
Fun Fact
Two people talk about topics they find interesting.
Arik Devens and Allen Pike · Fun Fact
Show overview
Fun Fact has been publishing since 2018, and across the 6 years since has built a catalogue of 82 episodes. That works out to roughly 70 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a monthly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 41 min and 57 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. It is catalogued as a EN-language Society & Culture show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 1.6 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. The busiest year was 2019, with 25 episodes published.
From the publisher
Once a month, Arik Devens and Allen Pike take turns sharing fun facts. Practical, historical, technical, and trivial facts all deserve their fair shake.
Latest Episodes
View all 82 episodes
Ep 82Final Fact
Arik shares buttloads, Allen has too many facts, oxygen is heavy, strangeness is strange, moons cause issues, and we hit max fact capacity. This show has gone as all good things do. Thank you so much to all the Factors, we love you! You can follow Allen’s work and Arik’s. ❤️

Ep 81Dinosaur In a Wingsuit
Arik uncovers what things are really named after, Allen goes subatomic, Arik marvels at astronomical coincidence, and Allen considers extraterrestrial flight. Titan Do subatomic particles have a colour?

Ep 80Solar Stands for Solar
Allen dives in to diodes, Arik explores the origin of taxis, and Allen reveals an unsavoury fact about zygotes. Steve Mould on LEDs and solar panels Why blue LEDs were almost impossible Thornton Blackburn

Ep 79Back Door Fact
Arik throws peanuts, Allen tries to cook vegetables, photographers try to prompt a good pose, and the earth’s magnetic field threatens to cause trouble. High-altitude cooking Say cheese Geomagnetic reversal

Ep 78Suffered for Science
Scientists discover where birds go, the trouble with coin flips, the limits of the human body, and what exactly you can find in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. The majestic Pfeilstorch XCKD’s What If: What if Nascar had no rules? The Perseus Molecular Cloud

Ep 77Raspberry Dust
Science discovers our galaxy’s flavor, machinists discover precision measurements, and Arik discovers why you shouldn’t rent a car in Germany. Galaxy’s centre tastes of raspberries and smells of rum, say astronomers What Does Space Taste Like and Why Does It Matter? Thousandth of an inch

Ep 76That Doesn’t Seem True
We check in on platypi and Polaris, consider zero’s parity, and make a decision about booby traps. Polaris Parity of zero Legality of booby traps

Ep 75Gelatinous, Delicious, Terrible
Allen thinks about cans, Arik thinks about governance, and everybody thinks about the Roman Empire. Why are cranberry sauce cans upside down? Roman Dictator Why do bees make honey?

Ep 74You're Cursed Anyway
Allen considers ancient honey, Arik considers ancient surgeries, and some jobs may or may not get automated. Honey’s Eternal Life, Explained Caesarean section ATMs and tellers

Ep 73All You Need Is a Cartel
Allen showcases a very surprising study, Arik recounts a very Canadian heist, and somebody loses a finger. Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial Inside Quebec’s Great, Multi-Million-Dollar Maple-Syrup Heist The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist Sugar Shack Dr Sam Moghtaderi’s finger-loss quiz

Ep 72The Bone of Theseus
Arik improves an idiom, Allen shares a good news fact, Arik shares a grammar fact, and Allen locates your bones. You can’t have your cake and eat it too in other languages Status update on pandas Pisiform bone Sesamoid bones

Ep 71Cool Fact
Arik and Allen attempt a live episode, Allen attempts to store dry ice, Arik attempts to use the word “relative”, and Allen attempts to explain what salt does. Carbon capture and storage Permanent storage of carbon dioxide in the marine environment: The solid CO2 penetrator Starboard and larboard - NOAA Do fish drink?

Ep 70Both Jaunty and Cool
Allen explains why summer exists, Arik outlines a trademark scheme, and Allen betrays Arik with a fishy biology fact. Seasonal lag List of genericized trademarks Cladistics, the effort to recategorize living things into clades

Ep 69This Would Be Unsurvivable
Allen goes deep on whale ingestion, and Arik explains what’s really going on with dinosaurs. National Geographic on the plausibility of whales swallowing humans Dinosaur Evolution of birds Ornithischia Saurischia Scott_D._Sampson ‘Dinosaurs Among Us’ Retraces an Evolutionary Path

Ep 68Ridiculously Ridonkulously Large
Our sun proves a nuisance, the former Soviet Union makes a trade, we consider pepper seeds, Isaac Newton considers an apple, mice consider some cheese, rats get exonerated, and we share a superior alternative to implausible. What would the sun sound like? List of common misconceptions It Shipped That Way #6, where Arik and Allen talk about engineering leadership, software architecture, and Netflix’s culture

Ep 67Astronomically Unlikely
Women handle backward buttons, Allen handles a lot of feedback about very improbable things, and Arik handles digested asparagus. Why Zippers Are On Different Sides For Men And Women’s Clothing Sumptuary law Understanding the Birthday Paradox Universally unique identifiers (UUID) Why Does Asparagus Make Your Pee Smell?

Ep 66We Gotta Blow It Up
Allen saves us from asteroids, Jack Black’s mom saves some astronauts, Allen offends Arik’s sense of probability, and Arik sets the record straight on streetcar conspiracies. Asteroid impact avoidance The Truth About Jack Black’s Mother’s Historic Past Ep. 63, A Heaving Mass of People In Memory of Judith Love Cohen The math behind how unlikely it is that two well shuffled decks have the same order An attempt to convey how long it would take to shuffle 52! times Did a conspiracy really destroy Los Angeles’s huge streetcar system? Kennedy, 60 Minutes, and Roger Rabbit General Motors streetcar conspiracy

Ep 65Let's All Do Crime
A Portuguese scheme attempts to make counterfeit money real, an American scheme attempts to make walking illegal, and we set the record straight on Australian toilets. Alves dos Reis on Wikipedia Rose Bailey’s Mastodon thread on the scheme The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking” - Vox The Modern Moloch - 99% Invisible Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year - Wikipedia Not Just Bikes on YouTube Pringles’ Sweet Potato Cinnamon Crisps

Ep 64Don't Eat This
Ancient cultures name colours, algae goes wild, toilets inspire poetry, and we attempt to correct the internet. What Is Blue and How Do We See Color? Did Ancient People Really Not See The Color Blue? Himba people - Wikipedia Himba people color chart on Wikipedia Giant kelp Why is a Toilet Called a “John”? Why the Toilet is Sometimes Called a “John”

Ep 63A Heaving Mass of People
Arik makes an important call, Allen explains flavour, Arik invents football, Allen counts smiths, and we discover Ethiopian Time. Bon Appetite on blue raspberry Serious Eats on banana flavour History of American football William Webb Ellis Association football Blacksmith, whitesmith, greensmith, and brownsmith Fun Fact 36 – Joey Two-Lies Travel Tips for Ethiopia If you have a meeting in Ethiopia, you’d better double check the time