December 21, 2015

EP. 102 — What We Learned About What We Learned In 2015

As everything in the world becomes more interconnected and as the cost of recording and storing data sharply decreases, we’ve seen a steep rise in the importance of statistics. It seems like there isn’t a single facet of human life that isn’t quantifiable now that our phones and watches are counting each step and and calorie, while Facebook and Twitter collects each thought.

If you don’t think data is important, look what happens when we lose it, or realize we didn’t even have it at all. In 2015 we had two major hacks in Sony and Ashley Madison, found out Volkswagen’s data was a complete lie, and discovered we never were even tracking US police shooting deaths, which is completely *$@#ed.

2015 was a huge year for both the data we had and the data we lost. In our final episode of the year, Cracked editor-in-chief Jack O’Brien and Creative Director of Video Dan O’Brien are joined by FiveThirtyEight’s Jody Avirgan, host of What’s the Point, to recap the year in data.

Also, be sure to buy tickets to our next LIVE podcast on Wednesday, January 6th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset theatre in Los Angeles. Jack will be joined by Dan O’Brien, Alex Schmidt and Carmen Angelica to talk about the frustrating intricacies and strange evolution of the English language. Tickets are only $5 and on sale here: http://bit.ly/1OCNQTK

Recent Episodes

January 26, 2020

Freedom sucks…and that is why we have to defend it. Because our democracy involves doing a lot of stuff that takes energy, takes time, and lacks that Michael Bay Quality that only a surprise missile launch can provide. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt and special guest Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) are exploring the ways being afraid of everything (an easy action) can stop us from being free. Discover the decades-long tradition of some Americans wanting to give up everything in exchange for not needing to think, the centuries-long tradition of people inciting fake panics, and the reasonable ways you can help change things for the better.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-fear-based-democracies-arenE28099t-free-with-jason-pargin/

January 19, 2020

How’s your local shopping mall doing? Have you checked on it lately? Swing by sometime, because its department store might’ve turned into a call center or a hospital or a go-kart track. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by the one and only Kai Ryssdal (Marketplace, Make Me Smart) for a look at surprising, strange, and shocking stories from all over the U.S. economy. Discover an international pig flu, a 26-word statement that built the modern Internet, and more amazing ways cash is ruling everything around you. By the way, if you’re an American listener, you spent the past few years funding an astonishingly huge bailout. Surprise! Listen for details!

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/5-parts-u.s.-economy-that-are-stranger-than-you-think

January 12, 2020

Movies, TV, gaming: three things that are theoretically a waste of time. Oh sure, they deliver value in the art sense, and comfort in the goofing-off sense. But what if they’re more valuable than that? What if consuming shows and playing video games (accidentally) turns people into real-life heroes? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/writers Caitlin Gill and Alex Watt for a look at the surprising number of times that exact thing happened. They’ll explore stories of regular people who saved a life thanks to skills gained randomly from cartoons, sitcoms, ‘World Of Warcraft’, and more silly entertainment.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-times-pop-culture-accidentally-taught-people-to-save-lives/