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The BrainFood Show

The BrainFood Show

By: Cloud10
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 In this show, the team behind the wildly popular TodayIFoundOut YouTube channel do deep dives into a variety of fascinating topics to help you feed your brain with interesting knowledge.Cloud10 World
Episodes
  • The Incredible Soviet Probe Space Heist

    The Incredible Soviet Probe Space Heist
    Apr 3 2026
    Anyone interested in the shirt can find it here: https://store.todayifoundout.com/products/beep-beep-sputnik-2 On October 4, 1957 at 7:28 PM Greenwich Mean Time, a massive R7 Semyorka rocket roared off the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and soared into the night sky. The following morning, the world awoke to the stunning news: the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, into earth orbit. In Washington, DC, American politicians and military officials flew into a panic. Not only had the supposedly backwards Soviets achieved spaceflight years ahead of Western predictions, but the same R7 rocket which had placed Sputnik in orbit could also place a nuclear warhead anywhere in the Continental United States with less than 30 minutes’ warning. Worse still, unlike a manned strategic bomber, such intercontinental ballistic missiles could not be intercepted or shot down. Overnight, outer space became a new battlefield in the escalating Cold War. As the American government and aerospace industry geared up to compete in this newly-declared Space Race, intelligence agencies like the CIA sought to learn all they could about Soviet space technology. This proved a daunting task, for the closed nature of Soviet society made it all but impossible to infiltrate using human agents. As a result, analysts were forced to glean what little they could from grainy spy plane and satellite photographs and intercepted telemetry signals. But then, in late 1959, an unlikely opportunity suddenly presented itself: a chance to “kidnap” and examine a genuine Soviet space probe. This is the audacious story of the Great Lunik Heist. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen 0:00 Shirt 0:13 Intro 7:14 Planning the Luna Space Heist 8:46 Kidnapping the Spacecraft 13:32 The Results of the Heist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    21 mins
  • Does Absinthe Really Make You Hallucinate, The Wine Lover's Meltdown, Inventing Bloody Mary & More

    Does Absinthe Really Make You Hallucinate, The Wine Lover's Meltdown, Inventing Bloody Mary & More
    Apr 2 2026
    In the episode today, we're looking at whether absinthe actually makes you hallucinate or not. Next up the hilarious story of the wine lover's meltdown, and then the popular cocktail that includes a dehydrated human toe. Finally whether or not tapping a shaken can of soda actually reduces foam. Who invented the bloody mary drink. Where does the practice of pouring one out for your homies come from. Why alcohol content is referred to as a proof. How much it would cost to fill a swimming pool with booze. And why wine is almost always drunk in wine glasses instead of regular glasses. 0:00 Does absinthe actually make you hallucinate? 14:27 The wine lover meltdown 21:55 The popular cocktail that includes a dehydrated human toe 33:48 Does tapping a shaken can of soda actually reduce foam 45:32 Who invented the bloody mary drink 1:01:48 Where does the practice of pouring one out for your homies comes from 1:08:49 Why is alcohol content referred to a proof 1:12:24 How much would it cost to fill a swimming pool with booze 1:25:08 Why is wine almost always drunk in wine glasses instead of regular glasses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 44 mins
  • The Dark Origins of the Treadmill and Why Oscar Wild was the Worst

    The Dark Origins of the Treadmill and Why Oscar Wild was the Worst
    Apr 1 2026
    “We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, We turned the dusty drill: We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, And sweated on the mill: But in the heart of every man Terror was lying still.” These are the words of famed master of the pen, Oscar Wilde, in his Ballad of Reading Gaol, referencing his time spent at Pentonville Prison for, ironically, mastering working with a different type of pen… As a brief aside, while many lament the initial thing that set forth a chain of events that saw Wilde imprisoned today, specifically his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, very surprisingly, unlike with the likes of the great Alan Turing and countless thousands others who were unjustly punished for their sexuality, it turns out there is a LOT more to the story of Wilde’s conviction that many a biographer skirts over, though to be fair this is in part because some elements of the original transcript from the original trial were only discovered in the year 2000. Reading through those, however, even in modern times and through a modern lens and sensibilities, Wilde would have almost certainly found himself behind bars, disgraced, and absolutely vilified pretty well universally on the interwebs. But we’re not here to discuss Oscar Wilde, the full story of his conviction was simply a rabbit hole we were previously woefully ignorant of, and will share more on later in the Bonus Facts if you’re interested as well- though fair warning, it’s quite dark and, oof. Never look too deeply into your heroes, especially when they are from the past, which was of course, the worst. But in any event, embedded in Wilde’s aforementioned poem, he references sweating on the mill. This was a device created by famed engineer Sir William Cubitt in the early days of Cubitt’s career, with the primary purpose of the surprisingly feature rich machine being both to punish prisoners in an excruciating way for upwards of 10 hours per day, while also isolating them in that task so that they could properly think about what they’d done wrong. While Wilde may have abhorred the machine, having been forced to march on it for a couple years, another famous master wordsmith, Charles Dickens, would praise it, writing, "It is a satisfaction to me to see that determined thief, swindler, or vagrant sweating profusely at the treadmill... [knowing] he is doing nothing all the time but undergoing punishment." Here now is the story of when humans first started exercising for fitness’ sake, as well as the rather torturous invention of the treadmill, which saw prison death rates ramp up considerably once implemented, but paradoxically also seemed to be a major health boon to those that survived their monotonous march. Author / Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila 0:00 Intro 3:13 When Humans Started Purposefully Exercising 6:47 Prison Reform and Inventing the "Treadmill" 22:02 Inventing the Modern Treadmill 29:02 Cooking with Dogs 32:14 Oscar Wilde was the Worst Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    47 mins
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