Each episode, hosts Kaveh Taherian and Hannah Hillam choose one of their countless open browser tabs and finally take the time to read and discuss its contents until they gain enough strength to close that tab once and for all.
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Sep 30, 2026 · 1:07:44
This week we learn how a brawl between a Canadian firefighting fraternal organization connected to the Orange Order and visiting American circus clowns led to the complete…
Sep 23, 2026 · 1:00:43
This week we learn how Shi Yang formed the Red Flag Fleet by uniting thousands of pirates and wreaked havoc over the South China Sea. A listener voice memo describes the most…
Sep 16, 2026 · 56:09
This week we learn about ancient salt deposits at the bottom of the ocean lead to the insane phenomenon of what scientists refer to as "Hot Tubs of Despair." A listener email…
Sep 9, 2026 · 55:18
This week we learn about the horrific once mythical cryptid of dozens of rats with their tales tied together that turned out to actually be real. A listener email explains how…
Sep 2, 2026 · 1:05:05
This week we're joined by special guest Tawny Platis as she tells us the story of how not being able to find Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon resulted in her becoming a DVD…
Aug 26, 2026 · 1:10:14
This week we learn how an astrologist from San Francisco embedded herself into the Reagan administration and became an unofficial advisor that dictated the times of the…
Aug 19, 2026 · 1:02:57
This week we're joined by special guest Dr. Kaveh Hoda of the House of Pod as he regales us with the story of how a professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of…
Aug 12, 2026 · 57:56
This week we dive into the Luddite uprising of the early 19th century and their subsequent mischaracterization as being anti-tech instead of anti-exploitation. A listener email…
Aug 5, 2026 · 1:19:32
This week we answer all your burning questions like what rabbit holes we try to avoid, what unused tabs we still have open, and what the hell actually constitutes as anime. Email…
Jul 29, 2026 · 1:01:09
This week we conclude the Coney Island summer series with the story of how 3 rival entrepreneurs pushed each other to the limit in a battle for the public's attention and how, in…
Jul 22, 2026 · 55:28
This week we continue the Coney Island summer series as we learn about the gigantic Elephant shaped building that quickly devolved from hotel to brothel and then promptly caught…
Jul 15, 2026 · 55:50
This week we learn how a non-doctor doctor named Martin Couney leveraged the crowds at Coney Island's fascination with freak shows into giving birth to the modern NICU. A…
Jul 8, 2026 · 1:19:03
The ancient tournament of Kumitab returns as we pit some of our craziest subjects against one another including Colonel Sanders, Kaveh the Blacksmith, and the Magic Eye turtle…
Jul 1, 2026 · 49:19
This week we slide tackle into learning about the infamously bloody 1962 World Cup match between Chile and Italy that was preceded by new goal rules, a warring international…
Jun 24, 2026 · 1:04:19
This week we are joined by special guest co-host Alyssa Cooper as she walks us through the insane Beanie Baby craze of the late 90s. A listener email explains the Mr. Trashwheel…
Jun 17, 2026 · 45:53
This week we are joined by special guest co-host Josie Azzam as she tells us about when Russian rich kids called the Narodniks tried and failed horribly to convince the newly…
Jun 10, 2026 · 58:41
This week we conclude the insane life story of KFC founder Harland Sanders as he fries chicken for Oppenheimer and publicly beefs (chickens?) with his corporate overlords. A…
Jun 3, 2026 · 1:05:06
This week we learn about the insane life of KFC founder Harland Sanders as he is put in charge of his younger siblings from the age of 5 and later worked the railroads where he…
May 27, 2026 · 57:18
This week we learn about the history of courtroom sketching and how the Lindbergh kidnapping helped get cameras banned from courtrooms altogether. A listener voice memo ponders…
