February 25, 2014

De-Mystifying Houdini’s Mysterious Death

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Harry Houdini survived many dangerous feats, including being trapped in a box underwater. To add to the Houdini myth, the great dare-devil died on Halloween. What finally did him in?: A punch to the stomach.

But being punched in the stomach and surviving was one of his special tricks. Why, on this occasion, did it lead to his demise? Perhaps not surprisingly, Houdini’s celebrity and personality contributed to his exit.

The mysteries of Houdini’s death are answered in this video from Smarter Everyday.

Image credit: Tmolini/Flickr

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

A man with long curly hair sits on a chair in a white hallway, surrounded by illustrated documents, maps, and notes taped to a gray wall.

The hidden process of becoming a CIA agent, from a former spy

“The public really doesn’t realize that they are much closer to CIA spies than they think they are.”

▸

01:03:40 min

—

with

Andrew Bustamante

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Could our whole Universe be a black hole’s interior?

Once you cross a black hole’s event horizon, there’s no going back. But inside, could creating a singularity give birth to a new Universe?

Union soldiers in blue uniforms escort prisoners past a burning building with a large hole in the wall while smoke and flames rise, during the American Civil War.

Books

The rise and fall of John Wilkes Booth: America’s first celebrity assassin

Before becoming America’s most infamous assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a magnetic actor who was beloved by audiences and courted by critics.

A collage featuring an open book, a light source, and images of the moon captures post-AI wisdom, with the title "The Night Crawler" at the top.

Business

Creating wisdom infrastructure for the next 100 years

Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.

A city skyline is reflected inside a single water droplet hanging from the tip of a metallic object against a gradient sky background.

The laboratory accident that saved 500 million lives

“Invention matters, but implementation matters more.”

▸

10 min

—

with

Derek Thompson

Up Next

The Brightest Star Cluster in Earth’s Sky

Pleiades, the brightest and well-known star cluster in earth’s sky, is slowly destroying part of a passing cloud of gas and dust, according to NASA. That and the “spidery” imagery […]