1662: "Ames Laboratory"

1662: "Ames Laboratory"

Author: JC May 24, 2026 Duration: 3:23
Interesting Things with JC #1662: "Ames Laboratory" – Frank Spedding’s team in Ames, Iowa turned rare uranium metal into wartime production material, using the Ames Process to supply purified uranium for the Manhattan Project while the better-known atomic sites depended on that chemistry.

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: 300

Interesting Things with JC
Podcast Episodes
1485: "Professor Abel Wolman" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:39
Interesting Things with JC #1485: "Professor Abel Wolman" – Clean water seems automatic, until you learn what it took to make it that way. One civil engineer rewrote the rules of sanitation, and reshaped the modern world…
1484: "Indoor Plumbing" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:06
Interesting Things with JC #1484: "Indoor Plumbing" – It’s the quiet system that reshaped human survival, hiding its power behind every faucet and drain. A story that begins in ancient streets and ends in the walls of yo…
1483: "100 Years of the Grand Ole Opry" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:57
Interesting Things with JC #1483: "100 Years of the Grand Ole Opry" – A fiddler in a small Nashville studio started something bigger than he knew. A kitchen radio show grew into a Saturday night tradition that stuck with…
1482: "The First Thanksgiving Game" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:23
Interesting Things with JC #1482: "The First NFL Thanksgiving Game" – A cold Ohio field. A rising league. A fight for pride that shaped a holiday tradition. The roots of Thanksgiving football still echo with grit and stu…
1481: "The Real History Behind Eleven" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:22
Interesting Things with JC #1481: "The Real History Behind Eleven" – Behind Stranger Things is a darker reality: secret experiments, Cold War paranoia, and psychological tests on real kids. Eleven wasn’t invented. She wa…
1480: "Nina Sergeyevna Kulagina" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:59
Interesting Things with JC #1480: "Nina Sergeyevna Kulagina" – A woman in a Soviet lab, a compass that won’t stay still, and a Cold War desperate for proof of the impossible. Her story leaves one question hanging: what m…
1479: "The Montauk Project" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:57
Interesting Things with JC #1479: "The Montauk Project" – A Cold War outpost, sealed bunkers, and decades of denials form the fault line where rumor meets record. The mystery endures because the silence under Montauk fee…
1478: "Sensory Deprivation" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:59
Interesting Things with JC #1478: "Sensory Deprivation" – When the world goes silent, the brain doesn’t shut down, it shifts. What happens when you take away all the noise? You start to hear yourself.
1477: "Telekinesis" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:54
Interesting Things with JC #1477: "Telekinesis" – The claims were bold, the tests were careful, and each new setup revealed something the stories never mentioned. The mind is powerful, but not in the way people hoped.
1476: "Do Dogs Sweat?" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:49
Interesting Things with JC #1476: "Do Dogs Sweat?" – You sweat. Your dog pants. But why? And what’s with those damp paw prints? A closer look at how dogs handle heat, when sweating just isn’t an option.