HeyJaredHold That Thought
On this podcast, we investigate those lingering questions stuck in a faraway corner of your mind, or currently collecting dust in your notes app.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
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- Sep 4, 2026
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- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
Who Decided What a Wedding Looks Like? (opens the original)
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A white dress; groomsmen and bridesmaids; an exchange of rings; cutting of the cake; a first dance. All the micromoments we have come to recognize as part of a typical Western wedding. But where did these traditions come from? And what does it mean that so many of us follow the same steps to celebrate a wedding? This is Hold That Thought , and we're in the middle of our mini-series Reality, By Agreement , where we take something that feels like a fact and find the moment where society agreed to
Behind Closed Doors: The Invention of Privacy (opens the original)
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The search for privacy, alone time, a space of one’s own, is a human instinct. But it hasn’t always been a human reality (or even necessarily a priority). In this episode of Hold That Thought we trace the evolution of privacy, from a fleeting, unattainable idea, marked by averted eyes within crowded, shared spaces, to something solid, created by doors, locks and walls and protected by law. We unpack how privacy is something most of us can’t imagine living without, and the irony that the technolo
How Birthdays Became About You (opens the original)
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Every human has one. A day of birth. But the celebration of a birthday is a relatively recent custom. In this episode of Hold That Thought, we continue our Reality, By Agreement mini-series where we take something that feels like a fact and find the moment we all decided it was so. Today, we discuss birthdays. We explore the history of the birthday celebration as we know it today, the symbolic elements and their origins – the cake, the candles, the song – the societal and historical elements tha
When the Ranking Becomes Reality (opens the original)
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A tire company invented our understanding of global fine dining. One man changed the wine industry for good. But when you’re going to try a really nice new restaurant, who do you go to for a review? When you’re at the wine shop, do you know what’s behind the rating behind the bottle? In this episode of “Hold That Thought” we talk about the world of ratings, rankings, the score, the star. We unpack who we trust with taste, why they became trusted in the first place and explore what happens when t
How a Piece of Paper Became the Most Powerful Object on Earth (opens the original)
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You probably rarely think about money as an invention — it feels more like just a fact of the world. But money as we know it is only about 5,000 years old. This is episode 2 of our mini-series Reality, By Agreement, where we look at the rules, systems, and social arrangements that feel inevitable but exist only because enough of us agree to live by them. This episode of Hold That Thought traces the history of money: where it came from, why economists still argue about its origins, what a World W
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