About this season
Half as Interesting is an entertaining, fact-based, educational series covering diverse topics of general interest presented in a somewhat humorous, quirky style. Topics range from curious to weird and are rarely important to know unless you're looking for some lunch room or coffee break conversation starters.
Episodes (76)
1. Why Building Ski Lifts Is Incredibly Hard
Aired 4 January 2023 • 7 min
2. The Massively Complicated Task of Buying Insurance for a Satellite
Aired 11 January 2023 • 6 min
3. Why Canada’s Teachers Run an Investment Firm in Singapore
Aired 18 January 2023
4. The Navy’s Obscure, Super-Efficient Swim Stroke
Aired 20 January 2023 • 6 min
5. The Weirdly Complex Science of Snow Removal
Aired 21 January 2023 • 6 min
6. Why the IRS Taxes Illegal Income
Aired 30 January 2023 • 5 min
7. The Corporate Conspiracy Behind California’s Smallest Town
Aired 2 February 2023 • 6 min
8. How Amish People Get Around Not Using Electricity
Aired 5 February 2023 • 6 min
9. Why Soda Cans are Shaped Differently in Hawaii
Aired 13 February 2023 • 5 min
10. Why the US Gov Reshapes the Mississippi River
Aired 16 February 2023 • 6 min
11. The Genius $250 Toll Road from Minnesota to Minnesota
Aired 22 February 2023 • 5 min
12. How Science Made You Finally Like Brussels Sprouts
Aired 24 February 2023 • 6 min
13. Why Every Baseball Stadium Has Different Rules
Aired 1 March 2023 • 6 min
14. Why It’s Impossible to Build a Crochet Machine
Aired 6 March 2023 • 6 min
15. Why American Lawns All Look The Same
Aired 9 March 2023 • 6 min
16. The NY Subway's Weirdly Successful Lost and Found System
Aired 16 March 2023 • 6 min
17. North Korea’s Bizarre New Propaganda Program
Aired 18 March 2023 • 7 min
18. How Witness Protection Manages to Keep a 100% Success Rate
Aired 23 March 2023 • 6 min
19. How Amazon Broke the US Patent Office
Aired 28 March 2023 • 7 min
20. The Continent-Sized Algae Blob That’s Coming for Florida
Aired 31 March 2023 • 6 min
21. How To Spot a Really Good Art Forgery
Aired 7 April 2023 • 7 min
22. The Court That Settles Wikipedia Editor Drama
Aired 12 April 2023 • 7 min
23. The Material So Classified We Forgot How to Make It
Aired 15 April 2023 • 6 min
24. This Diabetes Drug Causes Weight Loss (and Chaos)
Aired 24 April 2023 • 6 min
25. Why You Can Legally Steal From a Sinking Ship
Aired 28 April 2023 • 7 min
26. The Giant Propaganda Show That’s In Almost Every City
Aired 1 May 2023 • 7 min
27. How the White House Reads Every Letter it Gets
Aired 7 May 2023 • 6 min
28. How Much Happiness Can Money Buy?
Aired 9 May 2023 • 7 min
29. The Super Obvious Ways to Get Around Campaign Finance Laws
Aired 12 May 2023 • 6 min
30. Why We're Reaching the Theoretical Limit of Computer Power
Aired 20 May 2023 • 7 min
31. Why It Took 13 Years to Engineer The Taco Bell Crunchwrap
Aired 23 May 2023 • 6 min
32. The Website Where You Can Order The Bubonic Plague
Aired 26 May 2023 • 7 min
33. Dyson’s Disinformation War with Big Paper Towel
Aired 5 June 2023 • 7 min
34. How Planes Forecast Turbulence
Aired 8 June 2023 • 6 min
35. Why Tape Storage is Making a Sneaky Comeback
Aired 12 June 2023 • 6 min
36. How the Fake Meat Industry Saved Dippin’ Dots
Aired 16 June 2023 • 6 min
37. How the World’s 4 Cryogenics Companies Actually Work
