fun additional stories about paprika, hyenas, cursive, purple, the middle finger, and Microsoft Excel

Episode notes

This is a new episode, rounding up a grab bag of new stories! Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why additional tales about paprika, hyenas, cursive, purple, the middle finger, and Microsoft Excel are secretly incredibly fascinating.

This week’s bonus show is the second episode of our very special TV recap podcast “The Inspectors Inspectors”. Become a Maximum Fun member to hear it: https://maximumfun.org/join

LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:

• Katie Goldin on TikTok
• Katie Goldin on Twitter
• @ProBirdRights
• ‘Creature Feature’ podcast (iHeartRadio)
• When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide (Audubon)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
• Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
• Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• This Is How Pringles Are Really Made (Mashed.com)
• The Ancients Used Hyena’s Foot for Childbirth—And Identified Copper As a Contraceptive (Atlas Obscura)
• Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Pliny the Elder
• Curious and fluent in cursive? The National Archives is looking for you (WTOP News Washington DC)
• The Hidden Messages of Colonial Handwriting (Atlas Obscura)
• Image 16 of Martin Van Buren Papers: Series 1, Autobiography, 1854-1862; Holograph transcript; Autobiography; Vol. 1 (The Library Of Congress)
• Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’ (UNESCO)
• Gothic: Online Series Introduction (The University Of Texas at Austin Linguistics Research Center)
• What’s Silver, Purple, and Very Well-Traveled? (Atlas Obscura)
• Take Ai Weiwei’s Middle Finger Anywhere in the World (Hyperallergic.com)
• Ai Weiwei gives world his middle finger (PublicDelivery.org)
• Ai Weiwei & Avant Arte present: Middle Finger
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Rubber Ducks
• Honesty researcher committed research misconduct, according to newly unsealed Harvard report (Science)
• Harvard Business School Investigation Report Recommended Firing Francesca Gino (The Harvard Crimson)
• A Harvard dishonesty researcher was accused of fraud. Her defense is troubling. (Vox.com)
• Data Falsificada (Part 1): “Clusterfake” (the blog “Data Colada”)

• tweet by @KeithNHumphreys: “If she subpoenas Colada, she’ll be caught and arraigned.”