| #35, aired 2025-03-12 | HISTORIC SPEECHES: Other than the words in its title, this 3-word imperative is the most oft-repeated phrase in MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech let freedom ring |
| #34, aired 2025-03-05 | COLORS: Once very expensive to obtain--its dye came from a small Mediterranean Sea snail--this color rarely appears on national flags purple |
| #33, aired 2025-02-26 | CHILDREN'S BOOKS: The idea for this book, originally titled "A Week with Willi the Worm", came to the author as he punched holes in a stack of paper The Very Hungry Caterpillar (by Eric Carle) |
| #32, aired 2025-02-12 | 1980s MOVIE THEMES: This song was inspired by an ad in the film itself, which sounded like TV commercials for pest control services "Ghostbusters" |
| #31, aired 2025-02-05 | MILLION-DOLLAR IDEAS: Art Fry co-invented this product as a bookmark for his choir hymnal; only later did he realize it was "a whole new way to communicate" Post-it notes |
| #30, aired 2025-01-29 | GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: Unable to lift the ball as a toddler, Jason Belmonte devised a 2-handed throw that made him an outcast, then a champ, in this sport bowling |
| #29, aired 2025-01-22 | COMING ATTRACTIONS: Dubbed "The Voice of God", Don LaFontaine was best known for this 3-word phrase that set the stage for many a movie trailer In a world |
| #28, aired 2025-01-15 | THE MUPPETS: 3 crates are shipped abroad in 1981's "The Great Muppet Caper": "Frog" holds Kermit, "Bear" holds Fozzie & "Whatever" holds this Muppet Gonzo the Great |
| #27, aired 2025-01-08 | HAWAII: Introduced in 1881 to grow ornamental trees, these seeds became one of Hawaii's most valuable crops macadamia nuts |
| #26, aired 2024-01-23 | LITERARY CLICHÉS: Many mystery fans blame "The Door", a 1930 Mary Roberts Rinehart novel in which a servant kills a nurse, for this 4-word cliché the butler did it |
| #25, aired 2024-01-16 | ICONIC DESIGNERS: Once married to a publishing heir who owned citrus groves, her brightly printed dresses were originally designed to hide juice stains Lilly Pulitzer |
| #24, aired 2024-01-09 | TELEVISION HISTORY: According to the BBC, this 1953 event "did more than any other to make television a mainstream medium" the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II |
| #23, aired 2024-01-02 | AWARD-WINNING ACTRESSES: Her 2019 Oscar win & 2021 Emmy win were both for portraying a British queen Olivia Colman |
| #22, aired 2023-12-06 | APPLIED GEOMETRY: Thomas Hales proved hexagonal structures are the most compact way to fill a plane, a centuries-old theory based on the behavior of these honeybees |
| #21, aired 2023-11-29 | UNIQUE BUILDINGS: Despite 17.5 miles of hallways, you can walk anywhere in this Virginia building within about five minutes, due to its concentric layout the Pentagon |
| #20, aired 2023-11-15 | ARTISTS: Exhumed in 2017 to settle a paternity suit, his mustache had "preserved its classic 10-past-10 position" according to the Spanish press Salvador Dalí |
| #19, aired 2023-11-01 | PLAY TITLES: This 1959 play's title was taken from a Langston Hughes poem that begins, "What happens to a dream deferred?" A Raisin in the Sun (by Lorraine Hansberry) |
| #18, aired 2023-10-25 | TWEEN LIT: Referring to the lengthy title of her much-discussed novel, this author lamented that she didn't just call the book "Margaret" Judy Blume |
| #17, aired 2023-10-18 | FAMOUS WOMEN: She joined the Sisters of Loreto at age 18, then took her good works to Calcutta, where she was called this Mother Teresa |
| #16, aired 2023-10-11 | RALLYING CRIES: Don't mess with Texas: Sam Houston's troops shouted this 3-word battle cry while attacking Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto Remember the Alamo! |
| #15, aired 2023-10-04 | WORLD LANDMARKS: Also famously cracked like the Liberty Bell, this 14-ton landmark still sounds its distinctive bong every hour Big Ben |
| #14, aired 2023-09-27 | ASTRONOMY: Discovered in the '60s and '70s, Cygnus X-1 was the first of these light-trapping gravitational bodies to be identified black holes |
| #13, aired 2023-02-02 | ARTISTS: Despite how he's known, he was probably actually born in Anchiano, near Florence Leonardo da Vinci |
| #12, aired 2023-01-26 | NOVELS: "Breeders, Wives and Unwomen" was the headline of the New York Times' 1986 review of this novel The Handmaid's Tale |
| #11, aired 2023-01-19 | NOTORIOUS PLACES: Al Capone played banjo in a band called the Rock Islanders at this notorious spot Alcatraz |
| #10, aired 2023-01-12 | CORPORATE MASCOTS: Born on an island in a sea of milk, this pitchman was jokingly disavowed by the U.S. Navy by saying he is not in personnel records Cap'n Crunch |
| #9, aired 2023-01-05 | 20th CENTURY PEOPLE: Calling him "the embodiment of pure intellect", in December 1999 Time magazine named him Person of the Century Albert Einstein |
| #8, aired 2022-11-13 | ADVENTURE NOVELS: The villainess in this French novel kind of undercuts the title when she says, "among these four men two only are to be feared" The Three Musketeers |
| #7, aired 2022-11-06 | BRANDS: With wood becoming more difficult to source, this company turned to plastic for its automatic binding bricks, introduced in 1949 Lego |
| #6, aired 2022-10-30 | 19th CENTURY PEOPLE: In 1863 Walt Whitman wrote that this politician "has a face like a Hoosier Michael Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful" Lincoln |
| #5, aired 2022-10-23 | WORLD LANDMARKS: Built of more than 18,000 metal parts & 2.5 million rivets, it was the world's tallest manmade structure from 1889 to 1930 the Eiffel Tower |
| #4, aired 2022-10-16 | ANNUAL EVENTS: In 1986 Larry Harvey called a friend & said, let's do this, no one knows exactly why; it evolved into an annual festival in the desert Burning Man |
| #3, aired 2022-10-09 | NEWSPAPER HEADLINES: A New York Times headline about this disaster included "866 rescued" & "noted names missing" the Titanic |
| #2, aired 2022-10-02 | 19th CENTURY LITERATURE: William Brodie, an upstanding Scottish tradesman by day & leader of a gang of burglars by night, helped inspire these 2 title characters Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde |
| #1, aired 2022-09-25 | LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES: It's the world's smallest landlocked country in both area & population Vatican City |
