The List Show

We’re covering practical tips (like the scent that will alert you to an impending electrical fire) to decidedly stranger ones (how to get out of a kangaroo attack) in the latest episode of The List Show.

A map of the 63 National Parks in the U.S.

From Acadia to Zion, the U.S. has some pretty majestic national parks. Here’s one fun fact about every single one—plus a map so you can see where they all are.

Thomas Edison, awaiting a ghostly phone call.

Henry Ford’s car made of soybeans and Thomas Edison’s ghost-detecting telephone are just two little-known creations of history’s most famous inventors.

Is the call really coming from inside the house?

From what inspired Candyman and the Mothman to the tales about alligators in the sewers and killers calling from inside the house, we're breaking down the origins of popular urban legends.

Ladies riding in a car—or, if you’re using slang from the 1900s, an ‘automobubble’—circa 1901.

Wastoid, wedgie, and dumpster fire, oh my! In the latest episode of The List Show, you can learn about the fun origins of some pretty wacky and absolutely real slang terms from the last hundred years.

From record-breaking plants and incredible animal news to space superlatives and the awesome power of Taylor Swift fans, here’s the long list of things we learned in 2023.

From a profane parrot to an exploding corpse to swapped (and dropped) bodies, the funerals on this list went terribly awry.

YouTube has countless cozy fireplace videos. But how many of them boast 100 fun facts?

The pyramid and all-seeing eye were symbols of the Illuminati.

Let’s peer in the windows of mysterious clubs, from not-so-secret societies like the Freemasons to lesser-known groups like the Bullingdon Club.

Weird but fascinating facts about everything from the guy who dragged cars with his nipples to frogs shedding (and eating!) their own skin.

Sometimes a picture doesn’t tell the whole story.

From Elvis Presley wearing a velvet suit to meet Richard Nixon to the migrant mother who unwittingly became the face of the Great Depression, these are the true stories behind a few iconic photographs from history.

3D movies have been coming at you for over a century.

Condoms, 3D movies, the name Tiffany ... All of these things have been around a lot longer than you might think. In this episode of The List Show, we're breaking down our favorite deceptively old things, from synchronized swimming to Juicy Fruit gum.

Every country has their obscure fact. / kolderal / Getty

In this episode of The List Show, we cover one fact about EVERY country in the United Nations—with Part 1 going up to the letter G.

Sailors in the early days of exploration may have believed that manatees were mermaids.

Unicorns, mermaids, vampires, and leprechauns are some of the most widely known mythical creatures, but where did these legendary beings come from?

One Florida town experienced a golf ball rain.

From beer floods to meat showers, history is full of peculiar—and putrid—disasters.

An exploding corpse, a 45-minute car chase, and a horse-related mishap that led to a century-long royal tradition. In this episode of The List Show, host Justin Dodd covers funerals gone wrong.

How many of these colors did you know about?

A vast vocabulary of words have been invented, borrowed, and accumulated over the centuries to describe almost every color and shade imaginable.

The great white is one of more than 500 shark species.

Whether you’re a ‘Jaws’ fanatic or just want to live every week like it’s Shark Week, you'll want to read up on these fascinating facts about sharks.

Movies have created some pretty pervasive myths and misconceptions.

In this episode of The List Show, Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy traces some of the most common myths we've gotten from movies.

The United States is host to a number of wild and weird urban legends.

From classics like the vanishing hitchhiker to creepy cryptids, ghostly vehicles, deadly curses, and some stuff you’ve probably seen on Facebook.

From acrophobia (the fear of heights) to zuigerphobia (the fear of vacuum cleaners), there are plenty of things to be scared of—rationally or otherwise.

In this episode of The List Show, episode, we're breaking out some favorite old-timey insults that people should definitely start using again.

You'll never look at time the same way again.

From prehistoric animals that lived much closer to us temporally than you might realize to the guillotine lasting way beyond the French Revolution, these facts are to mess with your perception of time.

Whether an entire town can’t stop dancing or people suddenly start worrying about minor marks on their windshields, these seemingly unbelievable events have had some surprising (and sometimes devastating) effects.

11 Facts That Could Save Your Life

1 Fact About All 63 U.S. National Parks

35 Lesser-Known Inventions of Famous Inventors

15 Origins of Urban Legends

38 Terrific Slang Terms From the Last Century

100 Things We Learned in 2023

9 Funerals Gone Wrong

Make the Holidays Extra Cozy—and Entertaining—With Our 100-Fact Fireplace Video

The Real Stories Behind 8 Secret Societies

100 Facts That Will Make You Go “WTF”

The Stories Behind 8 Famous Photos

Everyday Things That Are Much Older Than You Might Think

1 Fact About Every Country in the United Nations: Part 1

The Origins of 13 Mythical Creatures

8 Weird Disasters from History

9 Funerals Gone Wrong

39 Colors You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

31 Fascinating Facts About Sharks

13 Lies Movies Taught Us

The Spookiest Urban Legend in All 50 States

41 Fascinating Phobias, Explained

16 Old-Timey Insults For Modern Conversations

17 Facts That Will Warp Your Sense of Time

7 of History’s Strangest Mass Hysteria Events