Stuff You Should Know

Save the Whales!

In the 1970s, conservation groups around the world rose up to protect dwindling whale populations, some on the verge of extinction. They all worked under the same banner: Save the Whales! It turned out to be one of the most successful campaigns ever. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Selects: How Fever Dreams Work

Fever dreams can be unsettling experiences. These ramped up nightmares are vivid, detailed and only happen when the human body experiences a fever. What is it about the combination of fevers and dreams that make these night terrors so hellish? Learn all that and more in this classic episode. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

UNESCO World Heritage: Preserving the Best of Humanity

Humanity’s created a lot of neat things over the eons and starting in the 1940s, the UN created an agency focused on preserving those things for the whole world and future people. But that mission is in danger of becoming only about branding and money. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Short Stuff: Brown-Headed Cowbird

There’s a kind of bird that lots of people think is a real jerk. And it kind of is. But in the brown-headed cowbird’s defense, it’s just evolved that way. Find out why it has such a bad reputation among bird lovers in this Short Stuff. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Some Silly Inventions That Became Wildly Popular

Once in a while someone comes up with a solution for a problem we didn’t know we had, and maybe even a problem that didn’t even exist. Even more rarely, the stars align just right so that some crackpot invention captures everyone’s imagination. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.