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Half as Interesting

Season 2023 · Episode 59

Why Venice’s New €8 Billion Flood Barrier Only Kinda Works

0.07mSeptember 30, 2023

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Episodes

Episode 1Why Building Ski Lifts Is Incredibly Hard
Episode 2The Massively Complicated Task of Buying Insurance for a Satellite
Episode 3Why Canada’s Teachers Run an Investment Firm in Singapore
Episode 4The Navy’s Obscure, Super-Efficient Swim Stroke
Episode 5The Weirdly Complex Science of Snow Removal
Episode 6Why the IRS Taxes Illegal Income
Episode 7The Corporate Conspiracy Behind California’s Smallest Town
Episode 8How Amish People Get Around Not Using Electricity
Episode 9Why Soda Cans are Shaped Differently in Hawaii
Episode 10Why the US Gov Reshapes the Mississippi River
Episode 11The Genius $250 Toll Road from Minnesota to Minnesota
Episode 12How Science Made You Finally Like Brussels Sprouts
Episode 13Why Every Baseball Stadium Has Different Rules
Episode 14Why It’s Impossible to Build a Crochet Machine
Episode 15Why American Lawns All Look The Same
Episode 16The NY Subway's Weirdly Successful Lost and Found System
Episode 17North Korea’s Bizarre New Propaganda Program
Episode 18How Witness Protection Manages to Keep a 100% Success Rate
Episode 19How Amazon Broke the US Patent Office
Episode 20The Continent-Sized Algae Blob That’s Coming for Florida
Episode 21How To Spot a Really Good Art Forgery
Episode 22The Court That Settles Wikipedia Editor Drama
Episode 23The Material So Classified We Forgot How to Make It
Episode 24This Diabetes Drug Causes Weight Loss (and Chaos)
Episode 25Why You Can Legally Steal From a Sinking Ship
Episode 26The Giant Propaganda Show That’s In Almost Every City
Episode 27How the White House Reads Every Letter it Gets
Episode 28How Much Happiness Can Money Buy?
Episode 29The Super Obvious Ways to Get Around Campaign Finance Laws
Episode 30Why We're Reaching the Theoretical Limit of Computer Power
Episode 31Why It Took 13 Years to Engineer The Taco Bell Crunchwrap
Episode 32The Website Where You Can Order The Bubonic Plague
Episode 33Dyson’s Disinformation War with Big Paper Towel
Episode 34How Planes Forecast Turbulence
Episode 35Why Tape Storage is Making a Sneaky Comeback
Episode 36How the Fake Meat Industry Saved Dippin’ Dots
Episode 37How the World’s 4 Cryogenics Companies Actually Work
Episode 38The Intense Logistics of Truffles
Episode 39Why the US and China Are Squabbling Over This One Wire
Episode 40How Argentina Accidentally Gave Germans 40% Off Everything
Episode 41We've Made 400 Videos for the Internet. Here are the Worst Ones.
Episode 42Why The US Navy Really Needs This One Forest in Indiana
Episode 43Why This Airline Only Has One Commercial Flight Per Month
Episode 44Trains’ Weirdly Massive Problem with Leaves
Episode 45How Porsche Owns Volkswagen and Volkswagen Owns Porsche
Episode 46Why the US Government Has No Idea How Many Buildings It Owns
Episode 47The Weirdly Lucrative Business of Searching for Old Jeans
Episode 48Chicago’s $10 Billion Street Parking Mistake
Episode 49Why Only 24 Pilots Are Allowed to Land at This Airport
Episode 50The Remote Town Where 13.2% of People are Millionaires
Episode 51How The Pentagon Became The World’s Most Secure Building
Episode 52The Surprisingly Complex Logistics of Product Returns
Episode 53Every Mistake We’ve Ever Made VI: Return of the Jed-lie
Episode 54The 3100-Mile Longest Official Running Race in the World
Episode 55Why It Takes 7+ Years to Shut Down a Nuclear Plant
Episode 56The Only River That Flows Into Both the Atlantic and the Pacific
Episode 57How to Fail a Kitchen Inspection
Episode 58How The President’s Official Vacation Home Works
Episode 59Why Venice’s New €8 Billion Flood Barrier Only Kinda Works
Episode 60The Design Flaw That Made Hyundais Absurdly Easy to Steal
Episode 61Australia’s Huge Mistake of Selling All Their Water
Episode 62How Submarines Survive at 36,201 Feet Below
Episode 63Why China Built an Antenna Bigger Than NYC
Episode 64Why Qatar Airways Flies An Almost-Empty Flight to Adelaide
Episode 65How 70% of Britain’s Cash Went Missing
Episode 66How This Utah Hotel Legally Became a Town
Episode 67Why The US is in 42 Different National Emergencies
Episode 68The 128 Airlines So Dangerous They’re Banned in the EU
Episode 69Why the US Gov Pays $10 Million a Year for This Yacht
Episode 70The Arctic Vault That Protects Data from the Apocalypse
Episode 71NASA’s Year-Long, Totally Fake Mission to Mars
Episode 72The Vault That Holds 5% of the World’s Gold
Episode 73The Controversial Machine That’s Ruining Bowling
Episode 74What Exactly Happens When You Check a Bag
Episode 75The Super-Secure Delivery Service That Only Diplomats Can Use
Episode 76Why China Took the US’ Pandas