Probably one of the best podcast ever made!!!!!!!!!!! I love the stories, the random facts and the lateral thinking puzzles are all amazing. Thank you Greg, Sharon, Doug, and Sasha. Thank you. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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I just found out about this podcast and have been binging episodes. I wish they were making more!

I liked the puzzles. That’s what drew me to Futility Closet in the first place. Then I became interested in the stories in the podcast. Overall a great decision! I’m just sad there aren’t new episodes.

There are other weird history podcasts out there, but I haven’t found anything better than this. The succinct storytelling and crisp production are top notch.

I found futility closet when my mom gave me her old iPod and some of the episodes had been downloaded on it and I've been a listener ever since.I haven't ever been able to find a podcast where every single episode catches my attention but I think this is the one! 500 stars!

I just stumbled across this podcast a few days ago and been absolutely hooked since. The chemistry between the married hosts is so sincere and refreshing in a flood of corporate content creation. I’m learning new things and it feels cozy, not condescending. Sad to discover the show has already wrapped, but life is about discovering new things!

This podcast was and still is amazing and easy to revisit like a good book. I just noticed they put out exactly enough to get through the year with an episode a day. I will miss Greg and Sharon and the great Sasha..

Episode 258 (I think) is about the radium girls and my mom’s dad’s mom’s father is the radium girls lawyer, Raymond H. Berry. I love this show and I’m so happy to have a relation! I will write in in the morning because it is 11 at night for me. Love you guys! -HoundLeap2

To be honest, this podcast was something I stumbled upon a few years ago when I was just beginning to get into podcasts. From the moment I finished my first episode, I knew that this was something genuinely special. I’ve yet to find another podcast capable of turning obscure moments in history into engaging narratives at such a high caliber of quality. The topics of each episode feel well researched, with sources read verbatim which give a deeper sense of the impacts these events had on the people associated. I’m sad to hear that this podcast has reached its end, as all good things do, but that shouldn’t let that stop you from taking a listen. I’ll be forever thankful to the Futility Closet Podcast for filling my uneventful days with wonderful stories from the pages of history.

Greg and Sharon love this project and love each other. They welcome their listeners into history with scholarship, artistry and compassion. I hope that they feel the respect we have for them just as strongly as they have shown us.

I will miss you guys please if you can come back I will check every day for the rest of my life to see if there is anything new I am so sad that you are ending your podcast please come back I have listens to everyone of your podcast and mesmerized most of them. I hope you health problems get better and you will be able to come back. I will pay as much as you want for you guys to come back. The only thing I look forward to on Mondays is your podcast.

Thank you for your podcasts over the years.

I’ve been reading the Futility Closet website for a long time, and I’m an even bigger fan of the podcast. Smart, well-researched, and above all, interesting content. I also love how warm and personable Greg and Sharon seem to be. This is the one podcast I recommend to everyone!

Informative, well researched, hosts that have authentic chemistry, and they keep their personal political views (whatever they may be) out of this amazing show! If only all the other podcasts would do the same! Easily one of the 5 best podcasts available! (1 year later)- I wanted to add an update- this is by far my favorite podcast. I crave the escape from the news cycle that make up the rest of my subscriptions… thank you again!

How can you beat a show where you learn things, are entertained and it’s delivered in a friendly style. Top of my podcast list.

Well-researched and well-written. I can only imagine that the people giving this less than 5 stars are either 8-year-olds or adults with the education of an 8-year-old.

Dees story’s thick mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Only word to describe it

No ads. No begging for money. No politics. No judgment. Audience engagement via email and puzzles. No snark. No back slide in production. Family friendly 10+. Consistent 1week delivery. No rushing through stories or insights. No stalling to fill time. The finest podcast I have heard and keep hearing in 15 plus years.

I have been listening to this podcast for years and has slowly turned into a daily habit. I mean this in the best way possible: it puts me to sleep. There is something about their dulcid tones and calm demeanor that just lull me to sleep. And as a night owl with occasional insomnia this is one of the few things that work. Some other podcasts try to put you to sleep but they love to slow or are artificial. This is just someone telling you awesome stories in a calm manor and you get to fully relax. And if ever my anxiety is too great for even sleep meds I get to hear about amazing things. I am done for if ever this podcast ends 😭

This is my new favorite podcast! I do wish that Greg and Sharon would slow down by about a quarter turn — the dense, fact-laden text is hard to absorb when it is spoken quickly. I am learning a lot! Thanks.

A bright spot in the otherwise worst day of the week. My husband and I love listening to this together and trying to solve the lateral thinking puzzles before Greg and Sharon (which very rarely happens).

I am in love with this podcast it is highly informative and so much fun to TRY to figure out the lateral thinking puzzles interesting history and great stories thank you guys so much for working hard to put out an episode once a week I always look forward to see what story you are doing

but please, you guys guys gotta EQ Sharon’s laughter because it’s deafening in headphones

Highly informative and very fun to listen to.

