‘Part-Time Genius’ takes encyclopedic adventures into weird, wild stuff – The Daily Dot

Will Pearson andMangesh Hattikudur founded an online empire worth millions on the heels of a campus magazine. Their project boiled down the interesting wormholes of college lectures, offered a curious and fun dorm-roomtone, and eventuallythe duo realized that this approach would make for killer audio.

Seventeen years after launching Mental Flossout of a Duke University dorm room, theyve joinedup with the crew at HowStuffWorks to launch a podcast. With a nod toward those transcendent, stoned conversations you used to have, and a sincere love of nerdy knowledge, the hosts are naturals.

Part-Time Genius, launched this month, offers the weird thoughts and analysisthat made Mental Floss successful, and does soin a format that feels natural and fun in your ears. Listening to the longtime friends discuss why Ayn Rand is a political rockstar or how tax havens became a thing is like hearing your dorm neighbors chat, laugh, and argue through the wall.

Those conversations at night were just so much funthey werent pretentious, they were just super interesting, Hattikudur tells the Daily Dot. Youd have someone whos an economics major relaying the most fascinating topics about why econ is interesting, why beer was sold in six packs, or why Miller Lite is actually a really interesting craft brew.

Apparently beer was sold in six packs because it was the perfect weight for women to carry.

The podcast works as a standalone experience, lacking a throughline between episodes.I was fascinated by studieson how humans can feed 10 billion people or how to live without sleep; I wasted my time while listening to Pearson and Hattikudur discuss the ultimate superhero animalwhich is the point.

Pearson saysthat just like with Mental Floss, theyre buildinga database of episodes that listeners can scroll through years from now, cherry-pickinginteresting topics.

I love the idea of being able to create a show where something that the guys did for Stuff You Should Know five years ago is still being discovered today, says Pearson, referring to another HowStuffWorks podcast. And that was really appealing to us for being able to create this really fun archive that people could dig into once they discovered a show.

Other show topics include: the enduring survival of rats, how boy scouts conquered the U.S., degrees of cleanliness, and a deep dive into what the most American place in the country actually is.At its best, the series takes topics youve never considered and makes them into essential and engaging lectures.

Pearson and Hattikudurlikewise deliver strong guest experts, many of whom are alumni of Mental Floss. Its a whos who of internet culture: guests include YouTube sensationSimone Giertz, Saturday Night Lives Streeter Seidell, and best-selling author John Green. In each episode, guests compete for the coveted Part-Time Geniusaward: a handwritten note of praise from the hostsaddressed to the winners mom or boss.

In addition to these gueststars, the show also spotlights fanswho have day jobs tangentially related to the topic du jour, sayZumba instructors or architects, who come on to ask trivia questions. This segment can be inane, but I appreciate that it brings the listener back from an encyclopedic journey to a fun, informal aside.

How Stuff Works is a network consistently ranking in the top five of overall podcast listener metrics, and is pushing for more podcast market dominance. In addition to bringing on Pearson and Hattikudur, its recently also hired the founder of Cracked.com, Jack OBrien, who will be launching HowStuffWorks first West Coast Studios and spearheading the networks expansion into comedy.

The launch of Part-Time Genius marks the 14th podcast series in the HowStuffWorks network, which was founded nearly 20 years ago in 1998. The podcast joins the ranks of notable shows likeStuff You Should Know,Stuff Mom Never Told You,andStuff You Missed in History Class. This spring HowStuffWorks debutedFoodStuff and released the second season of The Stuff of Lifethe company says its reaching nearly 30 million unique visitors a month.

We joined HowStuffWorks as well because of their plans for the future, Pearson says. The company will be launching additional shows and the opportunity to play a role in how those take shape and how those launch will be a lot of fun as well I think youll see over the next six-to-12 months.

HowStuffWorks is a quirky network for the nerdiest of nerds, and Part-Time Genius fits right in.

Go here to read the rest:

'Part-Time Genius' takes encyclopedic adventures into weird, wild stuff - The Daily Dot