In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... Gummy Bears! Okay, so this was a tough week and Katie totally copped out and let Zack ick his own topic, so naturally we landed on... gummy bears. But as with most things in life, if you take a close look at them, they turn out to be interesting! As was the case with gummy bears. Some World War II in there, some circus bears of the early 1900s, this tale has got it all. And we promise to find some vegan gummy bears for all you...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an expert on... Hip-Hop! Yup, I said a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip hip-hop, and you don't stop the rock it to the bang-bang, boogie say "up jump" the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat. Thanks, The Sugar Hill Gang for that fabulous intro. Hip-Hop is more than just a music genre, it's a culture and a movement. And it all started at one party in the South Bronx in the early 70s with an innovative young man called DJ...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... Bungee Jumping! This was a wild one! Get ready to search youtube for videos of vine jumping on Pentecost Island. It's always fun when a modern fad is based in an established culture, and that's what we found here. Why do they vine jump? Is it to thank the gods for an abundance of yams? Or to make sure that abused wives can never get away again? We're sticking with the first one. As for modern bungee jumping, we can all thank AJ...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... The Empire State Building! As you'll hear in the intro, the construction story is pretty interesting. Turns out this interesting story ended up being a lot of pettiness on the part of grown-men builders as they strove to out-do each other and claim the tallest building on earth. Spoiler alert: they did! Well, the Empire State Building guys did. Not so much for Mr. Chrysler or the dudes at 40 Wall Street. This episode is full of...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... The La Brea Tar Pits! If you live in LA, you've probably seen or at least smelled the La Brea Tar pits at some point. For those who don't know - these are pits of tar, right smack in the middle of Los Angeles. Like, there's a Walgreens and an IHOP and then Boom! Tar Pits! Outta nowhere. What you might not realize is that these random pits of smelly black goo house an incredible wealth of historic artifacts. Scientists have...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... Yetis! AKA, Abominable Snowmen! We figured, it's pretty hot, so let's talk about some cold snow-beasts. And it did the trick! We are both cooled off and a little scared actually... Because now we believe in Yetis! Maybe not really, but you gotta listen to the sherpas on mount Everest, don't you? And when the sherpas tell tales of Yetis, and a guy in 1951 takes a picture of a Yeti footprint, and Zack has a recovered memory of...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... Surfing! First of all, thanks for the break! Hope you guys enjoyed those couple of throwbacks -they were two of our favorites. Now school is back in session (for Katie, at least), and we are back to our regularly scheduled programming! But we still wanted to keep the summer feel going, so we learned all about surfing. As Zack mentions, he focused on the history and cultural roots of surfing, and it was a good choice. We learned...

This episode we are giving ourselves a little summer break and throwing it back to one of our favorites, Banksy! Happy Summer Everyone! In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Banksy! Who is Banksy? Okay, we didn't actually figure out Banksy's true identity in this episode, but we did learn a whole lot about the anonymous street artist. In today's world, it's pretty rare to maintain true anonymity in spite of worldwide fame, but somehow Banksy has managed it....

This episode we are giving ourselves a little summer break and throwing it back to one of our favorites, Kintsugi! Happy Summer Everyone! Have fun and appreciate your flaws :) In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an expert on... Kintsugi! What is kintsugi, you may ask? Zack did too! Join Zack and Katie in learning about the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold, and maybe learn to appreciate your own flaws along the way. Self-love. Kintsugi style.

