Podcast Tuesday: ‘Stuff You Should Know’

“Stuff You Should Know” Hosted by Josh Clark and Charles W. “Chuck” Bryant; Episodes release every Tuesday and Thursday; Run time: approximately an hour; Number of episodes: over 800.

It’s podcast Tuesday! That means new episodes of the “Big Shiny Podcast,” “Hello Sweetie!,” “Through Being Cool,” “Coffee Alt Delete,” and “Two Shots Podcast.” If you’re looking for new audio entertainment free and delivered through the power of the internet, please consider our recommendation to listen to ours and those of our friends.

If you’re consumption habits are so insatiable that you’ve devoured our catalogue and are jonesing for your next fix, we can help you there too. See, we’re fans of podcasts as well and there are so many to choose from. Each week we’ll review a new podcast to help weed through the nebula and bring you only the best.

This week’s selection is “Stuff You Should Know” from the HowStuffWorks network. SYSK takes one topic and breaks it down into terms that are palatable for the uninitiated. With over 800 episodes you can find a crash course in almost anything you can imagine. As opposed to other podcasts that typically keep their focus in one particular wheelhouse, SYSK makes their wheelhouse “stuff” which means they are free to discuss anything that interests them and boy do they exercise that freedom.

The audio quality is top notch, having the backing of HowStuffWorks pretty much guarantees that. The hosts are excellent and carry with them years of experience in not only determining what elements of a topic are of most interest, but in clear and entertaining delivery. They also take special caution to remain as unbiased as possible. Even when discussing topics like drug use you’ll never hear a judgement or negative sanction, perhaps a cautious warning, but their role is primarily to deliver you the facts, banking on the ability of their audience to do their best with clear information.

Now is as good a time as any for you to jump into their vast catalogue. The most recent episode on gene editing is both entertaining and educational. Josh and Chuck give a concise history of CRISPR which has been in the news lately for the seemingly endless possibilities the technology brings.

There’s no question that gene editing is a complex and somewhat confusing topic, we should probably all be thankful for that lest we be faced with a veritable army of underground mad scientists whipping up their latest dark imaginings in a dark and dusky sewer based lab. Were it not for the unintuitive biological machinations any huckster could bring into fruition the darkest of our comic book imaginings. On second thought…

Despite the rather heady material, you’ll unplug your earbuds after roughly an hour feeling like you have a decent grasp of the workings and an understanding not only of how gene editing works but some of the moral, ethical, and economic repercussions of an emerging technology that all of us will have to face probably sooner rather than later. At least you’ll grasp it well enough to be the cool guy (or gal) around the water cooler.

If you’re new to podcasts or just looking for something else to add you’re your weekly regimen, there are few more entertaining and educational. “Stuff You Should Know” sets the bar for audio entertainment and with twice weekly episodes you never have to wait too long for your fix.

Let us know what you’re listening to with the hashtag #PodcastTuesday and don’t forget new episodes of the “Big Shiny Podcast,” “Through Being Cool,” “Coffee Alt Delete,” and “Two Shots Podcast” release today, “Hello Sweetie!” Is coming in with your audio desert every Wednesday.

See you next week.