Aired 22 June 2023 • 6 min
38. The Intense Logistics of Truffles
Aired 26 June 2023 • 6 min
39. Why the US and China Are Squabbling Over This One Wire
Aired 30 June 2023 • 7 min
40. How Argentina Accidentally Gave Germans 40% Off Everything
Aired 4 July 2023 • 7 min
41. We've Made 400 Videos for the Internet. Here are the Worst Ones.
Aired 12 July 2023 • 6 min
42. Why The US Navy Really Needs This One Forest in Indiana
Aired 15 July 2023 • 7 min
43. Why This Airline Only Has One Commercial Flight Per Month
Aired 18 July 2023 • 6 min
44. Trains’ Weirdly Massive Problem with Leaves
Aired 21 July 2023 • 6 min
45. How Porsche Owns Volkswagen and Volkswagen Owns Porsche
Aired 31 July 2023 • 6 min
46. Why the US Government Has No Idea How Many Buildings It Owns
Aired 4 August 2023 • 6 min
47. The Weirdly Lucrative Business of Searching for Old Jeans
Aired 8 August 2023 • 7 min
48. Chicago’s $10 Billion Street Parking Mistake
Aired 10 August 2023 • 6 min
49. Why Only 24 Pilots Are Allowed to Land at This Airport
Aired 16 August 2023 • 6 min
50. The Remote Town Where 13.2% of People are Millionaires
Aired 22 August 2023 • 6 min
51. How The Pentagon Became The World’s Most Secure Building
Aired 29 August 2023 • 6 min
52. The Surprisingly Complex Logistics of Product Returns
Aired 30 August 2023
53. Every Mistake We’ve Ever Made VI: Return of the Jed-lie
Aired 31 August 2023 • 6 min
54. The 3100-Mile Longest Official Running Race in the World
Aired 12 September 2023 • 7 min
55. Why It Takes 7+ Years to Shut Down a Nuclear Plant
Aired 19 September 2023 • 7 min
56. The Only River That Flows Into Both the Atlantic and the Pacific
Aired 21 September 2023 • 6 min
57. How to Fail a Kitchen Inspection
Aired 28 September 2023 • 7 min
58. How The President’s Official Vacation Home Works
Aired 29 September 2023 • 8 min
59. Why Venice’s New €8 Billion Flood Barrier Only Kinda Works
Aired 30 September 2023 • 7 min
60. The Design Flaw That Made Hyundais Absurdly Easy to Steal
Aired 6 October 2023
61. Australia’s Huge Mistake of Selling All Their Water
Aired 12 October 2023 • 7 min
62. How Submarines Survive at 36,201 Feet Below
Aired 20 October 2023 • 7 min
63. Why China Built an Antenna Bigger Than NYC
Aired 25 October 2023
64. Why Qatar Airways Flies An Almost-Empty Flight to Adelaide
Aired 26 October 2023
65. How 70% of Britain’s Cash Went Missing
Aired 28 October 2023
66. How This Utah Hotel Legally Became a Town
Aired 6 November 2023 • 7 min
67. Why The US is in 42 Different National Emergencies
Aired 15 November 2023 • 7 min
68. The 128 Airlines So Dangerous They’re Banned in the EU
Aired 17 November 2023 • 7 min
69. Why the US Gov Pays $10 Million a Year for This Yacht
Aired 21 November 2023
70. The Arctic Vault That Protects Data from the Apocalypse
Aired 27 November 2023
71. NASA’s Year-Long, Totally Fake Mission to Mars
Aired 30 November 2023
72. The Vault That Holds 5% of the World’s Gold
Aired 7 December 2023
73. The Controversial Machine That’s Ruining Bowling
Aired 12 December 2023 • 8 min
74. What Exactly Happens When You Check a Bag
Aired 19 December 2023
75. The Super-Secure Delivery Service That Only Diplomats Can Use
Aired 26 December 2023
76. Why China Took the US’ Pandas
Aired 28 December 2023 • 8 min