Interesting Things with JC #1721: "The Naming of Cleveland" – A surveying party names a new settlement after General Moses Cleaveland even though he wanted a different name, then he leaves and never returns. Over time, the city drops a letter from his name

Interesting Things with JC #1720: "The Name That Turned a City into a Canvas" – A New York City teenager writes the same name across all five boroughs until a newspaper reveals who he is, and within days thousands of others begin creating identities of their own

Interesting Things with JC #1719: "Drop D Tuning" – A guitarist lowers one string by two semitones, and power chords that once required multiple finger shapes become a straight line across the fretboard, changing how riffs are written and helping define the sound of modern heavy rock.

Interesting Things with JC #1718: "The Moment New York Set the Style" - Discover how Eleanor Lambert’s 1943 "Press Week" broke the fashion world’s reliance on Paris and established the American look as a global powerhouse. We examine the wartime ingenuity and iconic designers that transformed NY

Interesting Things with JC #1718: "Why Is There a Gap in the Toilet Seat?" – Airports, restaurants, offices, and highway rest stops all use toilet seats with the same piece missing from the front. It looks unfinished, appears almost everywhere.

Interesting Things with JC #1716: "The Legendary Jim Kilts" – Gillette had missed earnings expectations for 14 straight quarters, yet most of its executives were still earning top performance ratings. Jim Kilts saw the contradiction immediately

Interesting Things with JC #1715: "Hunny, Bunny, and the Twins Who Married the Twins" – Identical twins Hunny and Bunny meet identical twins Elliot and Danny while working at a Catskills hotel, and neither pair can tell the other apart. By the end of the summer, two couples have formed

Interesting Things with JC #1714: "When Gut Bacteria Escape" – Bacteroides fragilis lives normally inside the colon until the intestinal wall breaks and gut bacteria spill into the sterile abdomen. The same organism now sits in a different part of the body, where a mixed infection can begin sealing

Interesting Things with JC #1713: "How Do You Catch Legionnaires' Disease?" – Fifty-four people are diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in two Manhattan neighborhoods as investigators test cooling towers across the area. Legionella genetic material appears in systems at 31 buildings

Interesting Things with JC #1712: "The Hidden Heat Sensor in a Dog's Nose" – Dogs repeatedly choose one of two identical targets after researchers control visual and scent cues.

Interesting Things with JC #1711: "Why McDonald's Coke Tastes Different" – McDonald's serves Coca-Cola using refrigerated stainless steel syrup tanks, insulated delivery lines, filtered water, and a fountain calibrated for melting ice while a wider straw changes how the drink reaches you, creating a

Interesting Things with JC #1710: "The First New Blue in 200 Years" – Chemists heating a mixture of metal oxides for a magnetism experiment watched it cool into a vivid blue pigment no one expected, and the accidental discovery became the first new inorganic blue added to artists' palettes in roughl

Interesting Things with JC #1709: "A Yard of Flightline" – A new Air Force airman is sent to pick up a routine item, but every office on the base insists someone else has it. This episode is inspired by Chris.

Interesting Things with JC #1708: "The System That Made Blood Banking Scalable" – Blood donations begin moving through a standardized collection and distribution system instead of depending on finding the right donor at the right time.

Interesting Things with JC #1707: "The Greeting Card Cure" – Millions of greeting cards keep arriving for a boy who recovered decades ago after a chain letter spread worldwide, and the outdated request continues circulating online long after the record, the illness, and the child himself are gone.

Interesting Things with JC #1706: "John Smeaton - The Hero of Glasgow"– A baggage handler runs toward a burning Jeep after it crashes into Glasgow Airport and joins travelers, airport workers, and police in stopping a terrorist attack before the explosives can cause the devastation that was intended

Interesting Things with JC #1705: "Tara Westover, the Girl Who Taught Herself to Study" – Tara Westover opened an algebra book to prepare for the ACT even though she had never attended school, and each lesson she taught herself uncovered just how much of the world had been missing from her education

Interesting Things with JC #1704: "Lincoln Wasn't the Only Target" – John Wilkes Booth killed President Abraham Lincoln while three other assassins moved against Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant

Interesting Things with JC #1703: "250 Years of the United States of America" – On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence and ordered it printed across the colonies. That decision launched a nation that, over the next 250 years, fought for its independence

Interesting Things with JC #1702: "July 3rd, 1776 - The Message Had to Be Perfect" – Congress was rewriting Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence after the colonies had already voted for independence, removing entire passages and reshaping its language before a single copy could be printed