When Language Goes Wrong
What happens when ordinary words get stretched until they stop helping us understand anything? In this episode of An Ounce, a blueberry muff...
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An Ounce
An Ounce provides amusing stories, ideas, wisdom, and a positive attitude with informative commentary, and interviews with experts. An Ounce is a short format podcast (less than 15 minutes p...
Episodes
20 of 445 episodesSame Words, Different WorLds
Communication, misunderstanding, context, and meaning are at the center of this An Ounce episode. We say “you know what I mean” all the time...
The Sultana Disaster | When Danger Looked Like Progress
They survived war and prison camps. Then the boat taking them home became the next disaster. The Sultana explosion reveals how danger can lo...
The Ship That Sank at the Dock: The Eastland Disaster
The Eastland Disaster remains one of the deadliest maritime disasters in American history — yet most people have never heard of it. In 1915,...
The Dangerous Side of Curiosity
Human curiosity drives discovery, invention, and progress. But the same instinct that helps us learn can also put us in danger. Why do peopl...
The Deadliest Disaster in Aviation History | Tenerife
The deadliest disaster in aviation history was not caused by a mechanical failure… or even by the fog alone. In 1977, two Boeing 747s collid...
Dead in Records, Alive in Reality
He walked into court alive. The system said he was dead—and wouldn’t change its mind. Donald E. Miller Jr.’s real case reveals how systems c...
Nothing Failed — So Why Did They Shut It Down?
Millennium Bridge London wobble explained. Nothing broke. Nothing failed. And within hours… they shut it down. A real story about how normal...
The Attack That Wasn’t | When the System Was Wrong
ICBM's incoming! Nuclear attack warning, military systems, was it a false alarm ... a near miss, or just Cold War tension—what happens when...
What Happens When the System Says You Don’t Exist
A man lived in an airport for 18 years—not because he was trapped, but because the system lost him. Somehow, he did not exist; he fell off t...
He Sold the Eiffel Tower… And Got Away With It.
He sold the Eiffel Tower—and got away with it. In 1925, a master con man convinced buyers it was being scrapped. This true story reveals how...
The Olympic Marathon That Was Official… But Wasn’t True
The 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis may be the strangest race in history—featuring cheating, poison, chaos, and a winner who could barely...
You Could Be Executed for a Dream — The Truth About Salem’s Spectral Evidence
Spectral evidence, Salem witch trials, dream accusations, historical justice failure—this rather shocking but true story reveals how people...
They Saw Titanic’s Distress Signals… and Did Nothing
Titanic distress signals were seen from a nearby ship—but no rescue came. Why didn’t they act? This true story reveals how uncertainty, not...
The Same Water | But Not the Same Story
Water, flash floods, desert storms, and human perspective—this story explores how the same event can bring life, loss, and everything in bet...
Yungay Avalanche 1970 | The Mountain That Buried a City
The 1970 Yungay avalanche began high on Mount Huascarán in Peru and reached the city below in just minutes. Triggered by a massive earthquak...
The Most Obvious Problem Is Often the Wrong One
Why do people keep solving the wrong problem? In this episode of An Ounce, a real emergency response story at an international airport revea...
Your Primal Instinct Is Being Exploited
Clickbait psychology, dopamine loops, phantom phone vibrations, and the attention economy all trace back to one ancient survival instinct: t...
Why 4 – 1 Sometimes Equals 6
Why 4 – 1 sometimes equals 6 sounds impossible—but research in economics, behavioral science, and social capital suggests generosity, trust,...
It Made Perfect Sense | Dangerously Common Things From Yesterday
Lawn darts. Radium face cream. Cocaine in soda. Bloodletting. Leaded gasoline. History is full of confident ideas that seemed safe — until c...