STUFF KIDS SHOULD KNOW

Essays on random pop-culture topics from fashions in facial hair to pet rocks, distilled from a title for adult readers based on a podcast.

Predicated on the stated notion that “there’s something interesting about everything” and the unstated contradictory one that certain topics are off limits for children, the podcasters drop about half of the chapters from Stuff You Should Know (2020)—including, for instance, those on cyanide pills, Jack Kevorkian, cargo cults, and the earliest historical records of guns—then edit most mentions of smoking, drinking, and death from the remaining 14. What’s left isn’t quite as compelling as the original but may well interest general readers (of any age) who enjoy easily digestible looks at, say, the history of demolition derbies or the origin of doughnuts, the superiority of dog senses to human ones (and why dog feet smell like Fritos), and the ever elusive Jersey Devil. Insights into how people should and actually do behave when they are lost in the wilderness or elsewhere as well as why dowsing has always been and continues to be a universal practice notwithstanding the lack of objective evidence that it works provide food for thought…as does the strong case for regarding Mr. Potato Head as “the toy of the American century.” Closing lists of sources and of relevant podcast episodes lend credibility to the enthusiastically presented facts and claims, and Monardo’s rare monochrome spot images add snarky notes plus some images of people of color in a gallery of child prodigies.

Maybe “safer” than the original but less interesting for it.