May 20, 2026 · 1:04:17
This week we're joined by cohost of Nerd of Mouth/ producer of LPNtv Holden McNeely as he tells us about the horrors of an entire island off the coast of Brazil populated by…
May 13, 2026 · 50:31
This week we learn how personality tests went from determining if you could handle PTSD in WW1 to whether or not you could be employed by a Fortune 500 company. A listener emails…
May 6, 2026 · 55:39
This week we learn how during Jim Crow, a group of Black artists sold between 50 to 200,000 landscape paintings from the trunks of their cars directly to doctors offices, real…
Apr 29, 2026 · 50:24
This week we learn how activist Marion Stokes archived 30 years of television in an effort to protect the truth from fake news. A listener voice memo suggests a novel way to…
Apr 22, 2026 · 1:02:54
This week we learn about Uncle Sam's predecessor Brother Jonathan, and how America's mascot for itself evolved between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. A listener email explains…
Apr 15, 2026 · 50:58
This week we learn how a rejected Belgian inventor's obsession with creating new instruments eventually led to the creation of one of the great American art forms. A listener…
Apr 8, 2026 · 59:01
This week we conclude the story of controversial comic artist Mike Diana whose run in with the law eventually ends up with him being taken to trial with charges of obscenity. A…
Apr 1, 2026 · 59:10
This week we dive into the origin of the controversial comic artist Mike Diana, who sought to create the "most offense zine ever made." A listener email explains how the release…
Mar 25, 2026 · 51:54
This week Hannah discusses the superstitions surrounding the year of the Fire Horse which began after a young girl tried to burn down Tokyo for love. A listener email reveals the…
Mar 18, 2026 · 1:11:39
On this very special Nowruz episode, Kaveh explains the origin of his snake shoulder fighting namesake from the Shahnameh. A listener voice memo gets into how Mendez v.…
Mar 11, 2026 · 1:10:15
This week we're joined by friend of the show Steven Ray Morris as he teaches us how Haim Saban was able to recycle Super Sentai footage and turn it into a gajillion dollar…
Mar 4, 2026 · 59:16
This week we learn about 22 year old Charles Darwin's first trip out to sea on the HMS Beagle and his unlikely friendship with captain Robert FitzRoy sparked his theory of…
Feb 25, 2026 · 58:06
This week we learn about the various uses of the history that led to the creation of the 90s' greatest 3D craze, Magic Eye. A listener email tells us how lead on the ocean floor…
Feb 18, 2026 · 1:16:46
This week we're joined by special guest Kaveh Mohebbi of the Cinema Rex podcast as he tells us about the myth surrounding John Swartzwelder, the most prolific writer in the…
Feb 11, 2026 · 54:42
This week we learn about the various uses of the name Batman including a town in Iran, a personal valet to a commissioned officer in England and a unit of measurement. A listener…
Feb 4, 2026 · 59:03
We are back for season 3 with new tabs and a new format! This week we learn about the South African legend Renfrew Christie, who used his dissertation at Oxford as a front to spy…
Dec 31, 2025 · 49:48
Part 2! After meeting on the 500 Open Tabs Discord, a few fans of the show got together and recorded a tribute episode "The Tab Conspiracy," so we decided to share it with our…
Dec 24, 2025 · 1:10:05
After meeting on the 500 Open Tabs Discord, a few fans of the show got together and recorded a tribute episode "The Tab Conspiracy," so we decided to share it with our tens of…
Dec 17, 2025 · 1:22:57
Our Season 2 finale brings back the ancient tournament of Kumitab, where we pit some of our most unhinged subjects against one another including Bat Boy, Khutulun, and the 1800s…
Dec 10, 2025 · 1:32:07
This week we are joined by award winning author Amal El-Mohtar as we learn about herbiary plagiarism from the 16th century, how Kix cereal once offered toys with radioactive…
Dec 3, 2025 · 1:31:20
