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Society & Culture

Omnibus

en-us

Twice a week, Ken Jennings and John Roderick add a new entry to the OMNIBUS, an encyclopedic reference work of strange-but-true stories that they are compiling as a time capsule for future g...

Episodes

20 of 719 episodes

Project Habakkuk (Entry 993.HA0105)

In which Futureling Faris Alikhan reveals an Allied plan to stop U-boats with a mix of ice and wood pulp, and John asks why everyone at SFO...

74:31Sep 1, 2026

West Edmonton Mall (Entry 1422.JO0502)

In which Futureling Adam Wonderly discusses how a rug empire ended up creating a Canadian landmark, and John learns that Anchorage could hav...

72:50Aug 25, 2026

The Carnegie Libraries (Entry 188.LU2101)

In which Futureling Jon Hannah discusses the origins of public libraries, labor exploitation and the uneasy bargain between wealth and the c...

87:12Aug 18, 2026

The Maury Island Incident (767.EZ0104)

In which Futureling Loren Skaggs and John discuss Tacoma, Cold War paranoia, the birth of flying saucer mythology, and the Katuga boat trote...

68:31Aug 11, 2026

Jugglers, The Internet (Entry 667.EX0722)

In which Futureling Luke Burrage and John discuss the early history of the internet, Claude Shannon, information theory, and one of the leas...

70:09Aug 4, 2026

The Bosnian War Camaro (Entry 144.MA0718)

In which Brendan McAleer explains how a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro became a lightly armored, smoke-blowing, night-vision-equipped humanitarian sa...

85:07Jul 29, 2026

Free to Be You & Me (Entry 499.1C1111)

In which we finally get a John show about growing up Gen X in front of the TV console watching Alan Alda, Rosey Grier, Cicely Tyson, Carol C...

65:26Jul 22, 2026

The Ukrainian Episode

In which John travels to Ukraine and interviews Alisa Demina (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at National University of Kyi...

110:34Jul 8, 2026

Carob (Entry 188.MA0106)

In which Futureling Christa Dahlstrom and John enjoy a virtual taste test and discuss the lifelong trauma of discovering that what you were...

53:09Jun 30, 2026

Nell Gwyn (Entry 557.GE2106)

In which cartoonist and writer Emily Flake discusses chance encounters with Dan Rather, being denied entry to Turks and Caicos, and the name...

54:28Jun 9, 2026

The Astor Place Riot (Entry 76.PR2817)

In which David Hyde (Blue City Blues, Seattle Nice) meets John in the bunker to discuss the 1849 Astor Place Opera House Riot and the welcom...

65:51Jun 2, 2026

Operation Columba (Entry 869.GE0810)

In which Futureling (and occasional magician’s assistant) Jennifer MacFarlane discusses pigeons and a family story from the southern Netherl...

99:36May 12, 2026

Doorbells (Entry 372.LU0207)

In which comedian Lisa Lane and John revisit late 20th-century nostalgia, and what technology has done to the delicate art of knocking on st...

77:03May 5, 2026