Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

Today in 2019, the world learned about a time when a TV host got some medical help from a viewer at home. Plus: the parent company of KitKat warns chocolate lovers in Europe that they may run into a few shortages, after a 12-ton chocolate bar heist!?!Inside Edition's Deborah Norville to Undergo Surgery for Cancerous Thyroid Nodule After Viewer Spotted Lump (Inside Edition)Nestlé says 12 tonnes of KitKat chocolate stolen in Europe (Le Monde)Our listeners help us out too; join them in backing our show on Patreon

Reforestation is a big part of the world's efforts to curb global warming, but a new study finds it isn’t just the number of trees that makes the difference for the earth, it’s where you plant them. Plus: in Surrey, British Columbia, a cat named Louis is flaunting international law and convention by crossing the US-Canada border to chase mice. Not every forest cools the Earth (ETH Zurich)Cat keeps crossing the U.S.-Canada border (CTV News via YouTube)Help plant the future of our show as a backer on Patreon

Ever get excited when a class or a meeting gets canceled and you have an extra hour? Researchers have shown that we actually get more excited about the time we gain back than time that was never filled up to begin with. Plus: the AllStrum guitar can help people with disabilities play chords and rock out. Why a Canceled Meeting Feels so Liberating (Rutgers University)An innovation that strikes a chord (Yale Engineering)Use a couple minutes of free time and $1 a month to back our show on Patreon

Major League BASEBALL is back. And there's a device that can help blind or visually impaired baseball fans follow all of the action with more detail than ever, and in real time, too. Plus: the St. Petersburg, Florida Museum of History is home to Schrader's Little Cooperstown, which has the largest collection of autographed baseballs in the world. onecourt’s haptic device lets the visually impaired watch live sports using their fingertips (designboom) World's Largest Collection of Autographed Baseballs (Roadside America)Take me out to the Cool Weird Awesome Patreon page, where you can back this show today

Today in 1976, another history making moment for Queen Elizabeth II. En route to becoming the longest-reigning monarch in world history, she became the first royal to send an email. Plus: today in 1859, inventor William Redgrave received two patents in the UK for what he called a "pillow traveling cap." On This Day in Royal History: Queen Elizabeth Sent the First-Ever Royal Email in 1976! (People)William Redgrave’s Safety Travelling Cap (Weird Universe) Hear ye, hear ye! Back our show on Patreon today!

Today in 1968, a big encounter in Cleveland, Ohio, when a rock legend got to hang out with a Star Trek icon. Plus: Alliance, Ohio is home to The Troll Hole, a museum and shop that has the world’s largest collection of troll dolls.When Jimi Hendrix met Spock: the incredible story of the guitar legend's encounter with a sci-fi icon (Guitar World)The Troll Hole Museum Hang out with us on our Patreon page, and back the show while you’re there

The “Course des Cafés,” or the waiters’ race, is an old Parisian tradition meant to celebrate the hardworking servers in a city famous for its restaurant culture. And yes, they compete in their formal work clothes. Plus: authorities in Minnesota want you to know that a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card from Monopoly does not work in a real traffic stop. The Great Parisian Waiters Race (Messy Nessy Chic)Last night a deputy did a traffic stop (Chisago County Sheriff’s Office via Facebook) No need to wait to back our show, drop by our Patreon page today

Today in 1929, the birthday of Roger Bannister. He was the first athlete to run a mile in under four minutes… and he did it on a work day. Plus: the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in Montana has a program where their bears serve as testers for companies that make "bear-proof" food storage containers. A tribute to Sir Roger Bannister (NHS Imperial College Healthcare)PRODUCT TESTING (Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center)Race on over to our Patreon page so you can support this show

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about signs, captions and other adaptations. In this episode from April 2020, the University of Virginia's Disabilities Studies Symposium produces a version of a 1950s opera called “Dialogues of the Carmelites,” with both singers and ASL performers. Plus: Theremin Cat goes viral for putting its head and paws in just the right places to make the instrument squeak and squawk.Singing and Signing: ‘Deaf Opera’ Comes to Grounds (University of Virginia)Cat Plays With A Theremin And Is Completely And Utterly Befuddled (Digg)Cool Weird Awesome sounds great because of its backers on Patreon

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about signs, captions and other adaptations. In this episode from October 2019, we find out about the Soundshirt, a high-tech piece of clothing that can help deaf people feel music. Plus: a trombonist in England lets loose in the middle of the music with the most musical sneeze of all time.The Soundshirt lets deaf people feel music on their skin (designboom)Man sneezes into his trombone during concert – Tiptree sneeze (YouTube)Tiptree trombone sneeze man tells of ‘freak event’ (BBC)

