The Cracked Podcast

Alex Schmidt is joined by Sarah Pappalardo (Reductress) and Dave Weigel (The Washington Post) for a look ahead at an election that’s practically happening tomorrow. Could one party take both houses of Congress? How is the Presidential race shaping up? And will American voters have to jack up their pandemic risk just to plunk down a ballot? Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/how-bizarre-or-great-will-2020-election-be

Alex Schmidt is joined by Adam Tod Brown and Chet Wild, the hosts of Unpopular Opinion’s “The 90s Sucked” podcast. They’re exploring huge, meaningful, world-altering ways the 1990s never stopped happening to us. They’ll also reveal which element of the ‘90s stuffs the nation’s landfills to this day, which ‘90s band happily played a show in a living room, and which ‘90s after-effects are most worth looking out for in 2020, 2024, and beyond.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/5-weird-ways-1990s-never-ended/

Alex Schmidt is joined by Jody Avirgan (FiveThirtyEight, 30 For 30) and Nicole Hemmer (historian, author 'Messengers Of The Right'). Jody & Nicole host a fantastic new podcast called 'This Day In Esoteric Political History'. On this show, the three of them share amazing stories from T.D.I.E.P.H., and from elsewhere, about America facing shutdown-level crises. It turns out the United States often faces pandemics, crashes, and weather cataclysms that disrupt national life for months or even years. Those events don't loom large in our collective historical memories, despite being important reminders of our country's resilience in the face of bizarre national danger...and reminders that thoughtful collective action is as American as apple pie, baseball, and revolting against the British.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/6-little-known-crises-lockdowns-u.s.-history

Alex Schmidt is joined by the incredible Andy Daly, star of ’Review’ and all of the rest of TV. This podcast is inspired by Dalton Wilcox’s long-simmering project ‘Bonanas For Bonanza’, a rewatch podcast (theoretically) tackling all 431 episodes of the 1959-1973 Western adventure TV show ‘Bonanza’. It turns out even the earliest 'Bonanza' episodes are quite odd -- which begs the question, how weird can a long-running show get? Alex and Andy answer that with examples (and audio!) from ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘One Tree Hill’, ‘Lassie’, and more surprising pillars of American television history.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/7-bizarre-moments-from-bizarrely-long-running-tv-shows/

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writer & “Creature Feature” podcast host Katie Goldin for a run through animal-specific myths springing up around coronavirus. They’ll break down whether nature *really* is “returning”, what the heck is going on with bats and tigers, and why your housecat is being smart about this situation. Also they’ll reveal some actually-fascinating true animal elements of the world shutting down that haven’t crossed your Twitter feed.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/bizarre-myths-amazing-facts-about-animals-coronavirus

Alex Schmidt is joined by New York Times-bestselling author Jason Pargin (pen name David Wong) for a close look at mistakes society needs to stop making now, and stop making always. Alongside that, they’ll explore ways you can help people survive this coronavirus thing, just by being thoughtful.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/common-beliefs-that-make-disasters-worse-with-jason-pargin/

1901 is generally considered the start of modern baseball. And ever since that year, Major League Baseball has played its annual season of professional games. They’ve shortened the season a few times, and they’ve skipped the World Series twice (1904 and 1994). But for almost 120 years, baseball has refused to take a break. America’s baseball players kept socking dingers through two world wars, one flu pandemic, several economic depressions, and all kinds of other situations that make enjoying a ballgame awfully tricky. The 2020 season may or may not start play later this year. But either way, a few clever Chicago sportscasters have made history with a virtual approach to keeping things going. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt calls up Chicago White Sox play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti, to explore what it’s like simulating a sports season that may never happen outside of his PlayStation 4. They’ll also examine the weird way virtual sports can turn meaningful, discover how Taiwan resumed real baseball a week ago, and dig into sports’ role as a canary in the coal mine of modern American society.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/sports-in-time-coronavirus-with-jason-benetti

There is nothing good about the novel coronavirus. And please take its danger seriously! Stay home if you can! Also, speaking of staying home: as we all make changes to grapple with this global pandemic, have you noticed there are a few things you don’t miss? A few events and social practices and gas-guzzling drives you’re better off without? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion, MTV, Playboy) and Dan Hopper (Ranker, The New Yorker, CollegeHumor) for a look at some things COVID-19 put on hold -- specifically the most foolish, inefficient, straight-up bad things in the entire world. So throw on some headphones and have a fun & critical think about everything from the Olympics to April Fools Day to an insanely wasteful daily practice we should’ve questioned a lot sooner.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/6-things-shut-down-by-coronavirus-that-shouldnE28099t-return/

