'Findings' columnist on the wonders of weird facts
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi on how offbeat trivia and oddball facts contribute to our sense of wonder and possibility.
Have you learned any strange and interesting facts today? Well — did you know that Czech and German deer still don't cross the Iron Curtain? Or that pond snails on crystal meth are better at remembering pokes from a sharp stick?
Those are real research findings, from real scientists, gathered by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi. The inquisitive writer pens the popular Findings column for Harper's Magazine. Today he joins Shad to discuss his weirdest and most absurd discoveries, as chronicled in his new book Findings: An Illustrated Collection.
WEB EXTRA | Our 9 favourite findings from Rafil Kroll-Zaidi's book!
- Czech and German deer still do not cross the Iron Curtain.
- Serving sizes in images of the Last Supper have grown by two-thirds over the past millennium.
- Girls are four times better than boys at growing up with heroin-addict parents.
- The faces of Lego people have been growing angrier.
- Bees can remember human faces if tricked into thinking that we are strange flowers.
- A Croatian boy previously thought to be magnetic was more recently thought simply to be very sticky.
- Children universally dislike clown wallpaper and find it "frightening" and "unknowable."
- Conservativeness strongly correlates with a preference for name-brand mayonnaise.
- Tylenol may reduce existential dread.
From the new illustrated collection: Findings, by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, illustrated by Graham Roumieu.