Retrocast #44 – UI Podcast #262
In this episode: Kids suck subway tokens from turnstiles, two men claim to save a girl’s life, a woman marries a pet rock, a meatloaf made f...
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Useless Information Podcast
It really is all true! Stories about stuff that you never needed to know, but your life would be incomplete without. They serve no real purpose other than to entertain. If you're the curious...
Episodes
20 of 274 episodes
Braless Fridays - UI Podcast #261
In 1969, a casual coffee-break joke about going braless cost a woman her job, sparked nationwide headlines, inspired copycat events across t...
Retrocast #43 - UI Podcast #260
In this episode: Al Capone’s son tries to avoid his notorious father’s past, a boy survives a 2-1/2 mile plunge in a tunnel, and much more!...
The Battle of the Bangs - UI Podcast #259
In 1967, a 14-year-old Ohio boy was suspended from school for refusing to cut his hair. What began as a dispute over dress code quickly spir...
Retrocast #42 - UI Podcast #258
In this episode: A house is cut in half after two sisters argue over its repair, two babies are switched at birth, an airplane lands at the...
Leaping Leopards - UI Podcast #257
A wild leopard fresh from the jungles of India escaped the Oklahoma City Zoo in 1950, unleashing a frantic manhunt that turned the city into...
Retrocast 41 - Podcast #256
In this episode: Who or what is ETAOIN SHRDLU, Nat King Cole is attacked, a boy gets the day off from school for a good deed, a man breaks i...
Aren't We Devils? - UI Podcast #255
A running gag on the 1944 Truth or Consequences radio show was for host Ralph Edwards to ask, “Is there a Mr. Wickel in the house?” He never...
Retrocast #40 - UI Podcast #254
In this episode: A couple marries and divorces over and over again, a fugitive appears on The Dating Game tv show, a man is fined for failin...
Lost in the Clouds - UI Podcast #253
In 1958, a small plane vanished into the mountains—and what followed became an extraordinary true story of survival, sacrifice, and love in...
Retrocast #39 - Podcast #252
In this episode: A woman has 1,446 metal objects in her stomach, a teenager faces almost certain death unless a nail is removed from her lun...
The Hot Dog Santa Claus - UI Podcast #251
Throughout the 1920s, the children of Boston’s North End gathered in anticipation to see if their beloved Hot Dog Santa Claus, Axel Bjorklun...
Retrocast #38 - UI Podcast #250
In this episode: Can a wife legally swipe cash from her husband’s wallet? One Chicago man puts a bizarre social experiment in motion—mailing...
A Forbidden Love - Podcast #249
In 1937, a small Indiana town was rocked by a scandal that made national headlines: a 12-year-old girl and her 13-year-old classmate became...
Retrocast #37 - UI Podcast #248
A fire department stands back and watches a man's home burn to the ground, a pig flies for possibly the first time ever, fleas are transport...
Bad Apples #6 – Lost Boundaries – UI #247
My wife, Mary Jane, joins me to discuss the 1949 movie Lost Boundaries, the screen adaptation of the lives of Dr. Albert and Thyra Johnston,...
A White Lie - UI Podcast #246
A New Hampshire doctor and his wife kept a secret from their children, friends, and community for nearly two decades. That was until the fed...
Rewind: 1st Jewish Couple Married on TV
Cartoonist Leigh Rubin's parents were the first Jewish couple ever to be married on US television, but it almost never happened. Includes au...
Retrocast #36 - UI Podcast #245
Abbott & Costello agree to perform in a boy’s backyard for 70 cents, parents sue a milk dairy because their son grew too tall, a man sleeps...
Escape from Monkey Mountain - UI Podcast #244
Nearly 175 monkeys escaped from a zoo in Massapequa, New York in 1935. Led by an outlaw monkey named Al Capone, they mostly took refuge in t...