In March 2014 Futility Closet launched a thirty-minute weekly podcast hosted by Greg and Sharon Ross. A typical episode lasts thirty minutes and consists of three segments: first the week's core topic, typically a curious story from history; second, listener mail; third, a
lateral thinking puzzle, posed by one of the hosts for the other to solve. Some episodes depart from this format, for instance by presenting several short items or open questions culled from research, or by presenting several puzzles in lieu of other content. Many earlier episodes include an advertisement. Most episodes also include a reference to Sasha, the Futility Closet cat until the cat died in 2020. On the November 15, 2021, podcast Sharon announced the podcast would be ending at the end of November.
Content and sources The podcast has a wide scope and is not restricted to any particular era, but most episodes concern colorful personalities and strange events from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Victorian oddities are a mainstay of the show, as are unexplained mysteries,
forteana, hoaxes and impostors, sensational murders, remarkable animals, and the adventures of mariners, aviators, and explorers. Subjects are often prompted by listener suggestions. Some content has been sourced directly from Wikipedia without attribution.
Music The podcast's opening theme is an instrumental bass composition, "Fallen Star", which was written and performed by Doug Ross, brother of Greg. Doug Ross also supplies the bass riffs that punctuate the transitions between episode segments.
Reception The Futility Closet Podcast has been praised by James Harkin of
No Such Thing as a Fish, and by economist
Tim Harford. Joshua Gelernter of
The Weekly Standard described Futility Closet as "one of the most interesting websites on the internet." Michael Förtsch of
Wired.de named the Futility Closet Podcast as one of seven podcasts to make you smarter. The podcast was praised by Colin Patrick of
Mental Floss, by Jennifer K. Bauer of
Inland360.com, and by Kayla Matthews of
Makeuseof.com, who praised Greg Ross's scrupulous research.
Gizmodo's Robbie Gonzalez praised the site's lateral thinking puzzles. Futility Closet was praised by Steve Dodson of the linguistics blog
Languagehat, and was cited by the linguist
Ben Yagoda at the
Lingua Franca blog. ''Futility Closet's'' segment on the Canadian candy boycott was featured on
CBC Radio.
Support At the time of its launch, the podcast was supported chiefly by advertisements and one-time donations. By the end of 2014 a
Patreon campaign had been established. ==See also==