Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: The Color Yellow

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and special guests David Bell and Tom Reimann explore why the color yellow is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR DAVID BELL AND TOM REIMANN:

• Gamefully Unemployed on Patreon
• Weird History (YouTube / Ranker)
• Tom Reimann’s page at 1-900-HOT-DOG
• Some More News (YouTube)
• “Kitten” by David Christopher Bell featured on The Black List

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:

• Yellow: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau
• The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair
• Prof. William Reusch: “Visible and Ultraviolet Spectroscopy” (Michigan State University)
• Ask A Biologist: Rods and Cones of the Human Eye (Arizona State University)
• NASA Science: “Sun: Facts” — FYI the sun is a “yellow dwarf”, and Earth’s atmosphere is the main reason we think its white light looks yellow.
• The Sun Used to Be Yellow, According to This Cosmic Conspiracy Theory (Rolling Stone)
• Hummingbirds Can See Colors We Humans Can’t (Popular Mechanics)
• Here’s the Real Reason Why Tennis Balls Are Bright Yellow — And Nope, They Weren’t Always That Color! (Reader’s Digest)
• The reason tennis balls are yellow – or maybe green (CNN Style)
• Are tennis balls green or yellow? They’re both, according to science (SBNation.com)
• Comic Art: Early Years 1890s-1920s: The Yellow Kid Makes His Move (Library Of Congress)
• The Spanish American War and the Yellow Press (Library Of Congress)
• James Bond Fandom Wikia entry for Kevin McClory
• The Yellow Kid Returns: On the 125th anniversary of The Yellow Kid‘s first newspaper appearance, he’s back! (DailyCartoonist.com)
• Pop Artist Chris Yambar Dead at 59 (BusinessJournalDaily.com)
• CMYK All The Way (Tedium.co)
• The Smiley Face’s History: Exploring a Joyful Symbol (ArtAndObject.com)
• Simpsons Fandom Wikia entry for The Tracey Ullman Show
• Threads.com upload: “Original first sketches from Matt Groening of what would eventually become “The Simpsons” (1987).”
• Why Are So Many Cartoon Characters Yellow? (Mental Floss)
• Meet Minion Yellow by Pantone: the world’s first character-branded colour (The Guardian)
• How a few yellow dots burned the Intercept’s NSA leaker (Ars Technica)
• The sketchy printer tracking feature that likely helped reveal the alleged NSA leaker (Mashable)
• NSA leaker Reality Winner is rebuilding her life — and looking back at her past (NPR)
• Here’s What Those Colored Dots on Food Packaging Really Mean (Reader’s Digest)
• Nobel Prize in Physics 1926 (NobelPrize.org)
• Found: Surprisingly Modern Paint on an Ancient Egyptian Gate (Atlas Obscura)
• New Look, Same Great Look: The history of humans being confounded by color photography. (Lapham’s Quarterly)
• Van Gogh’s sunflowers are wilting as yellow paint fades to brown (The Guardian)
• Rehmannia glutinosa (Missouri Botanical Garden)
• 15 Historical Figures’ Names You’re Probably Mispronouncing (Mental Floss)
• The History of How School Buses Became Yellow (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: The Starry Night

PAST SIF EPISODES ABOUT COLORS: we’ve covered red, indigo, purple, green, orange, magenta, beige, blue, and gray. Maximum Fun members pick most of our episode topics. Become a member to suggest and vote on other colors you’d like to hear!