This week we learn about the fascinating life of Russian inventor Leon Theremin, whose eponymous instrument led to the birth of electronic music and how San Francisco happily…
Nov 26, 2025 · 1:00:47
It's Thanksgiving week so we're showing our thanks to our tens of listeners by dedicating an entire episode to their tabs! Join us as we learn about Existentialism, criminals who…
Nov 19, 2025 · 1:32:17
This week we're joined by very special guest, comic artist Harris Fishman AKA BeetleMoses as we discuss Roald Dahl's relationship to Tim Burton's 2005 adaptation of his book, how…
Nov 12, 2025 · 1:27:08
This week we deep dive into how a political cartoon of William Howard Taft inspired Billy Possum who once tried to take control of the plush market from the Teddy Bear and how a…
Nov 5, 2025 · 1:29:00
This week we deep dive into the true story of ten strangers who were picked to live on a "sex raft" to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start banging, and…
Oct 29, 2025 · 1:41:17
It's finally Halloween! This week we're joined by very spooky guest Alyssa Cooper as we learn about Gef, a talking Mongoose who haunted a rural home on the Isle of Man, how…
Oct 22, 2025 · 1:25:02
This week we're together in New York as we discuss the grand finale of the Astor Place riot which unfolded like a Looney Tunes style fight and Barry Bremen, the great sports…
Oct 15, 2025 · 1:31:42
This week the story of the Astor Place riot continues with the Bowery Boys gang further fueling the divide between English and American theatre styles and the fearsome Mongolian…
Oct 8, 2025 · 1:38:04
This week we're in NYC as we deep dive into how a satirical 1800s magazine helped coin the city's nickname and the origins of a bitter rivalry between the American stage actor…
Oct 1, 2025 · 1:33:14
This week we deep dive into activist Dan Kwong's efforts to restore a baseball field at a former California internment camp and about researchers who lived in subterranean caves…
Sep 24, 2025 · 1:16:28
This week we deep dive into the absolutely disgusting history of medical researchers who experimented on themselves and the story of teenager Sybil Ludington, the unfortunately…
Sep 17, 2025 · 1:25:42
This week we conclude the story of Sushi Row with how Koda Farms' development of their proprietary Kokuho Rose rice allowed Kawafuku to become the first Sushi bar in Los Angeles…
Sep 10, 2025 · 1:36:55
This week we deep dive into how Monochronic culture forced its will on the Polychronic world and how Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles earned the moniker of Sushi Row by housing the…
Sep 3, 2025 · 1:28:20
This week we deep dive into how a newly founded America's insecurity about their status in the world led to their obsession with front lawns (and 9/11?) and the story of…
Aug 27, 2025 · 1:31:08
This week we deep dive into how an obsessive Irish mechanic changed the world of tractors after a handshake deal with Henry Ford and how in the early 2000s, the Thai government…
Aug 20, 2025 · 1:23:35
This week we deep dive into the life of Orangutan Ken Allen, the San Diego Zoo's most infamous escape artist and how the drawings of young boy named Onfim gave art historians…
Aug 13, 2025 · 1:43:04
This week, we conclude the sagas of John Murray Spear, a 19th‑century activist‑turned‑spiritualist who claimed the ghost of Benjamin Franklin ordered him to build a “Mechanical…
Aug 6, 2025 · 1:50:08
This week, we continue the saga behind the making of Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain music video and dive into the bizarre tale of John Murray Spear, a 19th‑century…
Jul 30, 2025 · 1:53:58
This week we deep dive into how ADHD is a holdover from hunter-gatherer societies and how a short story written by a friend inspired Guns N' Roses to create the most ambitious…
Jul 23, 2025 · 1:33:19
This week we deep dive into the historic bond between the Choctaw Nation with Ireland and how pigeons were domesticated, leading to some absolutely bonkers looking breeds. A…
Jul 16, 2025 · 1:41:23
