HeyJaredSmartest Year Ever
The Smartest Year Ever began as a 365-day experiment in curiosity. In 2025, I dropped a new fact every single day. History, science, language, word origins, and strange true stories, all the stuff that somehow makes you sound smarter in conversation.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 13
- Latest publication
- Sep 26, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
This City Was Richer Than El Dorado - Built on Blood, Destroyed by Seeds (opens the original)
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Deep in the Amazon rainforest , a city once became so spectacularly wealthy that its true story sounds more like the legend of El Dorado . Today, I’m exploring the incredible rise and fall of Manaus, Brazil , the city transformed by the Amazon rubber boom into one of the most extravagant places of its era. Rubber barons built electric streetlights and streetcars in the middle of the rainforest, imported European luxuries thousands of miles into the Amazon, and constructed the magnificent Teatro
Why Is This the Ring Finger? The Myth Behind the Wedding Ring (opens the original)
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Why do we wear wedding rings on the fourth finger of the left hand ? And where did the idea of the “ring finger” come from in the first place? Today I dig into the surprisingly strange history behind one of the most familiar traditions in the world. We’re following the story of the vena amoris , or “vein of love,” from ancient accounts of a mysterious connection between the fourth finger and the heart, through medieval wedding ceremonies, the Book of Common Prayer , and the traditions that event
Which Came First: Orange the Fruit or Orange the Color? (opens the original)
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Which came first: orange the fruit or orange the color? It sounds like a simple question.. until you realize that orange-colored sunsets, fire, animals, leaves, and hair obviously existed long before English speakers had a name for the color. Today, I trace the surprising history and etymology of the word “orange” from ancient Sanskrit through Persian, Arabic, the Mediterranean, and eventually English. Along the way, we’ll follow the history of the orange fruit , find out what medieval Europeans
Why Is “Colonel” Pronounced “Kernel”? The Hidden Word Origins of Military Ranks (opens the original)
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Why is “colonel” pronounced “kernel” when there isn’t even an R in the word? And what do captain, corporal, lieutenant, sergeant, major, general, admiral, and private actually mean? Today I’m digging into the etymology and hidden word origins of military ranks , starting with one of the strangest spelling and pronunciation mysteries in English: colonel vs. kernel . From there, things get even weirder. Is corporal related to corpse ? Does lieutenant really mean what it looks like when you break t
Why Do We Call It a “Pair of Pants” If It’s Only One Thing? (opens the original)
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Why do we call it a pair of pants when it’s only one piece of clothing? And why is pants always plural when you’d never ask someone to hand you “a pant”? Today I dig into the surprisingly bizarre history and etymology of pants , from medieval European clothing and separate leg coverings to pluralia tantum , the linguistic term for words that behave like plurals even when we think of them as one object. Pants aren’t alone: scissors, pliers, tongs, binoculars, and glasses all have some similarly s
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