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Twice a week, Ken Jennings and John Roderick add a new entry to the OMNIBUS, an encyclopedic reference work of strange-but-true stories that they are compiling as a time capsule for future generations.
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Episode 324: Otokichi (Entry 879.2C1125)
1:04:50
1:04:50
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1:04:50
In which a freak Pacific storm in 1832 makes one young castaway an unusual ambassador for the Empire of Japan, and Ken is unable to justify the Gospel of John. Certificate #37850.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 323: Woodstock '99 (Entry 1441.IS2808)
1:19:22
1:19:22
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1:19:22
In which a fiery apocalypse outside Rome, New York marks the cultural endpoint of the 1990s, and John spends his whole childhood reading about armaments in Janes publications. Certificate #27287.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 322: Kon-Tiki (Entry 692.MT1424)
1:17:54
1:17:54
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1:17:54
In which a Norwegian amateur anthropologist sails a raft from Peru to Polynesia to push a pet theory, and Ken covets ink and gold. Certificate #18688.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 321: The War Before This One (Entry 1409.NH0109)
1:18:22
1:18:22
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1:18:22
In which we follow the long, strange journey that finally got World War I and World War II their names, and John goes for drinks with his high school principal. Certificate #24737.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 320: Slab City (Entry 1170.IS3501)
1:12:39
1:12:39
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1:12:39
In which itinerant snowbirds turn an abandoned desert naval base into a trash-mountain utopia, and Ken hopes a nuke lands on his head. Certificate #33204.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 319: Carlo Gesualdo (Entry 526.HE1304)
1:18:06
1:18:06
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In which modernity discovers a late Renaissance composer with a history of ahead-of-his-time harmonies and lurid murder, and John scats like Cab Calloway after midnight. Certificate #39859.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 318: The Guardian Angels (Entry 554.EX2320)
1:14:25
1:14:25
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1:14:25
In which a Brooklyn-born fast food manager slaps some paramilitary berets on local kids and starts a new community policing movement, and Ken wonders how to allocate the stripes on the American flag. Certificate #25639.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 317: B. Traven (Entry 1332.PR2502)
1:08:47
1:08:47
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In which we trace at least four secret identities of the most reclusive novelist in literary history, and John gets a terrible fake ID from the fake ID store. Certificate #39453.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 316: Dingbat Apartments (Entry 351.AC2830)
1:11:13
1:11:13
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1:11:13
In which we learn why Los Angeles and other post-war American cities have tens of thousands of the same apartment complex, and Ken wonders where Philip Johnson's water heater is. Certificate #25380.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 315: Ultrarunning (Entry 1357.IS4031)
1:16:30
1:16:30
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1:16:30
In which a throwback British baronet (sort of) completes seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days, and John runs like a rhinoceros. Certificate #20800.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 314: The DeLorean Cocaine Bust (Entry 330.JB1810)
1:21:10
1:21:10
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1:21:10
In which Detroit's first "cool" car executive almost goes to jail in an attempt to save his weird car and foundering company, and Ken says it's okay for kids to climb into refrigerators now. Certificate #36728.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 313: Elizabeth Nietzsche (Entry 837.EX0204)
1:04:48
1:04:48
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In which a Prussian schoolteacher's wife founds a failed anti-Semitic utopia in Paraguay and creates fascism's favorite philosopher, and John wants to keep Nazis off the Moon at all costs. Certificate #42582.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 312: Cottagecore (Entry 283.ZP0206)
1:12:02
1:12:02
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In which we look at the long history of romanticizing rural life, from the Enlightenment all the way up to today's Instagram lesbians, and Ken accuses Thoreau of "glamping." Certificate #45989.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 311: The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon (Entry 088.MK1472)
1:14:05
1:14:05
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1:14:05
In which we learn what causes the "frequency illusion" of recently learned facts immediately reappearing into view, and John has too many books on his bed for romance. Certificate #36846.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 310: The Baader-Meinhof Gang (Entry 088.EZ2736)
1:22:59
1:22:59
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1:22:59
In which far-left European terrorism of the 1970s produces West Germany's own Marxist-Leninist "Bonnie and Clyde," and Ken feels bad for that kissing nurse in Times Square. Certificate #26524.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 309: The Cavendish Banana (Entry 197.JU0112)
1:01:34
1:01:34
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1:01:34
In which we learn that the massive global banana export market is a precarious monoculture doomed to disaster because of a tiny fungus, and John thinks Sean Young might be a time traveler. Certificate #26039.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 308: Wampum (Entry 1408.DE0206)
1:10:58
1:10:58
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1:10:58
In which the intricate bead culture of the Eastern Woodlands tribes confuses new British and Dutch arrivals, and Ken refuses to let Thomas Jefferson make him be a farmer. Certificate #31448.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 307: Election Ties (Entry 400.1CH2508)
1:23:44
1:23:44
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1:23:44
In which we learn what governments do when election results come back exactly tied, and John swings a Seattle mayoral election by asking for directions. Certificate #30371.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 306: Mensa (Entry 775.PR1320)
1:21:45
1:21:45
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In which the era of intelligence testing produces an Oxford-based society for smarty-pants who, it turns out, mostly want to solve puzzles, and Ken is shamed for identifying an antelope. Certificate #43519.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
In which the U.S. military battles black marketing and currency destabilization by paying Korea- and Vietnam-era servicemembers in play money, and John learns about a 1990s fad for the first time. Certificate #46965.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 304: The Day the Clown Cried (Entry 317.PS12605)
1:20:53
1:20:53
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1:20:53
In which an unfinished Holocaust "dramedy" gains a reputation as the worst movie ever made even though no one has ever seen it, and Ken thinks a lot about dog poop. Certificate #46512.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 303: Eliza (Entry 404.LK0247)
1:15:15
1:15:15
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In which an MIT professor worried about a digital future accidentally creates the field of human-machine conversation, and John flirts with a 54-year-old computer program. Certificate #36441.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 302: Cynthia Plaster Caster (Entry 949.JE4817)
1:09:10
1:09:10
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1:09:10
In which a shy Chicago student becomes one of the most famous rock fans in America by virtue of her anatomically correct artwork, and John offers Ken an unwanted present. Certificate #30889.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 301: Washington, CSA (Entry 1412.MT1225)
1:04:19
1:04:19
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In which a doddering general saves America from an alarming alternate history in which the Confederacy takes over the nation instead of seceding, and Ken objurgates against several things (but especially slavery). Certificate #15899.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
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Episode 300: Seawise Giant (Entry 1121.AC2718)
1:10:00
1:10:00
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1:10:00
In which an unnamed Greek shipping magnate "jumbo-izes" an oil tanker so big that it can't even navigate the English Channel, and John ponders digging a canal between Seattle and Omaha. Certificate #36640.By Ken Jennings and John Roderick