As a fan of STDWYTK, Ridiculous History, Stuff You Missed in History Class, and other such podcasts, many of the episodes by Futility Closet are familiar, BUT they expand on the context of stories I’ve heard before, making their versions more complete than what I’d heard before! I love their soothing yet animated voices and how one person is featured while the other occasionally chuckles and adds in a note. For those who hate “annoying tangents and banter,” this is more like a casual news report. The Rosses thoughtfully put together fascinating stories that are also sensitive, and they’re willing to add notes when critiqued. I love these stories and am adding this podcast to my list. Thanks for such a lovely series of trivia-stuffed stories!

Great podcast! There is no better podcast

You guys have been doing this for about as long as I have been alive, and it has never failed my expectations. I didn’t know that something was not great until I read the reviews, the most common review was to Sharon’s voice and how it’s hard to listen to. I personally don’t have anything against her voice and if you really care you don’t have to listen to the podcast. The bad reviews I’ve read sound really mean so you might want to tone it down a bit.

Based off the less than positive review left by “Black Listener” that stated they were unsubscribing due to Futility Closet not being a societal podcast, I’m glad you guys don’t jump in the current events bandwagon. Doing that is counter to why most listen to the podcast, to have an escape from the modern day. Keep up the good work!

I recently started listening to futility closet and was enjoying listening to interesting stories and “curiosities” in history, in America and abroad. I was listening the week of George Floyd and as a young, Black listener was severely disappointed that it wasn’t mentioned at all and unfortunately I will have to unsubscribe and stop listening. The only thing I can think is y’all just don’t care, which is sad. Be better. Say something. Stand up for your listeners, even if your podcast isn’t focused on societal issues.

Loved your review on Sixto Rodriguez !!

I can’t take the lifeless, monotone reading. There’s no inflection or affect at all. This guy manages to make fascinating historical events sound completely uninteresting.

Isn’t that all we want in a podcast?? Love the lateral thinking puzzles. Every week the topic surprises me, as I think “how did such a large and strange event evade me for so long??”

I am an avid podcast listener and futility closet is my favorite. The topics are always unique and Greg knows how to tell a story so you never drift off or get bored. Love it!

The Futility Closet has quickly become my favorite podcast. These are clearly very smart and very kind people. They are incredibly gifted with research skills and have the finesse to discuss subjects ranging from light and silly stuff to pretty gruesome history in a respectful and not-too-horrifying way. I say “wow” out loud at least once an episode and am also impressed with the community that has sprung up around the podcast (and long running website). Both excellent storytellers, I usually listen while running errands and I really can’t think of two people I’d rather go grocery shopping with ;)

Each episode is methodically researched. I also appreciate the “just the facts” approach that both presenters employ. The consistent approach makes the podcasts content consistently good. I especially enjoy the lateral thought puzzles. This is a great podcast that I always listen to the day it is published.

You all are wrong if you think it is bad but at least you said it in a nice way

One of the few podcasts I listen to for nearly every episode, Futility Closet combines random, but fascinating, historical incidents with lateral thinking puzzles that almost always keep me guessing. Check out the books too!

The presentation is simple, intimate, and homespun. The stories are unique, quite obscure, and not the usual fare covered by other history podcasts. Particularly recommended to the lover of maritime tales, wilderness travelogue, and Victoriana. And if you're a fan of lateral thinking puzzles, you'll love the puzzle segment at the end of each episode.

I want to like this podcast — the topics seem interesting, but the flat, emotionless style of “storytelling” is excruciating, difficult to follow, and downright dull. Stephen Hawking would have been a more emotional audio choice — at least he had a cadence.

Sometimes funny sometimes serious but always really interesting. Greg & Sharon have clear voices that are genuinely animated. No droning here. If you like forgotten history that should be remembered, this is your home, as it is mine.

Cool podcast if you like someone speed reading you essays with absolutely no vocal modulation, pacing, or sense of what makes for good audio storytelling.

In-depth, well-thought, researched story to start, with responses to listener mail about interesting current events and a puzzle in the second half. Sasha and her servants will make you laugh and think.

I have ping-ponged between quite a few podcasts, and none of them ever seemed to stick. I was convinced that I was condemned to a podcast-less life until I found Futility Closet. The story topics vary enough to be interesting but vary enough to avoid monotony. The structured format of the podcast also makes it a treat!

Really cool stories, solid research and good storytelling! The only reason I don’t give it 5 stars is for the lateral thinking puzzles. I know many listeners love this part, it’s just not my thing and I find them annoying so I turn it off when it get to that point.

Fun and interesting podcast, I find the lateral thinking puzzles are particularly enjoyable.

I started listening for the lateral thinking puzzles and stayed for the history. Great podcast!

I had first started listening to this podcast with a friend. I only had heard a few episodes and never listened to it outside of that. A few years later, it popped up, and I wanted to listen! This was a GREAT choice, as I have never been disappointed in any of the topics they review. The quirky history and fun lateral thinking puzzles really make Mondays awesome. They pleased me when they read my email on The Shark Papers episode in March 2019. I highly recommend it to you! (What podcast can say that they have their own PodCat?!)

Otherwise interesting stories made difficult to comprehend by a narrator who doesn’t seem interested in the topic. He reads quickly in a monotonous tone. It seems like he’s trying to get through each story as soon as possible so that he could get onto something more interesting. It’s clear that the hosts care about the product. It just doesn’t sound like it.