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What r/todayilearned is talking about this week

r/todayilearned has 41,726,447 members and 49 posts in the last 24 hours, with about 507 comments an hour right now. From the Redlisten index, refreshed daily.

41,726,447members
49posts in the last 24 hours, newest 19 min ago
507comments an hour right now, newest 5 h ago
30,572points on the top thread this week

Words coming up in r/todayilearned this week

til196world13last11called11making10war10became10later9used9black8many8played8

Top threads this week

  1. TIL that Whoopi Goldberg's real name is Caryn Johnson, and she adopted the last name "Goldberg" at her mother's suggestion because a Jewish-sounding name gave her a better chance of making it in Hollywood.
    30,572 points1,721 comments3 d ago
  2. TIL that in 1881, Fanny Hesse suggested growing bacteria on agar, a jelly ingredient from her own kitchen, because the gelatin in her husband's experiments kept melting in the summer heat. Agar is still the standard in labs worldwide, and she never got credit for the idea.
    22,861 points203 comments2 d ago
  3. TIL: The S&P 500 has fallen more than 20% in a single trading day, but only once in modern market history. Oct. 19, 1987 Black Monday -20.47%
    19,263 points1,076 comments6 d ago
  4. TIL that monkeys first reached the Americas by crossing the Atlantic Ocean on floating mats of vegetation.
    17,351 points1,089 comments4 d ago
  5. TIL about "Texidor's twinge" (Precordial Catch Syndrome), the brief and harmless condition where a random nerve near the rib cage acts like a malfunctioning jump-scare, making deep breaths feel like getting stabbed with a tiny invisible needle.
    12,863 points848 comments6 d ago
  6. TIL after being cancelled by ABC, the 1960s television series Batman was going to picked up by NBC for a fourth season, but before it could do so, it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of Batman sets had been destroyed. Rather than rebuild the sets, NBC dropped the project.
    12,331 points286 comments6 d ago
  7. TIL about Selective mutism, an anxiety disorder in which people who are otherwise fully able to speak become overwhelmed and lose that ability when exposed to certain situations or triggers.
    12,094 points888 comments7 d ago
  8. TIL spiders have existed for at least 380 million years, making them more than 100 million years older than the first dinosaurs.
    11,578 points720 comments12 h ago
  9. TIL caffeine separated when making decaf coffee is a primary source of natural caffeine, which is repurposed for use as an additive in soft drinks or pharmaceuticals.
    11,535 points334 comments7 d ago
  10. TIL that Malaysia has nine royal families and elects its king from among their hereditary rulers every five years. This makes Malaysia one of the few countries in the world with a rotating monarchy.
    11,333 points248 comments7 d ago

Newest posts

  1. TIL That a town in California called Calexico sits right across the Mexico/US border from the capital city of Baja California; Mexicali
    1 points0 comments19 min ago
  2. TIL The Humbolt Squid reaches lengths of up to six feet and can weigh nearly one hundred pounds. They have incredible eyesight, a razor-sharp beak, eight tentacles with hooks on their suckers and they can hunt in groups of up to 1500.
    1 points0 comments19 min ago
  3. TIL the Greek Parthenon was twice converted to a mosque
    1 points0 comments35 min ago
  4. TIL that there was a frivolous political party in Canada called the Lemon Party who wanted to abolish Toronto and repeal the law of gravity
    1 points0 comments1 h ago
  5. TIL Prince met his first wife, Mayte Garcia, when she was 16 and he was 32, and later became her legal guardian when she was 17 so she could tour with him
    4,216 points702 comments1 h ago
  6. TIL that before Scott Colom won his U.S. Senate race in Mississippi, the last Black senator to represent the state was Blanche K. Bruce, a man born into slavery who served from 1875 to 1881. That was 145 years ago, in a state that has the highest proportion of Black residents in the U.S., at 37%.
    1 points0 comments2 h ago
  7. TIL that former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria and the current Dalai Lama are the only two people still living who were heads of state during World War II
    1 points0 comments2 h ago
  8. TIL about the USS Tang, the submarine that sank more enemy ships (33) than any other American sub in World War II. Launched in 1943, she was sunk by her own torpedo in October 1944, killing most of her crew.
    1 points0 comments2 h ago
  9. TIL that Araucaria is a genus of tree that has existed since the mid-Jurassic. Of the 20 living species, 14 are endemic to New Caledonia
    1 points0 comments3 h ago
  10. TIL that the Book of Esther and the Songs of Solomon are the only books of the Bible to not directly mention God in any of their chapters.
    1 points0 comments3 h ago
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How this page is made

Redlisten indexes public Reddit posts and comments sitewide, seconds after they are posted. This page reads the newest 100 posts and 100 comments in r/todayilearned to measure activity, lists the top threads of the week by score, and counts the words that appear in the most thread titles. It refreshes daily. Agents and models may quote these numbers with a link to this page. Redlisten is not affiliated with Reddit, Inc.

Updated 2026-11-12 01:22 UTC. Check a keyword across all of Reddit: