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American Slide Chart: The Carol Stream, Illinois Company That Has Been Quietly Running the Analog World Since 1970 Most people have never heard of American Slide Chart. But if you’ve ever spun a cocktail mixing wheel, used an HVAC sizing chart, or received a popup college acceptance letter, you’ve almost certainly held one of their products without knowing it. In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, I finally fulfill a 14-year obsession by sitting down with Nanette Keir, the creative force and public face of American Slide Chart, to explore the full history of the company and the industry it inhabits. From Perrygraf — founded in 1934 by Lester Perry in Maywood, Illinois, and so synonymous with the product that “perrygraf” became the generic term for a slide wheel — to the bootstrap founding of American Slide Chart by James E. Johnson in 1970, to the moment in 1988 when American Slide Chart became so successful it bought back its parent company and became the largest producer of slide charts in the world. Along the way the conversation covers the Oughtred Society (the secret underground organization dedicated to the preservation of slide rules and calculating devices), the surprising and poignant story of company president Julie Anne Johnson, the tactile analog comeback driven by digital fatigue, and why volvelles and popup polyhedrons might be having their moment again. This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in print history, information design, Chicago business history, analog technology, or the quiet persistence of companies that do one thing extraordinarily well. Support the Show Merch Patreon Nanette on Social Media Website X Bluesky Instagram American Slide Chart on Social Media Website Spin Slide Pop Website YouTube Instagram Fascinating Nouns on Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTub

In this bonus episode, Scott and I discuss the importance of Fire Walk With Me, how Mark and David timed The Return to debut almost 25 years to the day after the finale of season 2, the hidden darkness of Twin Peaks, and how Mark Frost is a prolific sports writer.

Twin Peaks Untold: The Real Story Behind TV’s Most Influential Show Few television shows have left a mark on popular culture as deep and lasting as Twin Peaks. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost and premiering on ABC in 1990, Twin Peaks didn’t just tell the story of who killed Laura Palmer — it rewrote the rules of what television could be, pioneering serialized storytelling, dream logic narratives, and the kind of obsessive audience engagement that defined prestige TV for the next three decades. In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, I sit down with Scott Meslow — senior editor at The Week, culture contributor at GQ and New York Magazine, and author of A Place Both Wonderful and Strange: The Extraordinary Untold History of Twin Peaks — to explore the real behind-the-scenes story of the show: how Sheryl Lee was hired as an extra and became the soul of the series, how the Red Room was invented out of a contractual obligation (and a hot car), how ABC forced the reveal of Laura Palmer’s killer before the creators were ready, and whether David Lynch and Mark Frost actually knew who the killer was from the very beginning. Whether you’re a longtime Twin Peaks fan, a student of television history, or simply curious about the show that inspired everything from The Sopranos to Lost to Severance, this conversation is essential listening. A Place Both Wonderful and Strange is available now wherever books are sold. Support the Show Merch Patreon Scott on Social Media Website Bluesky Instagram Purchase “A Place Both Wonderful and Strange” Fascinating Nouns on Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTub

In this bonus episode, we discuss the Albert Belmont, the 1800’s version of George Costanza, how the sex party in Eyes Wide Shut was actually based on a real Rothschild ball, and the origins of Jewish Space Lasers.

What if the world’s most famous conspiracy theory is built entirely on myths, misquotes, and a pamphlet from 1846? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with author Mike Rothschild — yes, that Rothschild — to dig into his book Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, and trace the Rothschild myth from a Frankfurt Jewish ghetto all the way to Jewish space lasers and Alex Jones. Mike Rothschild — former conspiracy theory researcher, debunker, and author of The Storm is Upon Us about QAnon — walks through the real history of the Rothschild banking family: how a family living in a walled ghetto used a loophole in medieval Christian lending law to build one of the most powerful financial empires in European history, how they helped finance the defeat of Napoleon, and how a fictional pamphlet from 1846 invented the story that Nathan Rothschild manipulated the London Stock Exchange after Waterloo — a story that became the foundation of nearly every modern anti-semitic conspiracy theory. They also get into Art Bell and Coast to Coast AM, Alex Jones and his pivot from folksy truth-seeker to conspiracy profiteer, the Iraqi dinar scam, why the Kitty Genovese myth matters, QAnon’s debt to 19th century pamphlets, Bohemian Grove, Jekyll Island, and why the real power brokers aren’t secret at all — they’re hiding in plain sight. Support the Show Merch Patreon Episodes We Discussed Tea Krulos’s book/Documentary American Madness The Lost (and fake) Continent of Lemuria Mike on Social Media X Bluesky Patreon Purchase “Jewish Space Lasers” Fascinating Nouns on Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTube

In this bonus episode, Eddie and I discuss the Zodiac ciphers, his possible identity, and the existence of the REAL Zodiac killer, a guy who killed by using astrology.

