, but does the answer depend where you live?
Why Do Animals See Color Differently?
Zookeeper Rick asks why why animals see color differently? Dr. Jay Neitz of the University of Washington Department of Ophthalmology says there is mo...
Do Animals Have Rituals Around Death?
Listener Ross Wintle, driving past a cemetery near his home, wonders if animals other than humans have rituals around death? Barbara J King, professor...
Why Do We Laugh At Pain?
Listener Matthew Hollingshead, a skateboard enthusiast, asks why it’s so funny to watch people get hurt. We’re not necessarily talking about critical...
Do Animals Have Eating Contests?
Hilah Johnson hosts a show about cooking (and, naturally, eating)and she came to us with a very on-brand question. Do animals have eating contests? We...
What's Quantum Teleportation?
Listening to Shohini Ghose talk about what would happen if a human reached light speed in Episode 16, Fred Papon of Australia wanted to know more abou...
How Do Animal Taste Buds Work?
Dallas College professor Patrick Moore, seeing his dog Abbey eating her own poo and swallowing dirty socks, wonders how animal tastebuds work. Daniell...
Why Do Siblings Have Rivalries?
Molly and John Knefel, sister and brother co-hosts of the daily podcast “Radio Dispatch” wonder why siblings become rivals. Naomi White, PhD, of Camb...
What Does the Sun Sound Like? [rerun]
Inspired by freeze-dried ice cream at Space Camp, podcast producer of 99% Invisible Avery Trufelman wonders what the sun really sounds like setting as...
Can Music Make You Hungry?
Breakmaster Cylinder, creator of the Completely Optional Knowledge theme music, wonders if music can be used to trigger specific responses in people....
What Is Wind?
Lauren Ober is the host of WAMU's The Big Listen. She wanted to know the answer to a relatively simple question - what is wind? With help from UCLA ma...
How Do You Take Great Photos From Space?
Jonathan Mehring has photographed all over the world, but there’s one place he hasn’t been yet that he’s dying to learn about: outer space. So we talk...
Are There Lazy Ants?
Have you ever seen an ant just … hanging out? Completely Optional Knowledge listener Bryan Fox hasn’t, and it’s getting under his skin. To get Bryan t...
Who Governs Space?
Who makes the rules in outer space? That’s what Completely Optional Knowledge listener Tim Burberich called in to find out. So we got in touch with sp...
What's the Most Surprising Partnership Between Species?
Emily Schorr Lesnick is the co-host of the SoulGlo podcast, a show about how diversity helps humans thrive. Naturally, she wants to find out if divers...
Do Invincible Creatures Exist?
Jessica Abel is working on a new book about Mars (Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars - available in November 2016) - which got her wondering about the mo...
What If I Went Light Speed?
Tom Sortodden wants to know what would happen if he went the speed of light. Physicist Shohini Ghose of Wilfrid Laurier University explores the implic...
What Animal Has the Stinkiest Farts?
Award-winning filmmaker Troy Hale comes to Completely Optional Knowledge to find out which animal has the smelliest farts. Zookeeper Rick of the San D...
What Sounds Can't I Hear?
Annie McEwen has great hearing — but she's still only human — so she's wondering what sounds are out there that she's not able to pick up. To find the...
Have Whale Songs Changed Over Time?
Music critic Stacey Anderson has listened to a lot of songs in her time. So many, in fact, that she’s grown a bit bored of human music. Now she’s curi...
Do Animals in the Wild Get Drunk?
If you give a mouse a vodka tonic, will he even drink it? That’s the question Ben Harrison — host of the Let’s Drink About It podcast — has brought to...
What Is the Fastest Insect in the World?
Listener Stephen Rang wants to know how fast he would have to run (or drive, as it turns out) to flee the world’s fastest known insect. We go off to t...
How Do Animals Choose Their Leaders?
Election season is upon us, and that means choices. If you’re still on the fence about who to vote for, maybe you’d like to take a cue from ants, whos...
Can Animals Predict Earthquakes?
If you could have a head start preparing for an earthquake to hit, wouldn’t you take it? That’s all San Francisco resident Terry Worona wants, and he’...
How Long Can You Live Underwater?
Swimmer Veronica Simmonds wants to know what happens when you take aquatic adventure to the extreme. So we called up ‘aquanaut’ — that’s like an astro...
What Pisses Scientists Off the Most When They Go to the Movies?
Dr. David Kirby, author of "Lab Coats in Hollywood," digs into that fine line between sublime fantasy and falling flat at the movies. So, what irks sc...
Why Are Sloths So Cute?
Sloths don't really "do" a lot, and yet they've managed to win our hearts time and again. Admitted sloth enthusiast Brooke Ziebell wants to know what'...
What Do Tornadoes Smell Like?
New Yorker Alex Kapelman has never seen a tornado, and he’s curious: what do they smell like? With more than 20 years of storm chasing under his belt,...
Why Do Frozen Lakes and Rivers Howl in the Night?
Brigitta Green from the perennial winter wonderland of Minnesota has a fitting question for us about ice. After a mysterious, late night howling sound...
What Does the Sun Sound Like?
Space camp alumnus Avery Trufelman from Oakland, California wants to know what the sun sounds like, and so do we! NASA sound and space expert Robert A...
Can It Really Rain Spiders?
Vancouver meteorologist Kristi Gordon had a not so fortunate on-air experience with an arachnid guest descending on her from above, so she asked us to...
Why Do Touch-Me-Not Plants Recoil?
On a recent vacation to Costa Rica, Indianapolis, Indiana nurse Amy Gastelum did what we all would if given the chance: she touched a touch-me-not pla...