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The BrainFood Show

The BrainFood Show

By: Cloud10
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 In this show, the team behind the wildly popular TodayIFoundOut YouTube channel do deep dives into a variety of fascinating topics to help you feed your brain with interesting knowledge.Cloud10 World
Episodes
  • How Government Works, When Does the U.S. Government Debt Become Unsustainable, And Much More

    How Government Works, When Does the U.S. Government Debt Become Unsustainable, And Much More
    Jun 6 2025
    We live in, shall we say, politically divisive times… which, contrary to some’s belief, is no different than really any other point since humans started humaning. From Ancient Rome to relatively more modern times in the likes of Thomas Jefferson secretly bankrolling Scottish scandalmonger James Callender to attack Jefferson’s presidential opponent and former best friend, John Adams. And things haven’t exactly improved since, though also contrary to seemingly popular sentiment, as anyone who studies history in any depth will tell you, while the world today is far from perfect and a lot to fix, the best time to be alive for pretty much everyone is quite literally right now for innumerable reasons all summing up to that the past was the worst. But we’re not here to debate that can of worms with you today, but rather, talk a little bit about how the U.S. government actually functions from a practical, day to day, perspective. Along the way we’ll be looking at the practical side of the election process; who actually runs everything; how the government pays for things and manages debt; what would happen if a city ran out of money, or if the U.S. federal government could no longer pay on its massive debt and at what point the U.S. national debt becomes unsustainable. We’ll also be looking at how government manages to transcend party politics to actually get things done, including covering the Aunt Sally Effect and why it’s so effective at helping at the level government likely affects you most, and we even look at how one gets a Ted Talk and what the process of doing one is like, which I promise makes sense in context. And perhaps in all restore your faith in government a little bit along the way. Because while popular political news will likely have you thinking the world is doomed and leave you seriously considering alcohol as a phenomenal life strategy, it turns out, as shocking as this may come to some, governments the world over are run by people. Not a handful of shadowy individuals controlling everything, but in fact lots of people. Literally millions of them. It’s not just the people at the top in leaders of nations, but the people at a much less talked about level that are the ones generally actually doing the things in a much less heralded way to make sure society doesn’t collapse and otherwise runs as well as it can. While no system is perfect, this is a level which is typically far less polarized and, maybe unsurprisingly, is mostly filled with people trying to do the best job they can for the communities, states, and country they live and raise their families in. Because, hey, they live here too. Now, to dive into all this, we’re going to do something a little different. Instead of me talking at you about it all, we decided to bring in an expert in the field, Eric Mason. Beyond giving a Ted Talk related to this, “If Not Here, Where?” in which he discusses the power of local government to make huge changes at not just the local, but national level. Eric is also the CFO of the City of Presidents- Quincy Massachusetts. When he’s not managing their around a half a billion dollar annual budget, helping to make sure the city he grew up in continues to thrive now and the foreseeable future, Eric also is an occasional keynote speaker on all things finance, government, and world economics, and on the side teaches Microeconomics at West Virginia University. So, let’s look at how government actually works from a practical standpoint, and see if along the way you don’t have your faith in government restored, and maybe shift your focus a titch from the polarized, and generally highly sensationalized, national level, to where things actually typically are getting done, who is doing them, and how it all works. Host: Daven Hiskey Guest: Eric Mason Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 31 mins
  • What's So Special About McDonald's Fries?

    What's So Special About McDonald's Fries?
    Jun 4 2025
    Ah, McDonald’s French Fries. According to a poll we recently ran here, 48% of about 42,000 of you prefer this restaurant’s slender tan starch sticks to all the other restaurant tuber cutting offerings, with this percentage more than double the next runner up which was a blanket choice of “Other”- i.e. nearly all other restaurant french fries combined. While many view McDonald’s as a hamburger joint, the truth is, beyond in the present day McDonald’s making about 1/3 of their revenue from their franchises on real estate (all once causing Ray Kroc to quip he wasn’t in the hamburger business, but rather “My business is real estate”), McDonald’s came to dominate the world of fast food for primarily one reason- their french fries, with an astounding 1 out of every 200 potatoes grown in the world today used to make these salty sticks of potato guts. Which is extra good for the company as french fries are also one of the most profitable non-beverage items on the menu. So just how did these french fries come to be? What exactly is in them and how are they made? Why were they the center of a surprisingly bitter and occasionally riotous and deadly fight? And just who invented french fries at all in the first place? Well, tuck in ladies and gents, and let’s do a deep fried dive into the history of the french fry and its perfected version at McDonald’s, shall we? Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 mins
  • What's It Actually Like to Be an Amish Person?

    What's It Actually Like to Be an Amish Person?
    Jun 3 2025
    As humans continue to rapidly accelerate to replacing ourselves with robot overlords or otherwise see if we can’t make Wall-E into a prophetic mocumentary, one group of homosapiens refuses to go quietly into the night. And, while it may come as a surprise to you, this group is seemingly set to inherit the Earth, given their population is exploding, whilst birth rates for the rest of us are declining to an extent that most developed nations are already well past the point where their coming generations will be significantly smaller than the current. But not so for our butter churning brethren. We are, of course, speaking of the Amish, who provide for us a stark contrast to our fast-paced, egocentric lives, with their staunch and deliberate refusal to get swept up in any of it. But is Amish life really as idyllic as it appears from the outside? And just what is the reality of life as an Amish person really like? Well, hitch up your buggy, and let’s walk through the valley where they harvest their grain, shall we? Author: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
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