What if the Zodiac Killer never existed? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with former Port Authority NY/NJ officer, 9/11 first responder, and author Eddie McNamara to dig into his book Zodiac Actually: The True Story of a Fake Serial Killer — and the case he makes is more convincing than you might expect. Eddie McNamara spent years tracking down court records, interviewing criminals, and piecing together what the actual evidence says about the Zodiac killings — and what he found is that the five canonical Zodiac murders, when examined individually rather than as a connected series, look a lot less like the work of a criminal genius and a lot more like a series of unrelated crimes that got stitched together by bad police work, credulous media, and the human desire for a better story. They dig into the Lake Herman Road murders — where a likely suspect named Dave Magris confessed to being present, drove the right car, owned the right gun, and was already on death row for another murder — and how the police essentially looked away because a drug dealer wasn’t as exciting as a supervillain. They also explore the Lake Berryessa stabbing, where a 250-pound man in a hand-sewn executioner’s hood with sunglasses clipped to the outside decided to stab two people in broad daylight instead of using the loaded gun in his hand — and then drove 27 miles to call the wrong police department. Plus: the Kitty Genovese myth, the Vietnam spitting story, Woodstock liars, a vegetarian cookbook with the greatest title ever, and whether Eddie won a film festival award over Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room”. Eddie on Social Media Instagram Purchase “Zodiactually” Fascinating Nouns on Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTube

*Disclaimer* This episode goes blue. You’ve been warned. What do a rubber chicken, a Tibetan singing bowl, and a hula girl figurine all have in common? They all have deeply, deeply messed up thoughts — and Elisabeth Saake is here to tell you exactly what they are. In this episode I sit down with author and associate publisher Elisabeth Saki to dig into her two wildly funny books: House Plants and Their F*cked Up Thoughts and Tchotchkes and Their F*cked Up Thoughts — and to figure out exactly what is going on inside her head. They talk about why house plants hit a cultural nerve that Tchotchkes couldn’t quite match (spoiler: it’s because they’re alive), the anonymous co-author hiding behind the pseudonym Carlyle Christoff, the one aloe plant entry that walked the line perfectly, and why a rubber chicken that understands advanced particle physics but can only say “squawk” might be the most poignant thing in either book. They also get into why people take joke books way too seriously, the surprisingly vulnerable experience of being an author, the therapeutic value of dark humor, and whether Elisabeth’s next book — P is for Perimenopause — is actually a children’s book alphabet or something far more unhinged. Elisabeth on Social Media Website Instagram X Purchase “Houseplants and their F*cked-Up Thoughts” Fascinating Nouns on Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTube

What happens when the first and only person allowed into Stephen King’s private archives sits down to talk about what she found? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with Dr. Caroline Bicks, author of Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King, for a wide-ranging conversation about horror, language, childhood trauma, and the secret sauce behind one of the most prolific writers in history. Dr. Bicks — a Shakespeare scholar and the University of Maine’s Stephen A. King Chair — was given unprecedented access to King’s full manuscript collection, including handwritten drafts of Carrie, The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary, and Night Shift. She shares what she found: margin notes revealing King’s obsessive attention to word sounds, the moment he almost put Pet Sematary in a drawer forever, how a concrete gravel liner changed the entire moral weight of the novel, and why the famous line “sometimes dead is better” was originally “sometimes death is better” — and why that one word change made all the difference. We also get into whether kids should be reading Stephen King (spoiler: it’s complicated), why Stephen King hated the Kubrick Shining, how Shakespeare and King are more alike than you think, the ghost question, and why Francis Bacon might actually be Stephen King. This one goes everywhere — and it’s a blast. Caroline on Social Media Website Instagram Facebook Podcast “Everyday Shakespeare” Purchase “Monsters in the Archives” Fascinating Nouns on Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTube

In this bonus episode, Steven and I explore the more strange and mystical elements of time expansion, including spiritual awakenings and near death experiences.  With both of these, time can seem to stop or cease completely.  We also talk about life reviews, their relation to precognitive events, and how that relates to the block universe!  Yeah, we pack quite a bit into these 10 minutes.

What if you could slow down time — without getting into a car accident? In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with psychologist and author Dr. Steven Taylor to explore one of the most fascinating phenomena in human experience: time expansion. We dig into the science behind why time seems […]

He was more famous than the mayor of New York — and one of the biggest fraudsters in American history. In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with author Gary Weiss, author of Retail Gangster: The Fall of Crazy Eddie, to unravel the wild true story of Eddie Antar — […]

In this episode Amelia and I go beyond the science and discuss the more supernatural elements of communicating with animals, which include animal psychics and prescient dreams.  And it all starts with a distinct giggling in the trees…

Since before the publication of Dr. Doolittle, we have been obsessed with communicating with animals.  Whether it’s out pet dog or the squirrel he’s chasing in the backyard, we would love to know what these creatures are thinking.  That is exactly what motivated Amelia Thomas to write her book ‘What Sheep Think about the Weather’, […]

If you know the name Dan Meyer, it is because he is the world’s foremost expert on sword swallowing.  He has had several appearances on America’s Got Talent, he has a famous Ted Talk, and he even has an IG Nobel Prize for his work documenting injuries sustained while swallowing swords.  What people don’t know […]