Basically everyone gets called “weird” at some point. For some, it’s a quick fun jab received between Prom King duties. For others, it’s part of an entire life stuck being an outsider. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by journalist Olga Khazan, author of ‘Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World’. They’ll take a deep dive into personal stories and scientific studies about life as a weirdo. Discover the cultural, social, mental, and physical ramifications of living outside society’s norms. Also stick around for the surprising upsides of that kind of life. Because here’s one way being alive is more interesting than people think it is: being “weird” can be a person’s greatest strength.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/the-surprising-scientific-truth-about-living-as-outsider/

Military history: it’s supposedly just battles between armies. But what about the countries who launched elaborate assaults on other nations’ minds? Or beseiged their own citizens’ sanity? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion) and Jeff May (Sideshow’s Side Show) for the strangest, silliest, oddest psychological warfare ever plotted by national governments. Discover tales of elected officials and professional militaries dreaming up pranks, toys, holograms, and more bizarre tools for crushing their enemies...even if the execution of those plots would boggle the mind.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/13-insane-psy-ops-real-governments-tried-to-pull-off/

History is a lot more than BIG SPEECHES and GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS and THINGS WE ARE ALL PROUD OF. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Billy Wayne Davis (Conan, Adult Swim) and Kandice Martellaro (Stan Against Evil, Femmebot PhD) for the minutiae that slips through the cracks. Listen for surprisingly wacky elements of World War 2, human spaceflight #1, the Battle of Agincourt, and more events nobody remembers as embarrassing and awkward (even though they should).Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-little-known-dumb-details-big-historical-events/

How did we remember anything before the Internet? If it wasn’t in a library book, a file cabinet, or a computer database the size of a living room, it wasn’t easy to hang onto a piece of information. So here’s one way being alive is more interesting than people think it is: pre-Internet television writers took their show universes into insane directions, whenever they felt like it, with the hope nobody would remember the insanity by next week. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Siobhan Thompson (Rick and Morty, Dimension 20) and Andrew Ti (Mixed-ish, Yo Is This Racist?) for a trip through the strangest canon ever grafted onto a TV show. They’ll turn up late-season canon decisions that broke entire television universes. Also be sure to listen for strange network promos and a stranger talk show appearance that make your favorite science fiction worlds too bizarre to comprehend.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-tv-shows-that-secretly-gave-themselves-insane-canon/

There’s something magical about a pilgrimage. It combines a journey, a quest, and a vacation into one experience. So keep trekking to your favorite things, you wonderful people you. Just make sure you’re avoiding the mistakes in this podcast's stories. Because on this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Dan Hopper (Ranker, CollegeHumor, The Washington Post) for a look at movie & TV locations that fans are pilgrimaging into oblivion. Discover the most neighborhood-snarling, pizza-chucking, monastery-crumbling behaviors in the whole world of fandom. Find out how one monkey's paw-style studio deal turned part of Spain blue forever. And find out how Viewers Like You can be more thoughtful toward Hollywood locations than the average 'Joker' Instagrammer.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/8-famous-movie-tv-locations-ruined-by-fans/

Wealth inequality is more than an injustice. Because here’s one way being alive is more interesting than people think it is: wealth inequality created a world of rich kids with infinite capital and finite skills. So on this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Kate Willett (The Late Show, ‘Reply Guys’) and Eli Yudin (‘What A Time To Be Alive’) for a look at the weirdest ways our world’s failsons bought themselves professional careers. Listen for pop stardom, sports glory, and more careers you can try on like a hat if your dad is a dictator/mafioso/Bond villain inspiration.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/7-weird-jobs-children-rich-maniacs-bought-themselves

We may find evidence of alien life someday. That would be amazing right? It'd be great and exciting and maybe terrifying. But here’s the thing about that: you won’t properly appreciate that evidence if your head is full of Area 51 junk and Roswell nonsense and a ludicrous belief that octopuses come from outer space. So on this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians & alien comedy experts David Christopher Bell (Gamefully Unemployed, "Fox Mulder Is A Maniac") and Moujan Zolfaghari (Mission To Zyxx, 'At Home With Amy Sedaris'). They’re digging into the most common lazy media tropes, frustrating hoaxes, and generally confusing myths about aliens. So throw on some headphones, increase your media literacy, and be ready to spot the REAL signs of extraterrestrials, if and when we ever get them.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/10-regular-things-we-should-all-stop-mistaking-aliens/

