Surprisingly Awesome

What do you know about mold? Or frequent flyer miles? Or boredom? The recently created podcast, Surprisingly Awesome, explores topics that seem uninteresting or unimportant, finding the science, history, and other unexpectedly thought-provoking aspects of those topics.

For instance, the first episode, about mold, describes how penicillin came to be, including the fact that it could have so easily gone undiscovered. The latest episode, about boredom, conducts an experiment that sent both hosts separately into soundproof rooms, deprived of their phones or any other distraction.

Moviemaker Adam McKay joins New York Times Magazine economics columnist Adam Davidson to talk about things you don’t think you want to listen to people talk about. But you probably do. (Gimlet Media)