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ELI5 Explain Like I'm 5: Bite sized answers to stuff you should know about - in a mini podcast

Explain Like I'm Five, aka ELI5, is the mini-podcast series where we take the questions you always wanted to ask, and talk about them in a way that is easy to understand. Made possible by the amazing reddit community at r/explainlikeimfive. See episode show notes for user credits.

ELI5 Soda - why it tastes different out of a can vs a glass bottle?

7 mins; June 16, 2022

ELI5 Right and Left Hand Traffic - which is more popular?

8 mins; June 10, 2022

ELI5 Cotton - why cotton shirts feel stiffer when hung to dry?

8 mins; June 03, 2022

ELI5 Smallpox - is it related to monkeypox?

6 mins; May 26, 2022

ELI5 Stable Coins - how do they work?

9 mins; May 20, 2022

ELI5 Special Agents - what makes them special vs just ‘agents’?

9 mins; May 12, 2022

ELI5 Hostile Takeovers - explain Twitter's poison pill like I'm 5?

9 mins; May 05, 2022

ELI5 Gaslighting - what exactly does it mean?

6 mins; April 28, 2022

ElI5 Nuclear Disasters - why Hiroshima isn’t a dead city like Chernobyl

9 mins; April 22, 2022

ELI5 Easter - why the bunny and chocolate eggs?

7 mins; April 15, 2022

ELI5 Legos - how do lego bricks not lose tension after years of repetitive play?

8 mins; April 07, 2022

ELI5 Basketball - why is there a backboard?

8 mins; March 31, 2022

ELI5 Hurricanes - why the female naming convention?

8 mins; March 25, 2022

ELI5 The Suit - how did it become universal business attire for men?

8 mins; March 10, 2022

ELI5 Twins - why do identical twins have different fingerprints?

8 mins; March 04, 2022

ELI5 Interest Rates - why do interest rates exist in the first place?

8 mins; February 24, 2022

ELI5 Doping in Sports - why isn’t caffeine on the banned list?

8 mins; February 17, 2022

ELI5 Sanctions - how exactly do they help?

7 mins; February 10, 2022

ELI5 The Bladder - how long does liquid take to reach it?

8 mins; February 04, 2022

ELI5 Honey - why it’s dangerous for toddlers, and how bees make it?

7 mins; January 27, 2022

ELI5 Mental Health - what is anxiety disorder?

9 mins; January 13, 2022

ELI5 Money Laundering - what, why and how?

9 mins; December 30, 2021

ELI5 Orange Juice - how is it economically viable?

8 mins; December 24, 2021

ELI5 Electric Sockets - why isn't there a global standard?

8 mins; December 16, 2021

ELI5 Electronics On Planes - do you really have to turn them off?

7 mins; December 10, 2021

ELI5 Salt - how it became the chosen condiment globally?

8 mins; December 03, 2021

ELI5 Encryption - is your browsing activity visible to your ISP?

7 mins; November 25, 2021

ELI5 Thanksgiving - why a Thursday, and why does it affect plumbers?

7 mins; November 19, 2021

ELI5 Defrosting - what is the 'danger zone' and why does it matter?

8 mins; November 11, 2021

ELI5 Shipping Containers - how do they not fall off?

7 mins; November 04, 2021

ELI5 Hard Water - is it a good or bad thing?

6 mins; October 28, 2021

ELI5 GMO - what are the pros and cons?

8 mins; October 22, 2021

ELI5 ADHD - does it affect adults?

9 mins; October 14, 2021

ELI5 UV - why bother with low SPF sunscreens?

8 mins; October 08, 2021

ELI5 Dishwashers - why do plastics come out wet and ceramics dry?

9 mins; October 01, 2021

ELI5 Debt Ceiling - what's the trillion dollar coin?

9 mins; September 23, 2021

ELI5 Dinosaurs - why were they so big?

9 mins; September 17, 2021

ELI5 Car Keys - could my remote open someone else’s car?

9 mins; September 09, 2021

ELI5 Reverse Mortgages - what's the David Bowie similarity?

8 mins; September 02, 2021

ELI5 Hiccups - why do we get them?

8 mins; August 27, 2021

ELI5 Moon Drift - why it's moving further away each year?

7 mins; August 20, 2021

ELI5 Non Stick Pans - are they safe?

8 mins; August 13, 2021

ELI5 Pillows - do humans really need them?

7 mins; August 05, 2021

ELI5 Mattresses - what makes them so expensive?

7 mins; July 30, 2021

ELI5 Olympic Games - why most games are money losers?

8 mins; July 23, 2021

ELI5 Genetic Memory - can memories be inherited?

7 mins; July 16, 2021

ELI5 Cloud Seeding - can it solve drought issues?

8 mins; July 08, 2021

ELI5 Pasta - did Marco Polo really 'invent' it?

9 mins; July 02, 2021

ELI5 Chess - why is the queen the most powerful piece?

10 mins; June 25, 2021

ELI5 Tunnels - how are underwater tunnels built?

