Midnight Facts for Insomniacs

Against all odds, the first full MFFI livestream wasn't a complete disaster! Sure, there were occasional shenanigans and fiascos (we're looking at you, spontaneously collapsing pop filter), but the Insomniacs wouldn't have it any other way. 

In this week's episode, Shane and Duncan try to agree on the top 5 "guilty pleasure" movies of all time. What's in your top five? Tell us in DISCORD ...

Insomniacs can access the live video feed as well as the archived video and the entire back catalog of After Midnights, plus bonus episodes and perks over at the brand new PATREON

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On September 26, 1983, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet army saved the world.

When the Oko nuclear-warning system erroneously reported an incoming barrage of American missiles, Stanislov Petrov chose not to alert his superiors, and averted the apocalypse. But what if he had made a different decision? Would civilization still exist? What would the world look like today? 

Join the boys as they examine the uniquely human obsession with revising history, and take a journey down the "what if" rabbit hole.

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• The Roman Origins of Alternate History
• Titus Livius's Ab Urbe Condita
• Points of Divergence
• Chaos Theory
• The Butterfly Effect
• Edward Norton Lorenz
• "For Want of a Nail" 
• Apocalyptic Futures
• Lieutenant Colonel Stanislov Petrov
• The Oko Warning System
• "Launch on Warning" Protocol
• Mutually Assured Destruction
• Northern Hemisphere Effects vs. Southern
• Fallout
• Little Ice Age vs. Nuclear Winter 
• What if the North Hadn't Won the Civil War?
• Likelihood of a Northern Failure/Southern Stalemate
• Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1864
• McClellan Negotiates a Ceasefire
• Lincoln's Legacy
• Slavery Continues
• Southern Decline
• Westward Expansion, Further Fragmentation
• WWI in America

Join the Midnight Masses!

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And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Episode Transcript

To make up for the lost episode due to Shane’s bout with COVID, MFFI is releasing another full, brand new After Midnight this week! Enjoy your favorite segments like “How Stupid Are We?” and “This Week’s Random Fact,” plus the greatest movie sequels of all time.

What’s in your top five? Tell us in DISCORD ...

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Access the entire back catalog of After Midnights, plus bonus episodes and perks over at the brand new MFFI Patreon: 

PATREON

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Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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The future is here, and it's terrifying. Join the boys as they learn all about the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9. What's with the crazy acronym, how swole can a chicken be, and when will Duncan get his prehensile tail? Find out on the latest DNA-snipped, biologically enhanced episode of MFFI. 

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• Clustered Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeats
• Genetic Scissors
• Streptococcus Pyogenes
• Bacteria: The Real Hero
• Yoshizumi Ishino
• Francisco Mojica
• Cas9
• Emanuelle Marie Charpentier and Jennifer Anne Doudna
• DNA/RNA/crRNA
• Cas12a
• Sickle Cell Treatment
• Victoria Gray
• CRISPR Crops
• Memphis Meats
• The GMO issue
• HIV and Cancer Treatments
• Challenges

Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

Midnight Merch

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Episode Transcript

Welp, Shane finally caught COVID, so instead of the regularly scheduled program, this week's episode is a fully unlocked encore presentation of our favorite After Midnight episode featuring the wifenesses. But there are some exciting announcements ahead, so stay tuned!

What are your top five animated films of all time? Tell us in DISCORD ...

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Access the entire back catalog of After Midnights, plus bonus episodes and perks over at the brand new MFFI Patreon: 

PATREON

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Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

Midnight Merch

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Little-known fact: the mad doctor from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was based on a real-life scientist named Giovanni Aldini. And even Aldini's corpse-reanimating experiments were mild compared to some of the bizarre and horrifying travesties that have been committed in the name of scientific progress. Join the boys as they explore two-headed dogs, telekinetic pong-playing monkeys, and the history of unhinged science.

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• Vladimir Demikhov
• Head Transplants
• Shavka and Brodyaga
• Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado
• Shiro Ishii
• Unit 731
• Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night (Disease Fleas)
• Giovanni Aldini, the OG Frankenstein
• Galvanism
• The Postmortem Electrocution of George Forster
• Andrew Ure, Frankenstein Part 2
• The Postmortem Electrocution of Matthew Clydesdale
• Elon Musk and Neuralink
• Pager the Mind-Pong Monkey
• Cryonics
• Alcor, the Life-Extension Foundation
• M.E.A.R.T, the Semi-Living Artist

Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Episode Transcript

Leroy Robert Ripley would transcend humble origins to become an unlikely superstar, rebranding from an awkward teenage cartoonist to the sophisticated leader of a profitable multimedia empire. In the process he would expand minds, introduce Americans to the wonders of the larger world...and also contribute to misinformation, promote stereotypes, and work hard to conceal the true secret behind his success. Join the boys this week as they tackle the complicated legacy of Ripley's Believe It or Not!

