Thanks! I Hate It!
New style, new host, same life ruining knowledge. Have you ever learned something and immediately regretted it? Maybe it was too gross, too scary, or straight up broke how you see the world. For whatever reason, it solidified that ignorance is bliss and knowledge is a curse. Well, Ben and Harper want to share those moments of cursed knowledge with you. Each episode of Cursed Knowledge will explore we explore a fact-is-stranger-than-fiction story and break it down to reveal both the lies and the truth.
All The Cursed Knowledge
Cursed Knowledge #25: Truffle Hunting
Truffles are well known to be one of the rarest, and most expensive, delicacies available. What’s not known is the cutthroat world of truffle hunting. Where it’s not uncommon to see fraud, theft, sabotage, and even murder.
Cursed Knowledge #24: Hollywood Accounting
We know that Hollywood is a multibillion dollar industry that shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. So then why do so many studios report that their movies failed? Especially when most of these movies are incredibly popular and by all accounts should be financially successful. Well turns out Hollywood has some tricks up their sleeves and, as The Producers taught us, under the right circumstances you can make more money with a flop than a hit.
Cursed Knowledge #23: Mega Disasters
Earthquakes, storms, volcanos, oh my. It seems the earth is always trying to kill us one way or another. These are dangerous powerful spectacles that can literally reshape the world. It’s understandable that we’re so fascinated by them. But why aren’t we afraid of them?
Cursed Knowledge #22: The Narrative of Reality TV
Reality TV is a constant and ever growing part of pop culture. Everyone has a guilty pleasure show that they watch every week. It’s created stars and scandals that have gained international attention. It’s dominated the small screen for almost 30 years and the line between tv and reality has never been thinner.
Cursed Knowledge #21: Invasive Species
Invasive species are a known “bad thing”. An organism that’s introduced to an environment and ruins it. So why don’t we do anything about them? And is there even anything we can do?
Cursed Knowledge #20: Airbnb
Airbnb has reshaped how we travel and disrupted the hotel industry. But most of the stories from both guests and hosts reveal nothing but disasters. So what’s really going on? What’s the real story of Airbnb?
Cursed Knowledge #19: The Snappiest Place on Earth
We live in a very safe world. And we’ve worked hard to make it safe. But sometimes we take that safety for granted. And sometimes we think that safety applies even when it really really doesn’t.
Cursed Knowledge #18: The Bone Wars
The Bone Wars. A decade long battle of ego between two dueling paleontologists. It’s a tale of obsession, sabotage, and academic backstabbing. This clash of titans brought new attention to the theory of evolution and helped make dinosaurs the cultural juggernauts we know them as now.
Cursed Knowledge #17: Frances Ethel Gumm and the Wizard of Oz
Harper and Ben finally get a chance to talk about the Wizard of Oz and the not so wonderful behind the scenes production. Of course this was par for the course in the Golden Age of Hollywood as the studio star making system controlled everything. And we do mean everything.
Cursed Knowledge #16: Women in Refrigerators
A revamped Cursed Knowledge is back! In this brand new episode, Ben joins Harper in the studio to talk about the all too common trope of killing off female characters to motivate male characters. Trust me, you’ve seen it. It’s everywhere and can tell us a lot about how hard it is to capture and maintain an audiences attention.