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Half as Interesting

Season 2024 · Episode 40

The Massively Bureaucratic System for Confirming a “Miracle”

0.09mSeptember 7, 2024

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Episodes

Episode 1South Korea Built a Mediocre New Capital in the Middle of Nowhere
Episode 2Why There’s a Giant Barcode In The Middle of the Mojave Desert
Episode 3The Special Design That Makes Library Books Indestructible
Episode 4How the US Transports Its Nuclear Weapons
Episode 5How Tokyo Made Itself Earthquake-Proof
Episode 6Why a Big Box Store Started Solving Violent Crimes
Episode 7The Very Real Australian Colleges with No Students
Episode 8The Logistics of White House State Dinners
Episode 9The Tiny Alaskan Town with the US’ Highest Taxicab Density
Episode 10How This Michigan Town Accidentally Buried Itself in Sand
Episode 11Why the FBI and the CIA Keep Lying to Each Other
Episode 12Why It’s So Difficult to Build Subways in Rome
Episode 13Why We’re Building a 790-Mile Wire From Kansas to Indiana
Episode 14Why the North Korean Government Has a Tiny Office in NYC
Episode 15Why So Many Trains Get Robbed in this One Spot
Episode 16The Logistics of Prescribed Fires
Episode 17Why Don’t Planes Carry Parachutes?
Episode 18How the US Tests Nukes (Without Blowing Them Up)
Episode 19The Man Who Stole an Entire Hotel
Episode 20The Obscure System That Syncs All The World’s Clocks
Episode 21How Storing Movies on Vinyl Lost RCA $650 Million
Episode 22Why All Pro Basketball Players Shoot Free Throws Wrong
Episode 23The One Company That Owns 2,390 Colors
Episode 24The 517,431 Emails That Trained Siri
Episode 25Why There’s a Pacific Ocean Port in Idaho
Episode 26Why the Ocean Looks So Fake on Google Maps
Episode 27Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms On Panama Every Week
Episode 28Why Nobody Knows What 彁 Means
Episode 29The Weird, Terrible Smartphones They Only Have in North Korea
Episode 30Mumbai’s Crazy-Efficient, 99.9999% Accurate Food Delivery System
Episode 31How the UN Translates Everything in Real-Time
Episode 32How this Oklahoma Town Became Completely Uninhabitable
Episode 33How America’s Largest, Most Secure Embassy Works
Episode 34How the US Gov’s Riskiest Labs Contain Deadly Viruses
Episode 35The One Long Wire Ruining America’s Most Important Train
Episode 36The Super-Complex Security of the Paris Olympics
Episode 37The Logistics of Mount Everest’s Base Camp
Episode 38The $190 Million Tunnel Built for Just 1200 People
Episode 39The Worst Mistakes We Made This Year
Episode 40The Massively Bureaucratic System for Confirming a “Miracle”
Episode 41The Board That Decides Every Place Name in the U.S.
Episode 42Why 1% of the Stock Market is Tied to 11 Random Americans
Episode 43How Ski Resorts Store Snow Over the Summer
Episode 44Why Only One US City Doesn’t Add Fluoride to Its Water
Episode 45How They Dug the Deepest Hole on Earth
Episode 46How This Card Game Accidentally Became a Stock Market
Episode 47How This Single 'M' Almost Ruined a US Presidency
Episode 48How The USA’s Only Car-Free Village Works
Episode 49Why Hawaii's H-3 is the Most Expensive Interstate Ever
Episode 50The Crazy-Complex Process of Organizing a Container Ship
Episode 51How This Waffle Restaurant Mastered Hurricanes
Episode 52How Istanbul Moved Its Airport in Just 45 Hours
Episode 53The US’ Surprisingly Busy Nuclear Emergency Team
Episode 54How a Whole Country Got Cut Off From The Internet for 38 Days
Episode 55How This Tunnel Accidentally Created an Immigration Loophole
Episode 56The $18.8 Bil, Borderline Useless Bridge Between Hong Kong and Macau