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.

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10 Expert Tips for Calming an Anxious Dog

9 hours ago | mentalfloss.com | Kate Schweitzer

Anxiety isn’t just a human trait—animals can also feel it to varying degrees as well. And much like humans, it can manifest in different ways and be triggered by different factors. Unfortunately for many dogs, these factors are incredibly common. Some pets feel anxious amid seemingly benign everyday activities and not just during Fourth of July fireworks or at annual vet appointments.
The Quest for the North Pole, Episode 3: The Turning Point

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Ellen Gutoskey

Subscribe here, or by clicking subscribe above!It’s June 17, 1896, and Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen is waking up after another frigid night spent on Franz Josef Land. It’s an uninhabited archipelago north of Siberia in the Arctic Ocean. With his assistant Hjalmar Johansen still snoozing nearby, Nansen starts a fire, tosses some meat into a pot to make soup, and climbs atop a rocky hill to admire the view. That’s when he hears it—the unmistakable sound of dogs barking.
The Quest for the North Pole: A Historical Timeline of Arctic Exploration

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Ellen Gutoskey

In the 19th century, explorers were obsessed with reaching Earth’s most unattainable spot: the North Pole. Their expeditions captivated the public, and the adventurers themselves became venerated celebrities. It’s such a fascinating part of history that we decided to make it the subject of our latest podcast, The Quest for the North Pole. Keep track of all the explorers’ progress with the timeline below.
History Vs. Bonus Episode: Theodore Roosevelt Vs. Christmas Trees

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Erin McCarthy |Erin Mccarthy

Mental Floss has a new podcast with iHeartRadio called History Vs., about how your favorite historical figures faced off against their greatest foes. Our first season is all about President Theodore Roosevelt. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here, and for more TR content, visit the History Vs. site. It’s 6:45 a.m. on Christmas morning, 1902, and Theodore Roosevelt’s children—Alice, Ted, Kermit, Ethel, Archie, and Quentin—are pounding at the president’s bedroom door.
History Vs. Bonus Episode: Epilogue - The Other Roosevelts

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Ellen Gutoskey

Mental Floss has a new podcast with iHeartRadio called History Vs., about how your favorite historical figures faced off against their greatest foes. Our first season is all about President Theodore Roosevelt. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here, and for more TR content, visit the History Vs. site. Theodore Roosevelt was many things: a writer, a rancher, a president. But above all, he was a family man. TR was exceptionally close to, and dearly loved, his family.
History Vs. Podcast Bonus Episode: Theodore Roosevelt vs. Bigfoot

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Erin McCarthy |Erin Mccarthy

Erin McCarthy: Hello and welcome to a very special bonus episode of History Vs., a podcast from Mental Floss and iHeartRadio about how your favorite historical figures faced off against their greatest foes. I’m your host, Erin McCarthy, and today, we’re going to be exploring a tale Theodore Roosevelt wrote about in his book The Wilderness Hunter, a memoir of his time on the frontier, which was published in 1893.
History Vs. Bonus Episode: The Statue

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Erin McCarthy |Erin Mccarthy

One thing that happens when you make a Theodore Roosevelt-themed podcast is that whenever there’s TR-related news, you get a ton of messages about it. Which is exactly what happened to me when news broke that the American Museum of Natural History had asked for the equestrian statue of TR that stands outside its Central Park West entrance to be removed. The request comes at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism.
History Vs. Episode 5: Theodore Roosevelt Vs. Language

4 days ago | mentalfloss.com | Erin Mccarthy |Erin McCarthy |Erin Mccarthy

Have you ever looked at a word—like although, for example—and thought: There are just too many letters in this word? If so, congratulations: You have a little something in common with Theodore Roosevelt, author of more than 30 books and 150,000 letters. You know who else thought there were just too many letters in English words? Philanthropist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. In 1906, Carnegie created, and financially supported, the Simplified Spelling Board.
Megalodons May Have Eaten Anything That Moved, According to New Study

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | CaLea Johnson

New research suggests that the megalodon’s diet probably wasn‘t just whales. For a long time, scientists believed that the megalodon—the biggest fish ever discovered—primarily ate whales. While the sea mammals were likely part of the prehistoric sharks’ diet, a new study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters suggests that a lot more was on the menu.
Madame Tussauds London Will Display a Wax Sausage Roll Alongside Its Celebrities

1 week ago | mentalfloss.com | CaLea Johnson

A Greggs sausage roll is joining the stars at Madame Tussauds for the month of June. For many people, meeting their favorite celebrity would be a dream come true. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum makes that dream a semi-reality, as fans get to take pictures with iconic actors, singers, and even fictional characters recreated as wax figures. The attraction’s original location in London just unveiled one of its most unusual—and most appetizing—sculptures yet: a sausage roll.