This week we deep dive into the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history that happened in 1959 and how the Red Scare of the 1950s directly led to the founding of the…
Jul 9, 2025 · 1:05:22
The ancient tournament of Kumitab returns as we pit some of our craziest subjects against one another including Rube Waddell, an Aswang, and Pepsi bottle cosplay Nixon. Email…
Jul 2, 2025 · 1:09:47
Many of you have sent Listener Email submissions that were on the longer side, so we dedicated an entire episode for them to aerate like a fine wine! Amongst many things, we…
Jun 25, 2025 · 1:30:43
This week we deep dive into the oft overlooked subplot of Batman's 1988 storyline "A Death in the Family" in which the Joker is recruited by the Ayatollah Khomeini himself to…
Jun 18, 2025 · 1:28:54
This week we deep dive into the story of how bisexual icon Toto Koopman went from being a world famous model to World War II spy and how a planned citywide blackout resulted in a…
Jun 11, 2025 · 1:42:48
This week we deep dive into how turn of the century celebrity conman Death Valley Scotty came to get a castle built in the desert and how Dutch artist Willem Arondeus helped…
Jun 4, 2025 · 1:34:03
This week we deep dive into how the Woman's Army Corps proved to be a safe space for closeted lesbians during WW2 and how after a trade deal with the Soviet Union in 1989, Pepsi…
May 28, 2025 · 1:31:13
This week we deep dive into how at the height the Cold War the United States and USSR put on cultural exchange fairs for each other and Michel and Nadine Vaujour pulled off one…
May 21, 2025 · 1:09:16
This week we deep dive into how ravens and wolves work in tandem to survive and how Tipu Sultan's beef with the English led to the greatest piece of hater art ever commissioned.…
May 14, 2025 · 1:41:23
This week we're joined by special guest Patrick Ballesteros as we deep dive into how gatekeeping can be an effective tool against instant gratification, how John Calhoun's…
May 7, 2025 · 1:28:55
Guest host Josie Azzam dives into the fascinating (and occasionally outrageous) lives of Napoleon Bonaparte’s many siblings while Hannah goes on an existential journey to learn…
Apr 30, 2025 · 1:13:43
This week we learn about all the many, many Popes who have been murdered, and guest host Alyssa Cooper shines a light on the unexpectedly progressive world of 19th century New…
Apr 23, 2025 · 1:19:16
This week we learn about how the introduction of the corrugated box changed the entire pizza delivery industry and how Pythagoras' belief that fava beans contained the souls of…
Apr 16, 2025 · 1:23:04
This week we deep dive into how professional flatulists used to make the big bucks and how Tippi Hedren's humanitarian work with Vietnamese refugees inadvertently created a…
Apr 9, 2025 · 1:28:35
This week we're in Chicago for C2E2 as we deep dive into what led to the confrontation of German and Irish immigrants vs the Chicago Police Department in 1855 and how 2 renegade…
Apr 2, 2025 · 1:37:01
This week we're joined by special guest Murahd Shawki as we deep dive into people who are questioned by police for exercising their First Amendment right to video record in…
Mar 26, 2025 · 1:20:14
This week we deep dive into the strange phenomenon of people who falsely claim to be descended from Native American or First Nation ancestors and the absolutely unhinged on and…
Mar 19, 2025 · 1:34:35
It's Nowruz again so this week we deep dive into how the legend of Siavash may have influenced Persians to jump over fire on Red Wednesday and how a proposed U.S. state would…
Mar 12, 2025 · 1:32:02
This week we're joined by special guest J. L. Westover as we deep dive into the mechanics of a capitalist gameshow of yesteryear, how Australian jewel beetles mistakenly bang…
Mar 5, 2025 · 1:35:46
This week we conclude the Stone of Destiny heist and deep dive into the various stories of ship boys named Richard Parker who were eaten at sea. A listener email tells us about…
Feb 26, 2025 · 1:13:59
This week we deep dive into how a shortcut meant to save time while programming spawned a love affair with cheat codes and how a group of college students decided to steal an…
