Episodes

The lads are back with another fun episode of interesting, random, silly facts (like the aforementioned one about Saudi Arabia). How many brains does a leech have? How many words for snow does Scotland have? And how close, via DNA, are we to our fellow humans? What about Bananas?

Do you know that the longest word in the English language without a true vowel is “Rhythms”? Well, this got Jon and Kurt thinking about other really fun facts that can be used to dazzle friends and confuse enemies. What animal is really good at math? What country is the most densely populated? Whose poops are cube shaped? And why? Join the boys as they dip into a favorite Smart Drivel topic and give us more fun, interesting, and even smart facts.

Hitting a classic Smart Drivel theme or genre or topic (ok ok ok, we get it). Jon and Kurt spend this episode giving the back stories to some of the most classic terms from sports or games. These are expressions we use in everyday life, yet they came from sport, and we get to learn their provenance. Does this seem to be out of left field? Would you rather we shoot point blank? Well, checkmate then, you got us. Have a listen, learn some new dinner conversation fodder, impress your friends!

Jon and Kurt decide to be topical (that is funny in so many ways with these two) for once and have an entire episode dedicated to bizarre, funny, and interesting stories around elections. With the U.S. election just a few weeks away, they look back at memorable moments in campaigning, curious balloting from around the world, funny nicknames for presidents, and, of course, get caught up in succotash.

The boys are back with a new episode dedicated to all those little tasks that take no time off the clock but take a lot of time off our souls. We all have them…tiny things to do that trigger big resistance. Transferring the plates into the dishwasher? Putting on a new roll of toilet paper? You get the idea. Typing liner notes? Oh my….

The fanny pack. Spray on hair. Corsets. Beanie Babies. Eating placentas. Polyester leisure suits. Yes, in this episode, Jon and Kurt explore fads and trends of the past that have, thankfully, passed us by.

You are probably asking yourself right now, “solo synchronized swimming…Isn’t that an oxymoron?” And while you would be correct, it didn’t stop it from being a honest-to-god true Olympic sport in not one, but three, Olympic Games: 1984, 1988, 1992. We guess that by 1992 a dictionary or thesaurus ended up at the IOC headquarters and they quietly got rid of it. All of which leads Jon and Kurt to have fur this episode sharing absolute true stranger than fiction legitimate crazy (getting the idea) O...

Part of the explanation of what makes humans on top of the food chain is our ability to govern ourselves and make communal laws. However, like all things humans touch, invariably things get out of control. In this episode, Jon and Kurt talk about some of the most ludicrous, head-scratching, obscure laws that are still on the books in cities across the globe. Whatever you do, do not have an ice cream cone in you back pocket on a Sunday in Georgia.

What? That is toads, not rhinos, that give you warts. Well, actually, that’s not true either. For centuries, we have blindly (not like a bat) given myths to animals that we hold to be true. But here is the kicker, they are patently false. Jon and Kurt go on a debunking mission and spread the truth gospel about many cherished animal legends (spoiler alert…ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand and goldfish can remember things for well more than 3 seconds). There goes our little water cooler...

Jon and Kurt decide to check the veracity of time-honored and venerated sayings/proverbs/idioms by applying science, math, logic to the idioms. Can lightning really not strike the same location twice? Can a walnut remove scratches in the floor? Can you really teach an old dog new tricks? Tune in, have a listen, and don’t take any wooden nickels.

Join Jon and Kurt in the greatest, funniest, smartest, drivelest episode ever. Yes, indeed, they reveal the biggest, oldest, smelliest, farthest “ests” of all time. Oldest piece of art? Highest IQ? Strongest animal on earth? Shortest novel ever written? Smallest country? Geeze, this is just the best.

If you knew that the etymology of the word “decide” killed off all other choices, then you might be apt to decide for yourself to listen to this latest episode. Jon and Kurt decide to continue their discussion on words in the English language–where they come from, why they exist, and some crazy fun facts about them thrown in for good measure. We’re not being sarcastic (spoiler alert), we do think you will want to figure out all the words that have e before i. Give it a listen, ya?

Bowing to popular demand, Jon and Kurt are back with a whole new episode dedicated to words. Revisiting a favorite topic – fun facts about words–our two co-hosts provide a bevy of tidbits, etymologies, backstories, and really cool information about some of the most used and interesting words. Where did “mentor” the word originate and why? What word has the most definitions? Well, you get the idea. Consider yourself armed for your next dinner party conversation.

