Episode notes
Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why Rubik’s Cubes are secretly incredibly fascinating.
Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.
LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:
- Katie Goldin on Bluesky
- @ProBirdRights on Bluesky
- ‘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:
- Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All by Ernö Rubik
- A Concise History of Hungary by Miklós Molnár
- Rubik’s Cube Turns 30 (Williams College)
- biography of Erno Rubik (Lemelson-MIT)
- Invention Stories: A Twist of Fate: The Invention of the Rubik’s Cube (Smithsonian Lemelson Center For The Study Of Invention And Innovation)
- A Brief History of the Rubik’s Cube (Smithsonian Magazine)
- PATENTS; Now, Rubik Snake: It Forms Different Shapes (The New York Times)
- Ernó Rubik: ‘The Cube gives me hope people can solve their problems and survive’ (The Guardian)
- Erno Rubik: ‘The Cube has his own voice’ (Financial Times)
- What Colors are on a Rubik’s Cube? (WowCube)
- RUBIK’S CUBE: A CRAZE ENDS (The New York Times Archives)
- Rubik’s Tangle (blog “Jaap’s Puzzle Page”)
- Solve Guide: 8 Steps To Solve A Rubik’s Cube (Rubik’s brand website)
- faculty page for Morwen Thistlethwaite (University of Tennessee Knoxville)
- Reddit upload of image of Xuanyi Geng, after setting 2.51 second record for solving 3×3 Single cube
- World Cube Association stats page for Xuanyi Geng
- World Cube Association stats page for Teodor Zajder
- Six-year-old girl solves Rubik’s Cube in just over 4 seconds, setting women’s world record (ABC Australia News)
- Specialist coaches and hours of practice a day: the making of China’s six-year-old Rubik’s Cube prodigy (The Guardian)
- Purdue University press release: “Purdue ECE students shatter Guinness World Record for fastest puzzle cube-solving robot”
- Student’s robot obliterates 4×4 Rubik’s cube world record (BBC News)
- These Artists Twist Thousands of Rubik’s Cubes a Day to Create Massive Murals (Atlas Obscura)
- The original Groovik’s cube (Liberty Science Center)
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: The Number 150
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Purple
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Teddy Bears
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Toothpicks
In this episode...
About the show
A weekly podcast about the history, science, lore and surprises that make everyday things secretly incredibly fascinating. Hosted by comedy writer, emoji creator, and ‘Jeopardy!‘ champion Alex Schmidt. Join Alex & his co-host Katie Goldin for a joyful deep dive into seeing the world a whole new way!
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@sifpod
@sifpod
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