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Half as Interesting

Season 2024 · Episode 41

The Board That Decides Every Place Name in the U.S.

0.08mSeptember 18, 2024

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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 8

The 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