Don't Know About 'The Salah Effect'
Don't Know, Do Care
Can a footballer make people less racist? It sounds like the setup to a terrible LinkedIn post, but it’s also a real question that researchers from Stanford and other institutions decided to investigate. And somehow, the answer may be yes. In this episode, we explore the bizarre and fascinating story of The Salah Effect, a term inspired by a 2019 study that examined whether Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah may have reduced Islamophobic attitudes and behaviours among football fans simply by being exceptionally good at football. The real story is about identity, prejudice, tribalism,...
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Don't Know Why This Cult Is Orgasmic
Don't Know, Do Care
This week, we dive into a story that starts with wellness, empowerment, mindfulness, and healing and somehow ends with forced labour, coercive sex, cult-like control, and prison sentences. We’re talking about OneTaste, the organisation that convinced thousands of people that repeatedly stroking someone’s clitoris for exactly fifteen minutes was a revolutionary spiritual practice called Orgasmic Meditation. What began in early-2000s San Francisco as a supposedly progressive movement centred on female pleasure eventually became one of the most bizarre and disturbing cult stories of the...
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Don't Know Why HYROX is (not) a Big Deal
Don't Know, Do Care
At some point over the last year, fitness quietly stopped being about six-packs and started becoming a personality. Suddenly everyone’s in a run club, waking up at unreasonable hours, posting Strava screenshots like stock market updates, and voluntarily paying money to suffer in public. Which brings us to this episode’s main character: HYROX . We break down what HYROX actually is, where it came from, and why it has exploded globally in such a short span of time. In reality, it’s basically a very organised way to discover new forms of exhaustion. But this episode isn’t just about...
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Don't Know If the Shroud of Turin is Indian
Don't Know, Do Care
This week, we dive headfirst into one of the strangest objects in human history: the Shroud of Turin, a 14-foot piece of linen that is either the burial cloth of Jesus Christ… or the world’s most successful medieval scam. For centuries, this faintly creepy cloth has sat at the exact intersection of faith, science, history, and people confidently yelling at each other online. Because printed onto it is the image of a tortured man bearing injuries eerily similar to the Biblical description of the crucifixion. So we trace the bizarre history of the Shroud, from its sudden appearance in...
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Unfortunately, we're extending the break!
Don't Know, Do Care
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We're going on a (very) short break!
Don't Know, Do Care
Hey there carers, Thank you for sticking with us thus far and we hope you continue to do so in the foreseeable future as well. We will be taking a very short break till the first week of May and will go back to our regular schedule of a new episode every Monday thereon. In the meantime, we hope you get a chance to listen to some of our older episodes. Just like in life, we have grown and improved from Episode 1 last year. We hope you get to see that too. See you back in May!
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Don't Know Who's Buying This Bulls**t (Psychological Theories Edition)
Don't Know, Do Care
This episode starts at a party, takes a hard left into pseudoscience, and ends with us aggressively side-eyeing half of modern psychology. We’re talking about bullshit psychological theories, the ones that sound legit, get repeated everywhere, and somehow survive despite having little to no actual scientific backing. From Stockholm Syndrome to the five stages of grief, we break down how these ideas became mainstream, and why they probably shouldn’t have. Along the way, we take detours into things like left-brain vs right-brain nonsense, the Mozart effect, primal therapy, and the...
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Don’t Know How Mangoes Took Over India
Don't Know, Do Care
Summer is objectively the worst season. It’s hot, sticky, mildly unbearable… and yet, somehow, we all tolerate it for one reason: mangoes. In this episode, we take a deep dive into India’s favourite fruit, not just as food, but as a full-blown cultural phenomenon. From its origins in South Asia and its journey through Portuguese trade, to the fact that India produces nearly half the world’s mangoes, this is a story that’s way bigger than just something you eat after lunch. We talk about the absurd variety of mangoes across the country and how these names come from places, people, and...
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Don't Know How the Dinosaurs Actually Went Extinct
Don't Know, Do Care
If you grew up anytime after the 1980s, you probably think you know exactly how dinosaurs went extinct: one massive asteroid, one very bad day, end of story. The problem is… we didn’t actually know that for most of modern scientific history. In this episode, we go back to a time when the extinction of dinosaurs was basically a free-for-all of extremely confident guesses. We’re talking climate change, massive volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Traps, eggs that were somehow both too strong and too weak, and at least one theory suggesting dinosaurs just collectively decided to stop...
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Don't Know How the Oscars Decide 'Best Picture'
Don't Know, Do Care
Every year, the Oscars announce their winners… and millions of people immediately react with some variation of “wait, that movie won?” In this episode, we dig into how the Oscars actually pick winners, and why the result often feels confusing, underwhelming, or completely disconnected from what audiences loved that year. We break down the preferential ballot system used for Best Picture, where Academy members rank films instead of voting for just one. The result is a slow elimination process that tends to reward consensus rather than passion. Then there’s the money. Studios routinely...
info_outlineIn this episode, we share the weirdest info we could find; the kind that make you go “Wait, what?” and then proceed to ruin your entire day. But given that it's Monday, are we really ruining it any more than it already is? Be honest with yourself.
From the original use of chainsaws (brace yourself) to poop particles on your toothbrush, zombie fungi, cows with regional accents (yes, we tried some), and frogs getting married for rain, it’s a slippery slope of fun, filth, folklore, and fuckaboutery.
You won’t be the same again (or you might, no promises either way). And neither will your mattress (Get your mid out of the gutter, you filthy pig).
Don’t Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who’d rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all.
Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don’t know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week.
Don’t Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!