Mental Floss

Mental Floss, often stylized as mental_floss, is an American media company that creates digital content, print materials, and e-commerce, specifically targeting millennials. Owned by Dennis Publishing, the company operates out of New York City. The website mentalfloss.com features a mix of facts, trivia, and puzzles presented in a lighthearted manner, attracting 20.5 million unique visitors each month. Their YouTube channel hosts three weekly series and boasts 1.3 million subscribers. The print magazine, which has a circulation of 160,000, releases six issues each year. Notably, in October 2015, Mental Floss collaborated with the National Geographic Channel for Brain Surgery Live with mental_floss, marking the first-ever live broadcast of a brain surgery. In October 2016, it was announced that the magazine would discontinue its print version to concentrate solely on digital content.

International, Consumer

English

Online/Digital

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Global

#31581

United States

#7816

News and Media

#428

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Articles

A Shattered Flower Pot With a Secret Nets $60,000 at Auction

1 day ago | mentalfloss.com | Jake Rossen

Is a busted ceramic pot really valuable? It depends on who made it. When it comes to art, antiques, and other collectibles, condition is everything: Few will pay handsomely for a piece that arrives in pieces. But one recent auction demonstrated an exception to the rule. A broken flower pot managed to fetch over $60,000. According to The Times, UK-based Chiswick Auctions fielded the sale of a 4-foot-tall ceramic pot that was found split into two pieces and missing a large chunk of its upper portion.
Do Animals Have Regional Accents?

2 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Jake Rossen

Animal vocalizations can change depending on their environment. Back in 1986, researchers Bob Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney took infant rhesus and Japanese macaque monkeys and switched them shortly after birth. Each was placed in a socially similar but acoustically different environment. The question: Would the monkeys develop regional vocalizations that were contrary to how their species normally communicated?
‘Gone’ Girl: When ‘Scarlett’ Dared to Continue the Story of ‘Gone With the Wind’

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Jake Rossen

One author had the temerity to write a follow-up to Margaret Mitchell’s problematic classic. Roughly 300 people were lined up outside B. Dalton Bookstore in Atlanta, Georgia, anxiously waiting for the store to open at midnight. Once inside, they were greeted by employees wearing costumes that harkened to the antebellum South, serving pecan tarts and mint julep punch.
A Rare, Unaltered Print of ‘Star Wars’ From 1977 Is Coming to the Big Screen

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Jake Rossen

A climate-controlled Technicolor print of the space opera is about to surface for the first time in decades. Few films have undergone as many post-release revisions as Star Wars. George Lucas’s blockbuster has been altered in ways both major and minor over the past half-century, obscuring how audiences experienced it when it opened in May of 1977. If you weren’t there, you still have a chance to see it without the tweaks.
Human Conveyor Belt Helps Michigan Bookstore Move Its Entire Inventory Down the Block

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Jake Rossen

Over 300 volunteers came out to support a local business. On Sunday, April 13, the citizens of Chelsea, Michigan, put on a demonstration of community engagement. After learning a local bookstore was set to relocate just one block away, the town came together to move the seller’s entire inventory of 9100 titles, one book at a time.
Definition Detective Quiz #34

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Ellen Gutoskey

In Definition Detective, we give you an obscure word with four possible definitions. Only one is correct—the other three we made up. Can you identify the real meaning from the fakes? Try Other Definition Detective Quizzes:
7 Women Who Played Key Roles in the Vietnam War

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Colin Scanlon

From Viet Cong diplomats to American anti-war activists, these women made their mark on one of the 20th century’s most controversial conflicts. War is often erroneously understood as a purely masculine arena. But women have always played indispensable roles in battle, even if they’ve been historically relegated to the sidelines—and the Vietnam War was no exception.
Agent Orange: Its Toxic History in the Vietnam War

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Nick Keppler

In a mission code-named Operation Ranch Hand, the U.S. military unleashed millions of gallons of the toxic defoliant during the Vietnam War—and some descendants of Vietnam veterans say they’re still paying the price. One of the U.S. military’s many challenges in the Vietnam War was fighting through a seemingly endless jungle that the enemy knew better than Americans ever could.
Japanese Town Turns Its Middle-Aged Men Into Pokémon-Inspired Trading Cards

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | CaLea Johnson

Move over, Pikachu—Japan’s Ojisan Trading Card Game celebrates real-life local legends, delighting kids and strengthening community ties. You may be familiar with the Pokémon Trading Card Game, which allows fans to collect cards, build decks, and battle with their favorite monsters from the franchise. But have you ever wanted a game with a trading card specifically dedicated to you? A group of men in a small, rural Japanese town get to live that dream.
Does De-Extinction Actually Work?

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | Jennifer Billock

“Just making something look like an extinct animal isn’t the same as resurrecting it.”Do you think you could live alongside dodos and woolly mammoths? Colossal Biosciences thinks you can. The biotech company, which claims it recently resurrected the dire wolf, focuses on “de-extinction,” or attempting to bring extinct animals back from oblivion.