Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: The Number 13

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and special guest Robert Brockway explore why the number 13 is secretly incredibly fascinating.

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

LINKS FOR ROBERT BROCKWAY:

• I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend For $200 by Robert Brockway — on sale now! Alex’s name is a character!!
• 1900HOTDOG
• ‘The Dogg Zzone’ podcast
• ‘Bigfeets’ podcast

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:

• The scientific reason you should know the constellations of the zodiac (Morehead Planetarium & Science Center UNC)
• A bit of history: Why 360 degrees? 60 minutes? 60 seconds? (Astronomy Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
• Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? Origins of the superstitious day (National Geographic)
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Leap Day
• Leap year saved our societies from chaos — for now, at least (National Geographic)
• Living Maya Time (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian)
• See the Celestial Medicine Man (Space.com)
• Olympian Gods: The Twelve Olympians (Theoi.com)
• Online Etymology Dictionary resources for the words eleven, twelve, thirteen
• The Gospel Of Matthew, Chapter 26, New International Version (BibleGateway.com)
• Washington’s Birthday in St. Petersburg. (The New York Times Archives)
• digital upload of translated text of The Poetic Edda: “Lokasenna / Loki’s Wrangling”
• Blame Loki for your bad luck (NorwegianAmerican.com)
• Edda Recap: Lokasenna – The Banter Of Loki (The Reykjavik Grapevine)
• Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor and Loki by Kevin Crossley-Holland
• Friggatriskaidekaphobes Need Not Apply (The New York Historical Society)
• Morituri te Salutamus (The Paris Review)
• The 1880s Supper Club That Loved Bad Luck (Atlas Obscura)
• The Truth Behind the 13th Floor: How Superstition Impacts Real Estate (StreetEasy Reads)
• A sampling of New York City residential buildings that don’t have a designated 13th floor (The Wall Street Journal)
• Basketball-Reference.com entry for Wilt Chamberlain
• Wilt Chamberlain: An American Original (Slam Magazine)
• The 13 Best Athletes to Wear No. 13 (Sports Illustrated)
• These are Alex Schmidt’s 1900HOTDOG columns about Alex Rodriguez being strange: “Learning Day: Alex Rodriguez’s Children’s Book” and “Learning Day: A-Rod’s Gum Disease Campaign”
• website of Pieter-Tjerk de Boer: “Counting Friday 13s”
• Busting the myth of Friday the 13th and the Knights Templar (National Geographic)