1653: "The Sugar Industry and the Scientists"

1653: "The Sugar Industry and the Scientists"

Author: JC May 15, 2026 Duration: 2:32
Interesting Things with JC #1653: "The Sugar Industry and the Scientists" – Harvard researchers published papers that downplayed sugar’s possible link to heart disease while sugar industry funding stayed undisclosed, and the blame shifted toward saturated fat as low-fat foods spread across American diets.

Curiosity often leads us down the most rewarding paths, and that's the spirit behind Interesting Things with JC. Each episode is a compact dive into a story that makes you pause and think, hosted by JC. You'll find a mix here: forgotten chapters from our past that explain the present, nuanced looks at cultural shifts happening now, and those remarkable tales that simply never got the spotlight they deserved. This isn't a dry lecture but a conversation about the threads connecting history, society, and our everyday lives. The focus is on depth over breadth, making each installment of this podcast a self-contained exploration. Whether it's an obscure historical event with surprising modern echoes or a fresh perspective on a current topic, the aim is to feed that curiosity with something substantive. Tune in for a thoughtfully researched and engagingly presented look at the world's fascinating corners.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Interesting Things with JC
Podcast Episodes
1657: "The Stonefly of British Columbia" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:42
Interesting Things with JC #1657: "The Stonefly of British Columbia" – Stonefly nymphs cling to rocks in cold British Columbia rivers while scientists check whether the water can still support life; when the insects disa…
1656: "Antimatter Propulsion" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:46
Interesting Things with JC #1656: "Antimatter Propulsion" – Antimatter destroys normal matter on contact and converts mass directly into energy, but the fuel powerful enough to push spacecraft toward light speed cannot t…
1655: "Particles Live Longer in Accelerators" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:39
Interesting Things with JC #1655: "Particles Live Longer in Accelerators" – A muon forms high above Earth and should decay before reaching the ground, but many survive the trip as their internal clocks slow near light sp…
1654: "Fusion Propulsion" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:54
Interesting Things with JC #1654: "Fusion Propulsion" – A spacecraft engine tries to push plasma at hundreds of kilometers per second while no normal material can touch the fuel. Fusion promises travel times chemical roc…
1652: "Facebook’s Emotional Contagion Experiment" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:44
Interesting Things with JC #1652: "Facebook’s Emotional Contagion Experiment" – Facebook changed the News Feeds of nearly 690,000 users to test whether emotions could spread online without telling them first, and the use…
1651: "The NERVA Program" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:56
Interesting Things with JC #1651: "The NERVA Program" – A rocket engine fires in the Nevada desert without burning fuel the normal way, and a uranium reactor heats liquid hydrogen until it blasts through the nozzle; the…
1650: "Ion Drives" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:41
Interesting Things with JC #1650: "Ion Drives" – An engine produces less force than a postcard weighs, yet it keeps pushing a spacecraft across billions of miles of space; chemical rockets burn hard and stop quickly, whi…
1649: "Ernst Stuhlinger" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:41
Interesting Things with JC #1649: "Ernst Stuhlinger" – A NASA engineer answers a nun asking why Mars missions matter while people are starving on Earth, and the answer comes from a former V-2 rocket scientist whose later…
1648: "Why Are Manhole Covers Round?" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:27
Interesting Things with JC #1648: "Why Are Manhole Covers Round?" – A heavy cover sits over a city access hole, but its shape keeps it from dropping into the tunnel below; the same circle also spreads traffic force and l…
1647: "Fermilab" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:10
Interesting Things with JC #1647: "Fermilab" – Scientists send neutrinos through solid rock from Illinois to distant detectors without a tunnel, while bison graze above one of America’s major particle physics laboratorie…