Damn Interesting

Author: Marisa Brook • Page 2/4

Marisa Brook collects postcards, magnets, travel pins, and sometimes interesting rocks. She also spent eleven years collecting linguistics degrees, and now helps other people do so.
Curio/Podcast:

The Height of Mathematics

The height of Mount Everest was not calculated by George Everest, but by a brilliant mathematician who has since been...
Written by Marisa Brook • 28 Aug 2017 • Read/Listen →
Curio:

Emphasis Mine

Many people have experienced the odd psychological sensation that results from repeating a word until it no longer se...
Written by Marisa Brook • 30 Jun 2017 • Read →
Long-Form/Podcast:

The King’s Letters

The 15th-century scholar who upset the Korean aristocracy by creating a native script for the Korean language, and thus wean it off Chinese characters.
Written by Marisa Brook and Christine Ro • 08 Aug 2016 • Read/Listen →
Curio:

The (Very Brief) Republic of Rose Island

In the late 1960s, an Italian engineer named Giorgio Rosa oversaw the construction of an artificial platform in the A...
Written by Marisa Brook • 24 Jun 2016 • Read →
Curio/Podcast:

Vicary-ous

Market researcher James Vicary became well-known for a 1957 study attesting to the efficacy of subliminal advertising...
Written by Marisa Brook • 03 Jun 2016 • Read/Listen →
Curio/Podcast:

Cut It Out

Inés Ramírez Pérez of Rio Talea, Mexico, is known for being one of the only confirmed people to have successfully completed a Caesarian section on herself.
Written by Marisa Brook • 30 May 2016 • Read/Listen →
Long-Form/Podcast:

89, 263, 201, 500, 337, 480

A set of three encrypted notes from the nineteenth century purportedly describe the location of hidden treasure in Virginia.
Written by Marisa Brook • 17 Dec 2015 • Read/Listen →
Long-Form/Podcast:

Up in the Air

Two families come up with an ambitious and dangerous plan to escape from authoritarian East Germany in the 1970s.
Written by Marisa Brook • 03 Aug 2015 • Read/Listen →
Long-Form/Podcast:

Welcome to the Jungle

An 18th-century Peruvian woman encounters a staggering amount of bad luck as she attempts to reunite with the husband she hasn't seen in twenty years.
Written by Marisa Brook • 07 Jul 2014 • Read/Listen →
Article/Podcast:

It Came from Beneath the Sea

A new island appears in the Mediterranean, and nearby countries quarrel over who should control it.
Written by Marisa Brook • 03 Mar 2014 • Read/Listen →
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