Episodes

  • Jules Verne

    Jules Verne
    Feb 8 2026
    Question 1: What is the full date of Jules Verne’s birth, celebrated each year as a nod to his pioneering imagination?

    Question 2: In Verne’s 1865 novel 'From the Earth to the Moon,' the Baltimore Gun Club builds the colossal Columbiad to launch a projectile toward the Moon—which U.S. state does Verne choose as the launch site?

    Question 3: Sharing a name with Captain Nemo’s craft from 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas,' which U.S. Navy vessel became the first nuclear-powered submarine and made the historic under-ice transit to the North Pole in 1958?

    Question 4: In 'Journey to the Center of the Earth,' Professor Lidenbrock and Axel descend through a real volcanic crater in Iceland—what is the name of this glacier-capped stratovolcano?

    Question 5: Echoing 'Around the World in Eighty Days,' which British traveler and TV presenter completed an 80-day circumnavigation for a BBC series in the late 1980s, using only ground and sea transport?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
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    3 mins
  • Beatlemania

    Beatlemania
    Feb 7 2026
    Question 1: On February 9, 1964, an estimated 73 million Americans tuned in as four mop-topped Britons changed U.S. pop culture overnight. What television program hosted the Beatles’ landmark American debut that ignited Beatlemania?

    Question 2: Released by Capitol Records in late 1963, which Beatles single rocketed to No. 1 in early 1964 and is widely credited with opening the floodgates for the British Invasion in the United States?

    Question 3: In 1965, a fuzz-drenched guitar riff carried a British band to its first U.S. No. 1 and became a defining sound of the decade. Which song gave the Rolling Stones their breakthrough American chart-topper?

    Question 4: At the height of Beatlemania, the band accomplished an unprecedented chart takeover. What extraordinary Billboard Hot 100 feat did the Beatles achieve on April 4, 1964?

    Question 5: The roar of 55,000 fans marked the dawn of stadium rock when the Beatles played a pioneering concert in New York in August 1965. What venue hosted this groundbreaking show?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    4 mins
  • Bob Marley

    Bob Marley
    Feb 6 2026
    Question 1: Bob Marley’s birthday is widely marked with concerts, community service, and tributes around the world. On what date was he born—a day Jamaica spotlights with its month-long Reggae Month celebrations?

    Question 2: In April 1978, amid violent political tension in Jamaica, Bob Marley invited rival leaders Michael Manley and Edward Seaga on stage and joined their hands in a symbolic call for unity. What was the name of this historic Kingston event?

    Question 3: Which Bob Marley song draws its lyrics from Emperor Haile Selassie I’s 1963 United Nations speech condemning racism and oppression, underscoring Marley’s Rastafari beliefs?

    Question 4: Rooted in Rastafari ritual, what name is given to the communal drum tradition—featuring bass, funde, and repeater—that shaped reggae’s heartbeat and appears throughout Marley’s music?

    Question 5: Bob Marley wrote and performed a song celebrating African liberation and later played it at Zimbabwe’s independence festivities in 1980, even as tear gas drifted into the venue. What is the title of that anthem?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    4 mins
  • National Weatherperson’s Day

    National Weatherperson’s Day
    Feb 5 2026
    Question 1: National Weatherperson’s Day is observed annually on February 5 in honor of which early American physician who kept some of the first continuous weather records and even carried instruments on a pioneering 1785 balloon flight?

    Question 2: Known to newspaper readers as “Old Probabilities,” which meteorologist is often called the Father of the U.S. Weather Service for organizing early forecast operations and issuing the nation’s first official weather forecasts in the 1870s?

    Question 3: When meteorologists use Doppler radar to spot a tornado, what key measurement do they rely on to reveal rotation inside a thunderstorm—leading to signatures like velocity couplets and hook echoes?

    Question 4: The deadliest single tornado in U.S. history carved a 200-plus-mile path on March 18, 1925; which three states did the “Tri-State Tornado” tear through?

    Question 5: Which early 20th-century scientist and leader of the Bergen School laid the groundwork for modern weather forecasting by formulating the primitive equations of atmospheric motion and the polar front theory?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    4 mins
  • The Social Network

    The Social Network
    Feb 4 2026
    Question 1: When Mark Zuckerberg and his classmates launched the site from a Harvard dorm in 2004, what name did it go by before dropping the definite article?

    Question 2: Before Facebook and MySpace dominated, which 2002 social network popularized the “friend‑of‑a‑friend” concept but faltered under technical scaling problems, pushing users to newer platforms?

    Question 3: In 2006, Facebook unveiled a feature that turned the homepage into a stream of friends’ updates and triggered immediate privacy protests—what was this feature called?

    Question 4: What is the name of Facebook’s 2007 developer conference where it opened its platform to third‑party apps, paving the way for hits like Zynga’s FarmVille?

    Question 5: Which Google‑owned social network, launched in 2004 and named after its creator, became the dominant online community in Brazil and India during the mid‑2000s?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    3 mins
  • The Day the Music Died

    The Day the Music Died
    Feb 3 2026
    Question 1: On February 3, 1959, a small plane went down near Clear Lake, Iowa during the Winter Dance Party tour, an event later memorialized as the day the music died. Name all three rock-and-roll musicians who lost their lives in that crash.

    Question 2: Broadcast to an estimated 73 million viewers, which 1964 U.S. television appearance by a British band is widely credited with launching the British Invasion and transforming American pop culture?

    Question 3: At which festival and in what year did Bob Dylan plug in an electric guitar, stunning folk purists and marking a turning point for rock and singer-songwriter music?

    Question 4: When MTV debuted on August 1, 1981, what was the very first music video it aired, a cheeky choice that symbolized the coming era of video-driven pop?

    Question 5: Which album toppled Michael Jackson’s Dangerous from No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in January 1992, heralding grunge’s mainstream breakthrough?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    4 mins
  • Groundhog Day

    Groundhog Day
    Feb 2 2026
    Question 1: Which Christian feast day, observed on February 2 and traditionally marked by the blessing of candles, carried weather proverbs that helped inspire the later U.S. Groundhog Day?

    Question 2: In which Pennsylvania town do crowds gather at Gobbler’s Knob each February to watch Punxsutawney Phil issue his spring forecast?

    Question 3: According to Groundhog Day folklore, what does it mean if the groundhog emerges and sees its shadow on February 2?

    Question 4: Based on analyses by climatologists and weather services, roughly how accurate have Punxsutawney Phil’s predictions been over the long term?

    Question 5: Before groundhogs took center stage in Pennsylvania, which animal in German folk tradition served as the weather prophet at Candlemas, later inspiring the American custom?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    3 mins
  • Clark Gable

    Clark Gable
    Feb 1 2026
    Question 1: Marking Clark Gable’s birthday, on what exact date was the Hollywood icon born?

    Question 2: Clark Gable won his only Academy Award for Best Actor for which 1934 romantic comedy opposite Claudette Colbert?

    Question 3: As Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, what famous closing line does Clark Gable deliver to Scarlett O’Hara?

    Question 4: Who was the independent producer who shepherded Gone with the Wind to the screen, coordinating its massive production and winning Best Picture?

    Question 5: Which member of the Gone with the Wind cast became the first African American to win an Academy Award, and for which role?


    You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

    Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.
    Show more Show less
    3 mins