Language is beautiful and, in many cases, continually evolving. As a result, we end up with hundreds of strange idioms and figures of speech that we use on a daily basis, with little to no understanding of what they originally meant. Join the guys and special guest, Rowan Newbie, the creator of the Pitches podcast, as they explore the bizarre origins of your favorite turns of phrase. (Ben here, with a bonus question: I went through and noted multiple turns of phrase we all used unintentionally - how many can you catch?)

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Can people really just, for no discernable reason, catch on fire? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore the centuries old folklore and investigations of a phenomenon known as "spontaneous human combustion" -- and discover the debate continues, even in the modern day.

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As Ben, Noel and Max close out another year of Ridiculous History, they return to the patently baffling world of intellectual property. In part three of this series, the guys finally tackle one of the weirdest concepts out there -- a thoroughly confusing thing called a 'copyright'. What is it? Where did this idea come from, how does it work... and what exactly does it protect? Tune in to learn more.

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Most people in the West are familiar with the old Rapunzel fairy tale -- a beautiful princess is confined to a tower until a prince, captivated by her beauty, uses her hair as a ladder and comes to her rescue. But where did this story come from, exactly? Tune in to learn more in today's Classic episode from 2019.

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Nowadays, pretty much anyone can easily find an accurate map of a city, a country, or the entire world. But this wasn't always the case. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore baffling cartography of old, when well-intentioned mapmakers, working with the best info they had at the time, often got things wrong. Our first episode in this continuing series: that time everyone thought California was an island.

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For most people, Tylenol is nothing more than an ol' stand-by, over-the-counter pain reliever. Yet, as Ben, Noel and Max learn in today's episode -- this wasn't always the case. Today's episode takes the boys to 1980s Chicago, when a ghoulish series of still-unsolved murders rocked the pharmaceutical industry, and led to the creation of tamper-proof packaging.

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Founding Father Benjamin Franklin was a man of many interests, but his endeavors were by no means limited to technical innovation, philosophy and politics. In fact, throughout his life he had a reputation as an irredeemable lech -- literally, in later years, a dirty old man -- and his exploits were common knowledge on both sides of the Atlantic. He himself did not shy away from these accusations, and records show he even advised his younger friends on affairs, marriage, sex and romance. But was his famous 1745 letter "Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress" meant as sincere advice, or satire?

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Do you have a favorite tree? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max head over to the famous college town of Athens, Georgia where -- legend has it -- one guy was so enamored with his childhood oak that he ultimately deeded it to itself. How much of the story is true? Can a tree really "own itself"?

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