How nervous are you to meet someone? Do you get more anxious, more sweaty, more heart rate-y? Now here’s a thought experiment for you: how much would those feelings increase if you were meeting a famous person? And how weird would BOTH of you get if both of you were a famous person, thrown into each others' fame-auras? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is exploring real-life tales of that situation. He's aided by special guest Jesse Thorn (Bullseye, Jordan Jesse Go, Judge John Hodgman, THE LIST GOES ON). They’ll explore the surprisingly common phenomenon of two famous people meeting up, hanging out, and (often) having an extremely weird time together. So throw on your headphones for tales of everyone from Elvis to Amelia Earhart to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince having an odd hang with a fellow world-famous awkward person.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-bizarre-surprising-stories-famous-people-hanging-out

Filmmaking is complicated. There are a thousand steps between “I have an idea” and “I have a completed film for your theater to screen.” And sure, most people know all that. But here’s one way being alive is more interesting than people think it is: every one of those moviemaking steps can get extremely weird, without the audience having any idea...unless they listen to podcasts like ours.On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writers Gonzalo Cordova and Alan Denton. They’ll explore the biggest recent movies, and the extraordinarily strange work that went into making them. Find out which Oscar movie got patched like a video game, several days after it was in theaters. Discover which animal overran the set of your favorite action movie franchise. And keep listening for the set of international financial crimes that built Hollywood’s hottest production company.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-major-recent-movies-with-secretly-bizarre-productions

In the court of public opinion, Richard Nixon got off easy. Seriously! If you lived Richard Nixon’s life, and did Richard Nixon’s crimes, you would be THRILLED if your Famous Crime was a minor hotel burglary. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by the incredible Dana Gould for a trip through world-famous scandals that somehow never get a closer look. With each story, they’ll dig into the forgotten and astonishing details of those scandals that were apparently too mind-blowing for the public to remember. So throw on some headphones, and discover the ways Elizabeth Holmes, O.J. Simpson, the Enron fellas, and more infamous maniacs are much more bizarre than you realized.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-infamous-scandals-with-crazy-details-everybody-forgot/

Freedom sucks...and that is why we have to defend it. Because our democracy involves doing a lot of stuff that takes energy, takes time, and lacks that Michael Bay Quality that only a surprise missile launch can provide. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt and special guest Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) are exploring the ways being afraid of everything (an easy action) can stop us from being free. Discover the decades-long tradition of some Americans wanting to give up everything in exchange for not needing to think, the centuries-long tradition of people inciting fake panics, and the reasonable ways you can help change things for the better.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-fear-based-democracies-arenE28099t-free-with-jason-pargin/

How’s your local shopping mall doing? Have you checked on it lately? Swing by sometime, because its department store might've turned into a call center or a hospital or a go-kart track. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by the one and only Kai Ryssdal (Marketplace, Make Me Smart) for a look at surprising, strange, and shocking stories from all over the U.S. economy. Discover an international pig flu, a 26-word statement that built the modern Internet, and more amazing ways cash is ruling everything around you. By the way, if you’re an American listener, you spent the past few years funding an astonishingly huge bailout. Surprise! Listen for details!Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/5-parts-u.s.-economy-that-are-stranger-than-you-think

Movies, TV, gaming: three things that are theoretically a waste of time. Oh sure, they deliver value in the art sense, and comfort in the goofing-off sense. But what if they’re more valuable than that? What if consuming shows and playing video games (accidentally) turns people into real-life heroes? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/writers Caitlin Gill and Alex Watt for a look at the surprising number of times that exact thing happened. They’ll explore stories of regular people who saved a life thanks to skills gained randomly from cartoons, sitcoms, ‘World Of Warcraft’, and more silly entertainment.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-times-pop-culture-accidentally-taught-people-to-save-lives/

Regular stuff is saving the world. That’s good news, right? Wouldn’t it be NICE to find out a humble roll of tape and a simple ball of yarn have amazing uses you’d never expect? Answer: yes that is nice. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Jamie Loftus and Atsuko Okatsuka for a look at everyday objects with incredible secret powers. Find out how old bras, loose salt, random mayonnaise and more common items became useful tools for making the modern world better.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-everyday-objects-with-incredible-secret-powers/