Feb 19, 2025 · 1:21:08
This week we deep dive into Naser al-Din Shah Qajar's published diary of his 1873 European tour and learn about bigger and better houses of spite. A listener email reveals how a…
Feb 12, 2025 · 1:24:47
This week we deep dive into how Billionaire James Crocker built a fence around a German immigrant's home in San Francisco and how legendary arson investigator John Orr's passion…
Feb 5, 2025 · 1:26:35
This week we learn how the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 gave birth to the city's most honest gambler and how Mark Twain's feud with the United States Postal Service lasted a…
Jan 29, 2025 · 1:40:15
This week we learn about a sex manual/midwifery book from 1684 and how the American Hippo Act forced two rivals from South Africa to come together for the greater good. A…
Jan 22, 2025 · 1:43:02
This week we finally unpack Charles Dellschau's forgotten aeronautical notebooks and learn how long-term nuclear waste warning messages are created. A listener email digs up the…
Jan 15, 2025 · 1:35:39
Unfortunately the LA fires have forced us to delay recording, so here's a quick update about ways you can help followed by our last Patreon AMA that should be unhinged enough to…
Jan 8, 2025 · 1:26:47
We're back from the winter break and midder than ever! This week we learn how salamanders tricked medieval Europeans into thinking they were fireproof and how Prussian immigrant…
Jan 1, 2025 · 1:22:27
Yes it's technically 2025 now but here are Kaveh's two most popular tabs of 2024 as voted by you the audience! Join us as we revisit the story of our Horse Daddy King Nikola…
Dec 25, 2024 · 1:06:41
This year for Christmas you're getting Hannah's two most popular tabs of 2024 as voted by you the audience! Join us as we revisit the story of how Iceland got the wrong…
Dec 18, 2024 · 1:28:41
On our season 1 finale, the ancient tournament of Kumitab continues as we pit some of our craziest subjects against one another including Ronald Reagan's sweatpants, a…
Dec 11, 2024 · 1:15:21
This week we learn about how an offline meme of the number 47 made its way into Star Trek and how a hibernating lizard named Ol' Rip caught the attention of President Calvin…
Dec 4, 2024 · 1:39:19
This week we learn how the battle between Nikolai Vavilov and Trofim Lysenko reached its crescendo when the Nazis came for the Russian seed vault and how the Zeno Brothers…
Nov 27, 2024 · 1:36:28
This week we learn about how cartographers used to just make up stuff for fun and how Nikolai Vavilov's dream of ending famine with the world's largest seed vault put him at…
Nov 20, 2024 · 1:12:04
This week we're all about sports as we learn how a Ten Cent Beer Night promotion led to one of the MLB's most infamous games and the curious Welsh tradition of competitive Bog…
Nov 13, 2024 · 1:38:30
This week we learn about the life of Milicent Patrick, a pioneering artist in Hollywood who designed the Creature From the Black Lagoon and Casa Sanchez's notorious…
Nov 6, 2024 · 1:41:00
On this extra patriotic election themed episode we learn about Victoria Woodhull, the first woman who ran for president in 1872 and how Ronald Reagan's decision to deregulate…
Oct 30, 2024 · 1:27:27
On this very spooky Halloween themed episode, we learn about the Irish origins of the Jack-o-Lantern and how Charles Schulz created another classic Peanuts holiday special. A…
Oct 23, 2024 · 1:48:03
This week we are joined by special guests Kaveh Rastegar and Kaveh Hoda as we learn about the contributions of Chris Frantz to the Talking Heads, an infamous surgery that killed…
Oct 16, 2024 · 1:37:37
This week we are in NYC for Comic Con and learn about the cow tunnels that once lied beneath the Javits Center and how Joseph Reginella was inspired to create a series of fake…
Oct 9, 2024 · 1:41:04
This week we are joined by special guest Kurosh Jozavi (@kujoprime) as we learn about Magic the Gathering Commander Decks, how wealthy British land owners used to populate their…
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