Damn Interesting

Author: Marisa Brook • Page 1/4

Marisa Brook collects postcards, magnets, travel pins, and sometimes interesting rocks. She also spent eleven years collecting linguistics degrees, and now helps other people do so.
Long-Form/Podcast:

A Trail Gone Cold

Against the odds, a tiny Icelandic town speaks of a local Black ancestor. Geneticists and historians combine forces to uncover the man’s eventful life.
Written by Marisa Brook • 21 Mar 2024 • Read/Listen →
Curio/Podcast:

Capital, Punished

Located 350 km (217 miles) southeast of Puerto Rico, the British island of Montserrat is sometimes called 'The Emeral...
Written by Marisa Brook • 10 Jun 2021 • Read/Listen →
Curio/Podcast:

It’s Not Rocket Science

One of the most dramatic surgical procedures still performed on human patients is the hemispherectomy, or the removal...
Written by Marisa Brook • 05 Oct 2020 • Read/Listen →
Curio/Podcast:

Signs and Space

Sign languages rely on the use of space (locations, motions, and handshapes) to express meaning or grammatical nuance...
Written by Marisa Brook • 21 Sep 2020 • Read/Listen →
Curio/Podcast:

For Your Eyes Only

In the midst of World War II, the British Air Ministry began publicly extolling the virtues of carrot-eating. The vit...
Written by Marisa Brook • 07 Sep 2020 • Read/Listen →
Long-Form/Podcast:

Radical Solutions

French mathematician Évariste Galois lived a full life. When he wasn't trying to overthrow the government, he was reinventing algebra.
Written by Marisa Brook and J. A. Macfarlane • 26 Mar 2020 • Read/Listen →
Long-Form/Podcast:

Drawing the Shorter Straw

Visionary Argentine filmmaker Quirino Cristiani created full-length animated films between 1917 and 1931. He has since been all but forgotten.
Written by Marisa Brook • 31 Jul 2018 • Read/Listen →
Curio/Podcast:

Involuntary Indefatigability

Only one fictional character has ever been honoured with a front-page obituary in The New York Times: Hercule Poirot,...
Written by Marisa Brook • 21 May 2018 • Read/Listen →
Curio:

Cracking the Case

A lengthy study of 'crack babies' born to cocaine addicts in Philadelphia in the 1980s and 1990s ended in 2013 with a...
Written by Marisa Brook • 06 Feb 2018 • Read →
Curio:

Ticking Time Palm

Ancient Israel was renowned for its date palm plants, which were widespread in thick forests and reportedly bore deli...
Written by Marisa Brook • 09 Oct 2017 • Read →
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