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• Leroy Robert Ripley
• Santa Rosa
• Those Teeth
• From the San Franciso Bulletin to the New York Globe
• Robert Leroy Ripley
• Handball Champion
• Rebranding/Makeover
• Champs and Chumps
• Believe It or Not
• The Laconia
• Ramble 'Round the World With Ripley
• Ripley Meets India
• Ripley Fetishizes China
• The Lindbergh Controversy
• The First Book
• William Randolph Hearst Makes Ripley Rich
• Curioddities
• Norbert Pearlroth, Secret Weapon
• The Warner Brothers Film Shorts
• The Radio Show
• Ripley, Casanova
• BION Island
• The First Museum
• Human Exhibits, Oddities, and "High Class Freaks"
• Freda Pushnik
• Post-World-War Tour
• The First TV Show
• Death

Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Episode Transcript

In the late 17th century, a satanic panic swept through the Puritan colony of Salem, Massachusetts. Neighbors turned on neighbors, families were torn apart, and when all was said and done 19 innocent men and women were dead.

And the scariest part? It could happen again.  

Join Shane and Duncan for a thorough exploration of one of the most shameful episodes in American history: the Salem Witch Trials. 

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• European Witch Trials
• The German Trier Trials
• King James VI
• The Berwick Witch Trials
• Connecticut Witch Trials
• Arthur Miller's The Crucible
• The Puritans
• The Catholic Church and Indulgences
• Salem in the 1690s
• Abigail Williams and Elizabeth "Betty" Parris
• Samuel Parris
• William Griggs
• Mary Sibley and the Witches Cake
• Elizabeth Hubbard and the Wolf
• The First Three Accused: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba
• Ann Putnam Jr.
• The Devil's Book
• John and Elizabeth Proctor
• John Hathorne and Jon Corwin
• Governor Sir William Phipps
• Judge William Stoughton
• The First Execution: Bridget Bishop
• Oyer and Terminer
• Spectral Evidence
• Witch Tests
• The Pressing of Giles Cory
• The Superior Court of Judicature
• The Panic Ends

Join the Midnight Masses!

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And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Episode Transcript

Everything you think you know about H.H. Holmes is probably a lie. Which is appropriate, because "Dr. Henry Howard Holmes" was more of a serial liar than a serial killer. But while the popular version of his story is more myth than reality, the truth behind the legend is equally fascinating. Join the boys as they unearth the disturbing history of Herman Webster Mudgett, aka H.H. Holmes. 

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• Herman Webster Mudgett
• Myths vs. Reality
• Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City vs. Adam Seltzer's The True History of the White City Devil
• Yellow Journalism
• The "Murder Castle"
• The World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair)
• Formative Years
• Herman Webster Mudgett, "Resurrectionist"
• First Wife: Clara Lovering
• First Child: Robert Lovering Mudgett
• Second Wife: Myrta Zulique Belknap
• Second Child: Lucy Theodate Holmes
• Englewood, Chicago
• The Holtons
• Scams and Swindles (Mineral Water and Natural Gas)
• Benjamin Pitezel
• The Connors: Julia, Ned, and Pearl
• The Keeley Cure
• The Disappearance of Emeline Cigrand
• Third Wife: Minnie Williams
• Disappearance of Anna and Minnie
• On the Run
• Fourth Wife: Georiana Yoke
• Murders of Benjam, Howard, Alice, and Nellie Pitezel
• Apprehended
• The Trial
• Executed

Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

Midnight Merch

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Episode Transcript

From the largest animal to ever inhabit the earth to the heaviest predator of all time, from Spinosaurus to Dire Wolves (they were real!), Shane and Duncan explore the biggest of the big. 

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Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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Join the MFFI community and vote on episode topics via DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• Modern Megafauna
• Blue Whale: Balaenoptera Musculus
• Megatherium (Giant Ground Sloth)
• The Pando Aspen Colony 
• Armillaria Ostoyae: Clone Network of Fungus Rhizomorphs
• La Brea Tar Pits and Zed
• The Five Major Extinction Events
• The Square Cube Law
• Patagotitan Mayorum
• Brontosaurus (?)
• Spinosaurus
• Meganeuropsis Permiana
• Paraceratherium
• Dire Wolves

Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

Midnight Merch

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Episode Transcript