Photo: no such thing as fish
Ten years ago, four self-described dorks gathered around a microphone to share interesting facts that they had learnt that week.
They started as Stephen Fry’s elves, digging up facts for his show QI and found they had plenty of tidbits leftover such as the origin of hedges, or wombat poo, or how many times smartphone users touch their phones each day – answer 2617.
These tasty leftovers became a hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish which has notched up more than 500 episodes, half a billion downloads and spawned a sold-out world tour that is currently in New Zealand.
Podcasting fact fans Dan Schreiber and Anna Ptaszynski told RNZ’s Afternoons, the “secret sauce” of the show is uncovering the kind of facts we love to share at the pub.
“Everyone loves it at the pub where someone just says, ‘Do you know this thing about Bruce Lee? When he died, every major Chinese film studio tried to fill the gap by putting out stars called Brute Lee and Lee Bruce?’ When you hear something like that, you just say I’ve got to tell everyone that.”
Certain facts prove particularly sticky, Schreiber said.
“Two months before the Wright brothers flew a plane for the first time, the New York Times published a big article saying we believe that human flight will be achieved in this time frame – between one and 10 billion years – two months later, we’re in the air.
“And then here’s an insane thing. The Wright Brothers, that one photo that we have of them flying in the air, it was taken by someone who had never taken a photo before, and they had to train him on the morning.”
The podcast is a gateway drug for potential fact addicts, they said.
“We’re trying to excite people into being more interested in everything that’s out there, and not see things as boring subjects.”
Schreiber contributes to Rhys Darby podcast The Cryptid Factor, dedicated to weird things unexplained by science.
Darby has a restless curiosity, he said, and shared a Darby fun fact.
“Of all the brilliance of his career I think he will be defined, like almost on his tombstone It should say a man who can do the squeaky door noise better than any other human alive. Yeah, he can open a door with his mouth like no one else.”
Sometimes the search for things like the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot can yield real-world results, he said.
“EG machines one of the most important medical devices that we have to look at the brain and work out what’s going on that was invented by a guy who. Was trying to crack a telepathy machine.
“He almost died, he was in the army, he was quite young, he got a letter from his dad saying, your sister had a sudden feeling this afternoon that you were dead, and she was really worried and had to write to you and he thought, did she feel that?
“So, he dedicated his life, and now we have this machine as a result. So, I think searches for all the mysteries can lead to actual practical things.”
Ptaszynski offered a final, New Zealand-appropriate fact.
“In a New Zealand-England rugby match one of the England players got a really badly damaged, slightly torn testicle. And all the New Zealand players gathered around him to help him sort himself out and paused the game.
“So, he could sort himself out, pull his trousers up and whatever. And the England players went on and scored and won the match as a result.”