No Such Thing

In collaboration with our friends at Search Engine, we seek to find a cure for Manny's deep aversion to seafood, for the sake of our friendship.

For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show. If you have a question you'd like us to answer, feel free to email us at [email protected].

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This week, we bravely interrogate the male practice of standing while peeing. Why do we do it? And why stand when you can sit? We speak with urologist Gerald collins to find out if there are any hidden benefits to sitting while peeing.

For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show. If you have a question you'd like us to answer, feel free to email us at [email protected].

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On this week’s episode we tackle a question Devan has been grappling with while living with a dog in the city: Are suburban dogs happier than city dogs? To find out, we spoke with one of the leading dog cognition experts, Alexandra Horowitz. She heads the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard and is the author of Inside of a Dog.

The credit song is Big Dog by Maurice featuring Kenny Ning and Certain Self, who also provided additional music for this episode.

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Letterboxd is a great tool for keeping track of movies and seeing what your friends and others are watching. But does constant logging, rating, and reviewing actually help us enjoy films? To find out, we spoke to Dr. Ruud Jacobs, who actually researched the impact of consumer movie reviews, and professional movie critic Tasha Robinson.

Dr. Jacobs' research can be found here, and you can hear Tasha on her own podcast, The Next Picture Show.

For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show

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On this week’s episode, we tackle our first listener-submitted question: is it OK to wear outside clothes on your bed? Everyone has strong opinions, but what does the science say? We speak with microbiologist Dr. Lisa Cuchara of Quinnipiac University and ran a swab test to get some answers.

For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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This week, we take a break from our regular format to discuss some of our favorite things from the past year. This is the first of a new format we're calling NST Chats: loose, informal, and much more casual than our typical rigorous reporting, fine editing, and high-powered analysis. We promise to hit the ground running in 2025 with a return to our usual style, next Tuesday!

NST Selects: 2024 Playlist on Spotify and Apple Music

For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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The past decade has seen a resurgence of political violence: January 6, multiple attempts on Trump’s life, and of course the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO are just a few notable examples. We spoke with University of Chicago Professor Robert A. Pape, who has studied political violence for decades, to understand this disturbing trend, the public’s reaction to it, and why he thinks it's here to stay.

Read Pape’s New York Times Op-Ed: What the Glorification of Luigi Mangione Reveals About America

For more, visit www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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What if this ONE thing we’ve always been told about horses isn’t true at all? What if it’s a lie we’ve told ourselves so that we can enjoy our horseback riding vacations and Kentucky Derbies without guilt?

To answer this question we speak with Ren Hurst, a former professional horse trainer and author of “The Wisdom of Wilderness.” And we venture to New Jersey to spend some time with horses at the Bergen County Horse Rescue.

The end credits music is "I’ve Always Been the First (to Say I Love you)" by Certain Self.

For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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Certain taboo words have recently crept back into common use across private conversation, on social media, and in mainstream entertainment, seemingly all along the political spectrum. In this episode, we explore why slurs are making a comeback, featuring Business Insider deputy executive editor Mia de Graaf.

Business Insider: The return of the slur

For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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Do you think you’d be able to successfully land a plane, with no prior pilot experience and relying only on air traffic control assistance? A YouGov survey found 13% of people are “very confident” that they could. In this episode, we explore why some people (like Manny) are prone to overconfidence, with help from social psychologist and professor David Dunning.

Outro song is "Nothing Ever Happens" by Darryl Rahn

For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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What began as an innocent debate soon devolved into accusations of deception and trickery. Is it misleading to say you read a book if, in actuality, you listened to it as an audiobook? And do you absorb information the same way when listening compared to reading? With some help from Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell, Associate Professor at University of North Dakota, we get an answer.

Here’s a link to Dr. Clinton-Lisell’s meta-analysis of reading and listening comprehension comparisons. She’s on TikTok, YouTube, Threads, and Bluesky.

For more information, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show

And if you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected]

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This is the trailer for NO SUCH THING, a new podcast by Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devan Joseph. Our two-episode premiere drops on Tuesday, November 26.

For more, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show.

If you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at [email protected].

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