Erin McCarthy

Joined: Nov 21, 2012

Erin is the Editor-in-Chief of MentalFloss.com, host of The List Show and Throwback on YouTube, editor of Mental Floss's book The Curious Reader, and the creator, executive producer, and host of the History Vs. podcast. She joined Mental Floss in 2012. Previously, she covered everything from natural disasters to bridge engineering to the science behind sci-fi movies for Popular Mechanics magazine. Her work has appeared in O: The Oprah Magazine, Town and Country, Parents, and Esquire. When she's not editing or writing, you can find her karaoking, reading, or hanging out with her cats, Oliver and Pearl. She lives in New York.

Take your claw machine game to the next level.

8 Tips for Beating a Claw Machine

Brown marmorated stink bugs have a little something in common with cilantro.

12 Facts About the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

There's a good reason you don't see baby pigeons.

Where Are All the Baby Pigeons?

Khaled Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ was the first novel written in English by an Afghan author.

10 Fascinating Facts About Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner'

Photo illustration by Mental Floss. Images: iStock/Customdesigner (TV), iStock/D-Keine (crime scene)

14 Reasons We Love True Crime, According to the Experts

Everywhere you turn these days, it seems like there’s a new—and wildly successful—book, podcast, or show devoted to a crime. Which raises the question: Why are we so obsessed with true crime? Here’s what the experts have to say.

Our planet looks even more amazing from above.

8 Incredible Images of Earth From Above

Benjamin Grant’s Overview: A New Perspective of Earth stitches together satellite images to show our planet as we’ve never seen it before.

Emily Hampshire's new graphic novel, 'Amelia Aierwood - Basic Witch' is out April 11.

Emily Hampshire on Her New Graphic Novel, ‘Amelia Aierwood - Basic Witch’

Actress Emily Hampshire has graced TV screens in shows like '12 Monkeys,' 'Schitt’s Creek,' 'Chapelwaite,' and 'The Rig,' and now, she’s coming to bookstores, too: Her new graphic novel, 'Amelia Aierwood - Basic Witch,' is out on April 11.

Colson Whitehead, Jhumpa Lahiri, and John Updike are among the novelists who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

7 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelists

The authors on the list are just a few whose novels have nabbed the prestigious prize since it began being awarded in 1918.

Taxidermied lions in a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

13 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Taxidermy

Think all there is to taxidermy is stuffing an animal? Think again. Since the days of William Hornaday and Carl Akeley, taxidermy has been a scientific art.

Plunge back into a world of wizards and magic with these facts about the beloved series.

35 Things You Might Not Know About Harry Potter

Think you know all there is to know about the Boy Who Lived? Think again. Read on for what you need to know about the Harry Potter books and films.

Have these terms on hand the next time you toot.

30 Different Ways to Say "Fart"

Over the course of history, the human race has come up with many delightfully creative ways to describe the act of breaking wind.

Most of this advice is hopelessly outdated.

20 Questionable Pieces of Old-Timey Relationship Advice

From the dangers of being a “sexual vampire” to the best ways to charm your in-laws, here’s what relationship advice looked like in the past.

Cordyceps in a human in HBO's 'The Last of Us.'

5 Fast Facts About Cordyceps, the Fungus from HBO's ‘The Last of Us’

In HBO’s new series ‘The Last of Us,’ Cordyceps fungus has infected humanity, turning those unlucky enough to become hosts into clicking, screaming, mushroomy monsters. Here’s what you need to know about the real fungus.

Kazuo Ishiguro at the Hay Festival 2010.

11 Things You Should Know About Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro was 27 years old when he published his first novel, 1982’s ‘A Pale View of Hills.’ Since then, he has left an indelible mark on literature through works that the Nobel Prize committee described as “novels of great emotional force.”

Albert Einstein’s Letter About UFOs

By July 1952, UFOs were a hot topic—and Reverend Louis A. Gardner wanted to know Albert Einstein’s thoughts. Did flying saucers come from space? Or were they military technology?

President Theodore Roosevelt by John Singer Sargent

Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena"

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better."