Hi!

On Tuesday, I shared a story about a quirk of geography — and the emails I received in response were incredible. At least a dozen of you replied to tell me that it was your favorite Now I Know in weeks if not months. And honestly? I wasn’t surprised — because it was one of my favorites as well.

I learn a lot while writing Now I Know and I always enjoy that aspect; learning something new always brings me a little bit of joy. But this one, for reasons I can’t quite articulate, was jaw-dropping. Months ago, I learned that there was something weird about Namibia’s panhandle, made a note of it, and moved on — but I didn’t explore further in the moment. On Monday night, I was writing another story for Tuesday when I got distracted, rediscovered my note about Namibia, and dug in a bit. I was so amazed at how ridiculous the story was that I stopped writing the other story (which is good and I hope to share it next week!) and pivoted to the panhandle one.

I’ve been writing Now I Know for more than 15 years, and people regularly ask me if I’m running low on stuff to share. Honestly, sometimes it feels like I am, but I know better than that. There’s so much out there to be discovered, and when you do — or, at least, when I do — it brings so much joy.

(Related: this comic.)

---

Before we get to the week in review, a quick thank you to everyone who suggested books for me to read. I’m still getting through the dozens of ideas, and apologies — I can’t reply to everyone who sent in a suggestion, because there were simply way too many!

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: A City Fit for a King: A story about MLK for MLK Day.

Tuesday: The Panhandle That Failed: See above!

Wednesday: Why Isn’t This Tennis Ball Bouncing?: Tennis is a game bound by the laws of physics… right?

Thursday: Why Does Toothpaste Make Orange Juice Taste So Awful?: The culprit is something called SLS.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “New York’s Grand Central Terminal Helped Provide the Blueprint for American Cities. It Happened by Accident” (Smithsonian Magazine, 19 minutes, December 2025). I had no idea, and I’m a big fan of Grand Central. The “accident,” by the way, was a literal accident.

2) “The Trial of the Century” (Lapham’s Quarterly, 12 minutes, October 2025). A deep dive into the Scopes Money Trial, a century later.

3) “Are ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants Really That Bad At Questions About Sports?” (Defector, 9 minutes, January 2026). This is behind a paywall, but the paywall is waived for January if you give them your email address.

Have a great weekend!

Dan