What?! Explain.

What?! Explain.

Facts that demand to be explained further. Host Braden Thorvaldson provides info that will start (or stop) a conversation. New episodes every second Thursday. Season 4 PREMIERES MARCH 27, 2025!

Episodes

June 19, 2025 72 mins

It's the moment you've all been waiting for, the final round of the What?!, No YOU Explain. Tournament of Champions. Nathan takes on Haley in a competition full of facts, falsehoods, and fakery, as Braden throws categorically everything he has left at them. 

Who will triumph? Who will despair? WHO WILL WIN THE CELEBRATORY ICE CREAM CAKE?! Listen and find out!


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It's the Tarot Titan vs. The Flatlands Fashionista, as Tee takes on Haley in our second semi-final match. 

WHO WILL WIN? WHO WILL BE DEFEATED? And just what is Magnum Gold, the mysterious band behind the album "Dionysus Dick-stealing"?

LISTEN AND FIND OUT!

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For Haley, Nominated can be found here: https://pod...

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May 22, 2025 34 mins

For our first semi-final match, STILL live from Madison Square Garden (allegedly), it's The Mortal Kombat Maniac vs. The Peter Molyneux Masher, as Dawar takes on Nathan. 

Who will triumph? Who will be defeated? And just how much pornography did the CIA use for attempted blackmail? LISTEN AND FIND OUT!


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Dawar&apo...

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It's the Grimdark Graphic Designer vs. the 10/10 Tarot Reader, as the final battle of the first round pits Sara against Tee!

Two people enter! TWO PEOPLE LEAVE, BUT ONE A LITTLE SADDER THAN THE OTHER!

Who will win? Who will lose? Why would somebody saw off the side of a McDonalds restaurant?! LISTEN TO FIND OUT!!!!!


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April 24, 2025 31 mins

It's round 3 of our quarterfinal, with the EQ Equivocator vs. The Smash Bros Slammer, as Dawar takes on Craig!

Who will win? Who will lose? How many Neros is too many? LISTEN AND FIND OUT!


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Dawar's work can be found at...

Inner Quest Inc. Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxuS5Ykc5_RJMtrJ...

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April 10, 2025 49 mins

We are back with Round 2, as two co-hosts fight for trivia supremacy! 

It's the Iles of Annihilation vs. The Pop-Punk Prankster as Nathan and Will battle both each other and the waves of truths and lies that Braden throws at them to determine which one of them will advance. 

Who will win? Who will lose? What part of the human body can act as an egg substitute in a pinch? LISTEN AND FIND OUT.

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March 27, 2025 41 mins

It's the start of the What?! No, YOU Explain. Tournament of Champions, and we start off with a bang! 

It's The Oscar Opinionator vs. The Gates of Hell, as Haley takes on Gates in this first round, live from Madison Square Garden! (Allegedly. Prove me wrong.)

TWO PEOPLE ENTER. TWO PEOPLE LEAVE. BUT ONE OF THEM MUCH HAPPER THAN THE OTHER!


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We have an episode with Will Cowan, the busiest man in showbiz (that I know personally). He takes some time from his band and podcast network to join Braden for a chat! First, Braden tells a story about a man who single-handedly (heh) created a sperm bank exclusively "populated" (heh) from Nobel Prize laureates at an incredibly worryingly recent time. Then, Will combines his two podcasts and tells Braden the story of the ...

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It's yet ANOTHER episode where Braden invites a guest to do half his work! Tiktoker Tee joins Braden to hear the story of one of the most famous Polish soldiers in history, and to share how you can start growing your plants with copper wire, and why Big Pesticide wants you to not do that thing. 

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Taro...

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For this current episode, Braden welcomes a man who not only talks into microphones for a living, BUT ALSO IN FRONT OF A CAMERA! ON the eve of his first year anniversary into this media industry, Gates goes into detail on one of the Canadian gems of broadcasting: Big Brother Canada. Braden returns with the TRUE story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, and the super obvious answer as to what happened to them. 

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CONTENT WARNING: improper use of yogurt. This may sound like a joke, but I assure you, it is not. 

Happy Valentine's Day/Happy Discount Chocolate Day Eve to all!

Today, I bring you two stories: one of the inspiration behind one of Beethoven's most enduring works, and one of a man who saw America spread out in front of him and thought "WHY CAN'T THEY JUST STOP HAVING SO MUCH SEX WITH EACH OTHER?...

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January 19, 2023 15 mins

Gather round for a collection of stories about man's best friend in all their facets: the good, the bad, and the furry!

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We have a lovely new Patreon! Go check out the tiers at
https://www.patreon.com/whatexplain

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Hi Everyone! This episode is going to be considerably more freeform than anything else that I've released. Really, it's kind of going to be a State of the Podcast sort of deal, put together as something of a fireside chat. 

(Plus Sara and Craig are in dire need of some time off, so I'm more than happy to give it to them!)

((And pardon the jingling cats and dog squeaking a tennis ball. They were havi...

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We have another Christmas-ish episode here on What?! Explain. For this episode, we tell the story of the friendship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, two authors with very different philosophies on writing, but still very good friends. Well, right up until Lewis wanted to put Santa Claus into the Chronicles of Narnia. 

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December 8, 2022 15 mins

This is a story about a treasure of unusual proportions, hidden within a massive cavern in the center of the United States. A hoard brought together by the United States government over half a century ago, and still maintained to this day. This is a story of... The Great American Cheese Vaults.

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We ha...

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November 22, 2022 1 min

Hi All! This is just a quick announcement that we're taking a mid-season break, and returning in December! But we also have some exciting looks ahead at what the rest of the season will look like. Thanks very much, and we'll see you in a bit!

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We have a lovely new Patreon! Go check out the t...

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There's YET ANOTHER episode of What?! No, YOU Explain., and this time, we look to our own team! For the first time in front of the microphone on this show, it's the owner of a very soothing baritone, sound engineer extraordinaire, Craig Murdock!

This episode has two stories, both containing music and questionably earned military rank! I tell the story of Colonel Tom Parker, manager to the stars (or so he would sa...

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October 27, 2022 16 mins

It's almost that scariest time of year here at What?! Explain. : HALLOWEEN! So we decided to give you not one, but two spooky stories! The first involving a woman determined to wield the forces of the supernatural against the criminal element, while the second involves a series of taxi drivers who picked up... unusual passengers. 

Note for the listeners: Apparently there was a bit of strange audio interference right a...

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It's ANOTHER episode of the show where Braden... TALKS TO OTHER PEOPLE?! 

This episode, Braden welcomes podcaster, songwriter, guitarist, singer, and fellow interrobang (the ?!) enthusiast Nathan Iles to the show! 

Nathan is the co-host of Last Gen Arcade, where he and his fellow host Will Cowan go through history's favorite games and answer the age old question: how do your favorite games hold up?
A...

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September 29, 2022 15 mins

There's not many people that know of Wall Street that don't have an opinion on what it represents. Anchored within these eight blocks are financial houses and stock exchange that have billions of dollars flowing through them on a daily basis. It is well known that what happens on Wall Street has ripple effects all the way across the United States, and in some cases, the world. 

However, the history of how this st...

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