Adam Ruins Everything Season 2, Episode 20: An Ancient History of Violence

1

Adam Ruins Having a Baby

Adam dispels the myth about getting pregnant after 35, delves into breastfeeding vs formula, and explores postpartum depression for women - and men.

30 min

2

Adam Ruins Weight Loss

Host Adam Conover illustrates all the reasons low-fat diets can actually make you fatter, and why counting calories is a waste of time.

30 min

3

Adam Ruins the Hospital

Adam Conover explains that inflated hospital costs have created a system that's unaffordable and unfair. Plus, the reckless prescription of antibiotics is making them worthless, and you might not need a mammogram.

30 min

4

Adam Ruins Dating

Adam swipes right on knowledge by exposing the flaws in dating sites; the existence of alpha males (and wolves); personality tests.

30 min

5

Adam Ruins Art

Adam poses the question of what makes great art and shows why pieces visible to the masses are revered, regardless of artistic merit. He then exposes the masters as copycats and reveals that today's art market is a moneymaking scheme.

30 min

6

Adam Ruins What We Learned in School

Adam shows that Columbus didn't discover America, King Tut was a dud and the rules of grammar are not as ironclad as people think.

30 min

7

Adam Ruins College

Adam explains why the odds of becoming a dropout billionaire are not in your favor, how manipulated school rankings have little to do with education quality and why the privatization of student loans created a massive debt crisis.

30 min

8

Emily Ruins Adam

Emily takes over to “ruin” Adam, pointing out where his facts fall short. She debunks the idea that IQ tests measure intelligence and points to information Adam has gotten wrong in the past. Plus, she explains the “backfire effect.”

30 min

9

Adam Ruins His Vacation

Adam Conover and his girlfriend take a journey across America, where he reveals that Mount Rushmore was built on stolen Native American land, Vegas slot machines are purposely designed to be addicting, and a whole lot more!

30 min

10

Adam Ruins the Suburbs

Adam explains how the idealized lawn is an unnatural monstrosity, and that the design of the suburbs is slowly killing you. Plus, the racist history of suburban planning led to today's institutionalized segregation in schools.

30 min

11

Adam Ruins The Economy

Adam explains why lobbying makes filing your taxes so complicated, and why the economic numbers we focus on don't provide the whole story. Plus, American manufacturing can't come back because it was a fluke to begin with.

30 min

12

Adam Ruins Conspiracy Theories

Adam Conover debunks the fake moon landing theory, discusses the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and reveals how to spot a false theory.

30 min

13

Adam Ruins Spa Day

Pricey “detoxifying” treatments cleanse you of cash (and may do more harm than good), while MSG's scary reputation is undeserved. Plus, the placebo effect is way more powerful than you think!

30 min

14

Adam Ruins Halloween

Adam reveals why you have nothing to fear from strangers with candy and how the “panic” over Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast was the clickbait of the 1930s. And, mediums and séances have a long history - of being fake.

30 min

15

Adam Ruins Science

Testing mice means wasted resources because what works on them often fails on humans. Scarce funding stops scientists from seeking cures, and there's no money in reproducing results, even though it's essential in proving findings.

30 min

16

Adam Ruins the Future

Adam explains that unregulated food expiration dates lead to waste and that your 401(k) won't be enough to support your retirement. Plus, Adam's girlfriend Melinda proves that even with research, the future is unpredictable.

30 min

17

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Truth

Adam Conover undermines everything you thought you knew about the American Revolution with startling facts about George Washington, Paul Revere's overrated ride, and the tale of a slave who helped America win.

30 min

18

The First Factsgiving

The Pilgrims didn't break bread with Native Americans, but did dig up their graves! There was no romance between Pocahontas and John Smith, and cities in the New World rivaled London in scale before their “discovery.”

30 min

19

Mutually Assured Ruination

Adam reveals that the United States kicked off the Cuban Missile Crisis; a lone female politician stands up to Joseph McCarthy; a bureaucratic mistake brings down the Berlin Wall.

30 min

20

An Ancient History of Violence

Adam shares that it was against the rules for gladiators to kill opponents, and tells the story of a Celtic woman who brought the Roman Empire to its knees. Plus, the brave “300” Spartans numbered closer to 7000.

30 min

21

The Copernican Ruin-aissance

Adam sheds some light on Copernicus, who was actually supported (NOT persecuted) by the Catholic Church. Plus, a rogue dwarf revolutionized what we know about anatomy, and just wait until you hear about Tulip Mania!

30 min

22

100 Years Ago Today

Adam digs into the Panama Canal, where Teddy Roosevelt formed a new country to snag free land. Plus, one man fought to keep food from killing us, while the Spanish Flu killed more Americans than all 20th century wars combined!

30 min

23

Adam Ruins Guns

Adam gets a shot at both sides of the gun debate by reviewing the science evidence of the effectiveness of gun regulation including stating that a ban on assault weapons would be ineffective, showing how the NRA has evolved over the years and influenced how the country interprets the meaning of the Second Amendment, and that both sides of the gun debate ignore how guns and gun regulation affect minorities.

30 min

24

Adam Ruins Sleep

Adam states that the mattress industry was always a huge scam, that cheap school systems created sleep-deprived teenagers, and how "safe" sleep medications may actually be harmful.

30 min

25

Adam Ruins Tech

Adam logs in to dulge into monopolistic tech companies by stating how Amazon's monopoly over online shopping harms consumers; how consumers do not fully own their technology devices because of corporate abuse of copyright law; and that tech companies not only routinely evade taxes, but also downright eradicate competition and harm society by abusing their monopoly power.

30 min

26

Adam Ruins Flying

Adam takes to the skies to elucidate how airline miles and other credit card rewards are huge ripoffs, the extremely sexist "golden age of flying," and how lack of government regulation allowed the skies to be ruled with an iron fist.

30 min