Lauren Vogelbaum

Hey, Brain Stuff.

Lauren Vogelbaum here.

If you love chocolate, you're far from alone.

The cocoa and chocolate industry boasts a stunning worldwide value of more than $178 billion a year, driven by farmers'

Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeart Podcasts.

Hey, BrainStuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

James Dean, one of the most recognizable bad boy actors of the 20th century, lived a fast life off screen as well as on.

After filming what would be his last movie, Giant, alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in the summer of 1955, he bought himself a new Porsche that September, lovingly named Little Bastard.

Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeart Podcasts.

Hey BrainStuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, here with a classic episode of the podcast for you.

In this one, we step into the hamlet of Lilydale, home to a community of spiritualists who hold that the spirits of the dead are only a medium away.

Hey, BrainStuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

In 1848, two young women known as the Fox Sisters heard mysterious rappings in their house in Rochester, New York, and claimed that they were messages from the spirit world.

Enough people at the time believed the sisters that an entire new field known as spiritualism was born.

Start listening to Scam Goddess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey BrainStuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

There's a modern legend or fringe theory called the Philadelphia Experiment.

The, I will stress, unsubstantiated story goes like this.

Hey, BrainStuff.

Lauren Vogelbaum here.

In 1793, on the day Marie Antoinette, the dethroned Queen of France, marched to the guillotine, onlookers claimed that her hair had turned completely white, as though overnight.

Back in 1535, the same thing was reported to have happened to English Lord Chancellor and Catholic martyr Sir Thomas More when he was executed by Henry VIII after a stay in the Tower of London, and also in 1587 to marry Queen of Scots during her imprisonment.

Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio.

Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic episode from our archives.

In this one, we get into why voting really does matter, including a few of the rare times that an election really has come down to a single vote here in the United States.

Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

You've probably heard the old truism that every vote counts.

But judging from the history of low voter participation in U.S. elections compared with that in other developed countries, it seems that many Americans haven't believed that casting a ballot for a particular candidate or for a particular issue really matters that much.

Hey, Brain Stuff.

Lauren Vogelbaum here.

There are very specific segments of our society engaged every year in a veritable arms race to grow the biggest pumpkin ever.

There are local and national competitions and international governing bodies.

Hey, Brain Stuff.

Lauren Vogelbaum here.

Living bodies are really weird in a marvelous way.

Uh, we are all electrochemically driven meat.

Hey, Brainstuff.

Lauren Vogelbaum here.

World War I absolutely devastated France.

Of the roughly eight and a half million French soldiers mobilized in 1914 to fight Germany and the other Central Powers, more than six million became casualties of the war, either killed, wounded, or declared missing during the following four years of grueling trench warfare.