If you’re celebrating New Year’s Eve on “December 31st”, you’re doing that because of one emperor, one much-younger queen, and a pope who revised those lovers’ work. That’s right: three dead people are why billions of us hoist champagne at a specific annual minute. Isn’t it strange how much of the world runs on that schedule? Isn’t it odd how we accept a life of obtuse month lengths and confusing leap days? And did you know the WEIRD CALENDARS RABBIT HOLE goes so much deeper than that?On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt rings in “the new year” with comedians/podcasters Billy Wayne Davis and Danielle Radford. It's a special double-topic show, beginning with the strange history and complex present day of the “normal” calendar. Then they’ll explore the most obscure, bizarre, and theoretical calendars from world history, many of them invented to fix that pope-y dating system you might've planned a party around.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/6-brain-stretching-calendar-systems-you-never-knew-existed/

This is an evergreen episode of The Cracked Podcast -- and not just because it involves Christmas trees. “Evergreen”, in case you don’t know, is a media term for stuff that’s worth listening to any time after its publication. And on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt and his special guest Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) are taking a Christmas-sparked look at the overall, global, all-encompassing meaningfulness of holidays. Why does your culture, no matter who you are, spend time and resources and energy on a set of traditions? What are we missing if we become Too Modern to value a break from everyday life? And how can anyone generate a holiday feeling in their own heart, any time of the year?Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-holidays-are-secretly-crucial-to-our-survival

Writing is magic. It is a beautiful, impressive, artsy-fartsy pursuit...AND a way screenwriters and novelists take weird shots at their enemies. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writers Ben Joseph and Chase Mitchell for a look at world-famous villains and monsters created to insult real people. From Godzilla to Goldfinger to the funniest galactic adventure ever written, get ready to learn how Pent-Up Writer Anger generated some of the all-time best evil characters.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/14-villains-monsters-created-to-insult-real-people/

You know American democracy can’t always have a ‘West Wing’ tone. Mud will be slung! Sexploits will be news! Results will occasionally be fishy! However, there is a cottage industry of people claiming the current negatives of American politics are new. They claim we are a few social changes (and a few purchases of MY NEW BOOK) away from “returning” to a more positive past. A past where noble patriots ran “traditional” campaigns and “did things the right way” and “were not divisive.” But what if everything we just put in quotes is wishful fiction? What if most American elections have been...disapppointing? And what if gaining that historical perspective will make your 2020 a lot more tolerable?On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians & satirists Zack Bornstein (The New Yorker, ‘Alternatino’) and Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion podcast network) for forgotten stories of dumb and embarrassing American elections. They’ll share tales of corruption, lies, fraud, sex stuff, and other crimes dominating 200+ years of Presidential politics. It turns out the gross U.S. elections you do know about (2000, 2016, and maaaaaybe 1876) are the historical norm -- and boy will that wisdom do wonders for your 2020 mental health.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-dumb-embarrassing-american-elections-nobody-talks-about/

They call it “hard work” for a reason. Nobody wants to spend their energy and focus on non-fun stuff. Everybody wants an easier way to make a buck and fund their lifestyle. What if you could get a first-hand account of what it’s actually like to try those get-rich-quick schemes you daydream about? What if today's Cracked Podcast explored weird, silly, and strange get-rich-quick schemes you’ve never even thought of trying? And what if some of today’s stories involve Captain Kirk riding a horse in another dimension?On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Nick Turner and Nick Vatterott (the hosts of ‘Get Rich Nick’) for a look at bizarrely elaborate ways real people tried to make money. They’ll discover the luckiest people from the early Internet’s gold rush, dig into ways actors and directors scammed their own movies, and take a hard look at “easy” ways to make a buck by skirting the law. Also stick around for the ultimate fate of websites from that funny Facebook greeting card repository to that gross shock site you thought you’d never look at again.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-bizarrely-elaborate-ways-real-people-tried-to-make-money

Alex Schmidt is joined by Dan Hopper (Cracked, The New Yorker) and David Roth (Deadspin, The Best American Sportswriting) for a deep dive into the deeply ridiculous current scandals in each major American sport. They’ll look at the ways the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL revealed major truths about our society by majorly shooting themselves in the foot. Also listen for a uniquely insane announcer who somehow isn’t American, a baseball team so vile it makes the Yankees kind of likable, and the perfect approach to watching sports without being taken advantage of by them.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/4-sports-leagues-whose-new-scandals-explain-modern-america/

Alex Schmidt sits down with comedians/podcasters Caitlin Durante and Andy Wood for a rollicking trip through shocking new discoveries about the human body. Throw on your headphones for an amazing journey through the muscles you might be missing, the light your body is emitting, and the festival of surprises everywhere from your bellybutton to your skull.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-bizarre-new-discoveries-about-human-body/