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... The Butterfly Effect! This is a complicated one, but ultimately satisfying. If you've ever wondered whether a tiny decision in your life led to massive changes and unforetold differences, this episode will NOT clear that up for you, but it will certainly try. A math mistake in a weather simulation in the 1960s made Edward Norton Lorenz ask, does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? And...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Publisher's Clearing House! What a random topic, but it turned out super fun. In fact, Zack puts it in his top three episodes of ALL TIME. So I wouldn't skip it. If you aren't American, or are like 12, you may not know what this is. But rest assured, you will know by the end of this episode! Direct Sales! Sweepstakes! Giant Checks! Ed McMahon? It's all here. Except Ed McMahon, who is a figment of the Mandela Effect (shoutout...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Taxidermy! If you are grossed out right now, then you know how she felt! But it ended up being a lot more interesting, historical, and environmentally-inclined of a topic than we anticipated. Taxidermy has its roots in Ancient Egypt, as well as in the practices of ancient Europeans as well as Native Americans through today. We did a brief run through how it actually works (nothing too upsetting, we promise), but focused on...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Fireworks! How did we come up with this idea? Oh, maybe because they've been going off non-stop for the past week! As we learned, fireworks have been a part of celebrating our country's independence since the first anniversary of the singing of the Declaration of Independence, which is pretty cool. Makes those 2am explosions have some significance, you know? If you've ever wondered how on earth fireworks work, this one's for...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Roller-coasters! Hang on to your hats, kids! Literally, if you are on a roller-coaster, and figuratively if you are listening to this episode because it is one wild ride. Roller-coasters have such a fun history, and continue to be fun today. We went to 16th-century Russia to ride some ice-slides with Catherine the Great, Coney Island to see the creations of the father of the roller-coaster himself, La Marcus Thompson, and...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Stonehenge! This may be the oldest topic we've ever covered here on #0 Minute Expert, because man, that thing is old! Stonehenge is still very much a mystery, but very smart scientists and archaeologists are pretty sure (and convinced us) that Stonehenge dates to as early as 4,200 B.C. WOW! Also, it was likely built in stages over 1,500 years - talk about contractors taking a long time to get the job done! Unfortunately Zack...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... The Rosetta Stone! Not the software that teaches you Spanish, we covered that in the intro. But the real Rosetta Stone! The ancient granite slab that finally allowed modern humans to understand what was written in ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Who knew there was another ancient Egyptian system of writing called "Demotic"? Probably some smart people and definitely lots of archaeologists, but not us. We were floored. It took...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Nudism! Or, as we learned it should be referred to, Naturalism! If you've ever wondered what it might be like to spend all your days sans clothes, this is the one for you. We learned about the intention/philosophy/mentality behind nudism, and you know what? It's pretty peaceful. Lots of retirees embracing themselves and the simplicity of life. You can purchase a one-day pass to a bunch of nudist spas across the country, so...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... H.P. Lovecraft! Okay, "expert" is always a stretch, but it's a big one here. It's hard to learn about a person's whole life in 30 minutes, especially when that person wrote over 70 stories, over 100,000 letters, and inspired countless metal bands, games, and works of literature. Lovecraft even has a whole subgenre of horror named after him. "Lovecraftian" works are likely to be horrific, full of monsters and fear of the...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Earthquakes! Fun fact - Zack is taking Geography this semester, so he was already a bit of an exert on the subject before his 30 minutes study period! But he became even more of an expert for us and for that, we are grateful. So let's shake, rattle and roll our way to tectonic brilliance. Zack schools us on the three different types of tectonic plate movement and explains why the kind that the San Andreas fault is is the most...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... The Mandela Effect! First of all, guess what?! This is 30 Minute Expert's One Year Anniversary! That's right, we've been at it for one whole year. Very proud to have made it this far - thank you so much to everyone who has listened and supported us. We did it! Back to scheduled programming: The Mandela Effect! If you thought the Berenstain Bears were the Berenstein Bears, or that Darth Vader said "Luke, I am your father," or...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Vanilla! The plant, the spice, the flavor, we cover it all. And, at the risk/certainty of making a very embarrassing and overdone joke, there is nothing "vanilla" about vanilla. Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice in the world (after saffron). It has to be hand-pollinated using a method discovered by a 12-year-old boy enslaved on an island off Madagascar. And the flower blooms for one day before it dies, a la Dennis...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... The Panama Canal! The Suez Canal got a lot of press earlier this year, so we thought the Panama Canal deserved some attention. Building the Panama Canal was a ten-year endeavor, and was extremely complicated, but (from our humble perspective) appears to have been worth it. Thousands of container ships use this shortcut now every year - a shortcut that cuts 8,000 miles off of a trip from the east to west coast of the United...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Did England Send Convicts to Australia? Answer: Yes it did! This was a fascinating look into a really dark part of history. England only sent convicts to Australia because it couldn't send them to the Americas anymore, because duh, the Revolutionary War. We don't want your tea or your convicts anymore! And the hulks - the ships-turned-prisons floating in harbors in England - were full (plus everyone on them was dying of...

In today's episode, Katie has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Catnip! That sprinkly stuff that makes the cats go wild! We figured, if there's something you regularly give your pets, why not understand it a little better? This was a fun one - simple to understand, and fun to picture all of those kitties having fun. Listen to hear Katie try and pronounce "nepetalactone" and to hear Zack get real uncomfortable with the more mature aspects of catnip's effects. You can grow catnip yourself...

In today's episode, Zack has 30 minutes to become an "expert" on... Dutch Tulip Mania! First of all, what is "Dutch," amirite? If you've ever wondered what the difference is between Holland, Amsterdam, and The Netherlands, this episode will clear all of that up for you. Great. Now that that's out of the way, what does tulip mania have to do with them? Turns out that tulips were at the center of the first financial "bubble" ever! Caveat - maybe. There's a lot of myth hyping up this story, but...