7 mins; June 18, 2021

ELI5 Earwax - how does your ear canal cleans itself?

7 mins; June 11, 2021

ELI5 Cling Film - what makes it cling?

7 mins; June 04, 2021

ELI5 Hawk Eye in Sports - how does ball tracking work?

8 mins; May 27, 2021

ELI5 Tennis - why is it scored 15, 30, 40?

7 mins; May 21, 2021

ELI5 Memories - how do our brains store them?

8 mins; May 14, 2021

ELI5 Carbon Fiber - how does it differ from fiberglass and kevlar and what makes it so strong?

7 mins; May 07, 2021

ELI5 Tin Foil - why is there a shiny and dull side?

8 mins; April 30, 2021

ELI5 Hedge Funds - what are they and what is a short squeeze?

10 mins; April 23, 2021

ELI5 Coughing - can you really fracture a rib just by coughing?

8 mins; April 16, 2021

ELI5 Mouthwash - why do so few dentists recommend it?

10 mins; April 08, 2021

ELI5 Suez Canal - is the boat still stuck and what does Napoleon have to do with it?

9 mins; April 02, 2021

ELI5 Tulip Mania - the first speculative bubble and its lessons

8 mins; March 25, 2021

ELI5 Non Fungible Tokens - would you pay millions for digital art?

9 mins; March 19, 2021

ELI5 Royal Family - how does the British royal family make money?

11 mins; March 18, 2021

ELI5 Inflation - why do we need it and why the gold standard was abandoned?

10 mins; March 05, 2021

ELI5 Batteries - what causes lithium batteries to degrade?

7 mins; February 26, 2021

ELI5 Lightning - why does it zig zag and not go straight down?

7 mins; February 19, 2021

ELI5 Colorblindness - can special glasses really fix it?

7 mins; February 12, 2021

ELI5 Soccer - why is it not as popular in the US as in other countries?

7 mins; February 04, 2021

ELI5 Contrails - why do some airplanes leave streaks and others don't?

7 mins; January 29, 2021

ELI5 Air Fryers - just fancy convection ovens?

9 mins; January 22, 2021

ELI5 Exercise Induced Nausea - why we feel like vomiting after intense exercise?

9 mins; January 15, 2021

ELI5 Grapefruit - why no mixing with medications?

7 mins; January 07, 2021

ELI5 Calories - why raising heart rate with exercise is good but bad through stress, caffeine etc?

10 mins; January 01, 2021

ELI5 Blood - how does circulation work after an amputation?

9 mins; December 25, 2020

ELI5 Earthquakes - how do they design buildings to withstand them?

8 mins; December 18, 2020

ELI5 Hot Dogs - part of McDonald's founding story?

8 mins; December 11, 2020

ELI5 Ball Point Pens - why do the caps have holes?

6 mins; December 04, 2020

ELI5 Dry Ice - why it should not go in the swimming pool?

9 mins; November 27, 2020

ELI5 LED Bulbs - why the blue one warranted a Nobel prize?

10 mins; November 19, 2020

ELI5 Snow - what makes the perfect snowflake?

8 mins; November 12, 2020

ELI5 Asteroids - why NASA wants to catch an asteroid?

9 mins; November 06, 2020

ELI5 Pluto - is it a planet or not?

8 mins; October 30, 2020

ELI5 Asbestos - how does it cause cancer?

7 mins; October 23, 2020

ELI5 MSG - why does it make food tasty?

6 mins; October 16, 2020

ELI5 Fast Planes - why so little progress in recent decades?

10 mins; October 09, 2020

ELI5 Shampoo - all colors of shampoo foam white, why?

8 mins; October 02, 2020

ELI5 Vitamin D - what do you mean it's not a vitamin?

8 mins; September 25, 2020

ELI5 Dreams - why running so hard in dreams?

9 mins; September 18, 2020

ELI5 French Fries - really they weren't invented in France?

8 mins; September 11, 2020

ELI5 Microwaves - the full truth behind why no metal?

9 mins; September 04, 2020

ELI5 Eagle Eye - do they have zoomed in vision?

6 mins; August 27, 2020

ELI5 Calendars - how does the whole world agree on what day and date it is?

10 mins; August 21, 2020

ELI5 Nursery Rhymes - why so morbid?

7 mins; August 13, 2020

ELI5 Hair - pluck out a hair, then rub the pain away, why does this work?

9 mins; August 07, 2020

ELI5 Red & White Meat - what makes chicken meat white, but beef red?

8 mins; July 31, 2020

ELI5 Ice Cream - why do we eat it out of a cone?

10 mins; July 24, 2020

ELI5 Sister Cities - are twin cities a gimmick or is there more to the relationship?

7 mins; July 17, 2020

ELI5 Circular Windows - why don't planes and ships have square windows?

7 mins; July 10, 2020

ELI5 Mosquitos - why some people get bitten more than others?

9 mins; July 03, 2020

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ELI5 Explain Like I'm 5: Bite sized answers to stuff you should know about - in a mini podcast

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