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about signs, captions and other adaptations. In this episode from March 2021, we mark the day in 1980 when the major broadcast networks began regularly providing closed captioning for their shows, serving Deaf viewers along with hearing ones. Plus: some fans of The Mandalorian create a 46 foot long, 13 foot high replica of the main character’s spaceship, the Razor Crest.How Deaf Advocates Won the Battle for Closed Captioning and Changed the Way Americans Watch TV (Time)Closed captioning (Quartz)Star Wars fans ‘land’ Mandalorian’s Razor Crest spaceship in Russia (South China Morning Post)Let’s join forces on Patreon like Mando and Carl Weathers do

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about signs, captions and other adaptations. In this episode from August 2022, two Deaf climbers describe their system for communicating when they’re up high. Plus: an island way out in the ocean that's only reachable for part of the time has a very appropriate name. How Two Deaf Mountaineers Thrive on High Peaks (Outside)The Questionable Rewards of a Visit to Inaccessible Island (Atlas Obscura)Our Patreon backers keep us scaling the heights day after day

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about signs, captions and other adaptations. In this episode from July 2020, the story of the time several decades ago that Deaf students at a school in Nicaragua created their own language. Plus: in 2017, two divers off the coast of Mexico found a flooded cave that research concludes was a mine for ochre pigment thousands and thousands of years ago. The Amazing Story of Deaf Children in 1980s Nicaragua Inventing a Brand New Language (Twisted Sifter)Canadian scuba diver in Mexico accidentally discovers vast, prehistoric industrial complex (National Post)Discover the joys of being of a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon

This week in 1911, a telephone operator in Oklahoma, Rose Coppinger, became a local hero. During a massive fire in the downtown district, she took it upon herself to call everyone in town that she could to get them to safety, while also calling for help in stopping the fire. Plus: coming up, a really rare find at an antique store in East Durham, New York. Telephone operator warns citizens of fire and saves lives (The Brook, IN Reporter via Newspapers.com) Owl found napping on antique store shelf in New York (UPI)We’re calling on you to back this show today on Patreon

If this Thursday had taken place in the 1970s or 80s, people in Iceland would've been doing just about anything other than watching television. That's because the country's public broadcasting service only broadcast six days a week; on Thursdays there were no shows. Plus: another thing you wouldn’t find in Iceland for many years was boxing, though that had an unintended side effect. Icelandic television was not broadcast on Thursdays until 1987 (History.com)Illegal in Iceland: Quirky Bans From the Land of Fire and Ice (Smithsonian)Help us bring this show all over the world as a backer on Patreon

Today is National Dream Day. While our dreams can have a lot in common with those of people in other parts of the world, there can be some big differences between those dreams too. Plus: did you know that a percentage of people dream in black and white? The Most Common Dreams By Country (Brilliant Maps)Dreams can vary across cultures and environments, UTM anthropologist finds (University of Toronto - Mississauga)45 Mind-Boggling Facts About Dreams (Healthline)Our dream is for you to back this show on Patreon

It's National Landline Telephone Day, so we're talking about a phenomenon from the early landline days, when being a little too well understood on the phone was apparently considered kind of girly. Plus: North Korea has called off a marathon in Pyongyang for reasons. No, really, that's pretty much how the official statement put it. When the Telephone Was Considered Feminine (JSTOR Daily)N Korea cancels Pyongyang Marathon for 'some reasons' (BBC)We’re calling on you to back our show on Patreon

Today in 1959, Mattel brought a new toy to the North American International Toy Fair in New York City. The Barbie doll has since become famous all over the world, but few places have more of a connection to Barbie than the state of Wisconsin. Plus: today in 1965, a story in The News-Star newspaper with the headline "Clumsy Burglars." And boy were they. 5 things we know about Willows, the fictional Wisconsin city where Barbie was born (Milwaukee Record)Inept Criminals #3 (Weird Universe)Back our show on Patreon so we can keep bringing all the Kenergy

Tomorrow is National Cereal Day. Today, we’re spending some quality time with the boxes that house those breakfast staples… especially the ones decades ago that came with playable records. Plus: about half a millennium after Michelangelo was born (this day in 1475), the Victoria and Albert Museum in London announced that on a wax sculpture, they had found what appeared to be the artist’s thumbprint. Cereal Box Records Sound Horrible. They Still Look Incredible. (New York Times)The Victoria and Albert Museum Says It Has Spotted Michelangelo’s Thumbprint, Preserved in Wax, on One of His Sculptures (Artnet)For less than the cost of a box of cereal, you can back our show on Patreon each month

By some accounts today is National Pickup Truck Day.  One of the world’s most notable trucks is in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. For the last three decades or so, it’s been hanging five stories up on the side of a building. Plus: a hockey team in Ontario has apologized for sending fans a letter essentially asking them to stop being smelly at games (!) This 1992 Chevy Pickup Has Been Hanging Off a Building for Over 30 Years (The Drive)Oshawa Generals apologizing after sending letter asking smelly fans to shower before game (CTV News)We love having our Patreon backers on our side