Join the fun as Jon and Kurt take turns asking each other provocative questions that, as you would expect, span the smart and the drivel. Find out who they would switch lives with for just one day, what they loved doing when they were eight, and if they would choose being the rock or the hard place. Of course, while each co-host gets to ask, they also have to answer the questions themselves. Makes you wonder, how would you answer these questions?

It was time. Our curmudgeonly co-hosts had held out from getting annoyed by people, things, society, etc. for just so long that they couldn’t hold it in anymore. Ergo, we get another “Pet Peeves” episode with all new nuisances, annoyances, and things that just piss off Jon and Kurt. Take this test: listen and try to see how many you agree with or not. Then you could say listening to Smart Drivel is a pet peeve. Ha.

In part 2 of a two-part mini-series (the boys are influenced by all the streamers), Jon and Kurt continue to opine on and proffer their submissions for certain country’s best gifts to the world. They randomly chose ten countries and make a case for that nation’s greatest contribution to humankind. As you might expect, some of their suggestions are heavy with societal impact, others are delicious, and others are pure drivel. Tune in and see if you agree with either of them or have a better candid...

Jon and Kurt finally dig into today’s topic after a bit of verbal disagreements and wandering around. The discussion was a debate about U-Turns and their pros and cons. Each co-host had to choose a side: Kurt went for the con and, going against type, he gets a bit worked up and emotional in his scathing criticism of the crutch that is the U-turn. Whereas Jon passionately defends the latitude and forgiveness of said U-Turn. See which side you end agree with more and then either keep going forward...

What is a contronym you ask? The definition is “a word with two opposite meanings.” Huh? You mean to tell me that you can use a word, feeling good about it, and then all of a sudden that same exact word can be taken as the complete opposite? Holy cow, this is confusing. So, Jon and Kurt decide to dive into it head on and–buckle up–you need to fasten your seat belt, er, um or will you unfasten and–buckle at the knees? Damn. Well, they try to give some examples so we can spot one when we see one. ...

The Smart Drivel lads, Jon and Kurt, decide to revisit a favorite topic in this week’s all new episode…famous phrases and their origins. Previously, they have told us the backstory of “one for the road”, “turn a blind eye”, “chairman of the board” and, of course, the wildly popular “freeze the balls off a brass monkey”, and many others. Well, stop sitting on the fence and shake off the fact you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and take a listen.

Harkening back to episode #1, The History of Pi vs Pie, the boys are at it again with looking at waffle the food vs waffle the verb. Trying to connect the two is quintessential drivel that has Kurt espousing wild theories and Jon in utter disbelief. Don’t waffle, put in those air pods and give it a listen.

“Hang up the phone.” “Roll up your window.” To a Gen Z-er, these expressions make no sense. In their lifetime, they have rarely or never been exposed to a physical phone to actually hang up or a car window that needed to be cranked up and down. So this got Jon and Kurt thinking–what other common sayings do we use that are rooted in a real element that no longer exists today? And, tangentially, what are we saying now based on our current lifestyle components that will have no meaning in the futur...

As Americans, we tend to be ethnocentric when we travel. We expect, stereotypically and categorically, that things “over there” will be what they are back in the States. We seem to be shocked and/or humored by their lack of ice cubes, to go cups, and shorts. Well, the opposite is also true…the Europeans find some of what we do quite bizarre. From our over reliance on air conditioning to Big Gulps, they think we are just plain weird about some things. Well, Jon and Kurt decide to identify some of...

Holidays used to be the domain of religions, banks, or governments. Recently, however, there is a new phenomenon in nationwide–global even–celebrations as certain days on the calendar become elevated above others. There is Pi day–3-14, May the 4th, etc. These are new, they are fun, and they are irreverent. But mostly, they represent the zeitgeist of pop culture. Jon and Kurt have fun listing and discussing a few of the more catchy ones.

In this episode, Jon and Kurt turn their attention to the room in the house where we spend a good chunk of our waking hours–the bathroom. How did this space–borne out of necessary cleaning of our bodies and expunging of our bodily waste–morph into the sanctuary that it has become? Why? What is its history and how do people use it today? Of many interesting things to note, you will learn how many years over a lifetime people average in the bathroom. So pull up a stool and take a listen…