All this to say, this book will have you exploring your own version of batshit in the most entertaining way.

The Theory of Everything Else is a warm, charming light hearted look at the strange, the odd, the weird and well, the downright batshit. As those examples suggest, scientists, mad and sane alike, are veritable fonts of absurdity: the natural byproduct of all their hypothesizing. Maybe it was only a matter of time before one of them proposed that drinking gin makes women spontaneously combust, or that life on Earth blossomed from aliens’ cosmic jetsam. Some of science’s wildest guesses achieve an elegance in their folly. In the 17th century, Charles Morton ventured that birds disappeared every winter because they migrated to the moon.

But nonsense also emerges from less expected quarters. In professional sports, where superstition collides with lavish budgets, players and owners will indulge every whim in the name of victory. Between 2005 and 2010, the Los Angeles Dodgers secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Russian scientist named Vladimir Shpunt who believed he could “transmit powerful energy through his hands and thoughts,” thereby improving the team’s batting average. A collection of the world’s most mind-boggling, thought-provoking, and downright hilarious theories by the co-host of the hit podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, Dan Schreiber. A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting. The writing was however under par, which I didn’t expect from Dan Schreiber, being a No Such Thing as a Fish fan. It felt like a book full of “have you heard of this? O wait, this is fun as well! And now I’m thinking of ghosts. And of presidents. Have you heard of …”. Many of the chapters and anecdotes did not really feel rounded, without a clear purpose.

There was a time when library shelves fairly sagged with strange reference works. Readers could peruse “The Best,” a 1974 hit that cataloged all things superlative, including bedsheets, sunscreens and life insurance policies. They could plunge into the RAND Corporation’s “A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates,” something of a bible among data scientists. Or they could cozy up with “The Dictionary of Imaginary Places,” containing entries on El Dorado and Jurassic Park. A pleasure. ... Schreiber is at his best when he’s digging into renowned loci of weirdness. ... Suitable for beach reading or for mainlining before a dinner party. Schreiber brings a formidable amount of research to bear." — Dan Piepenbring, New York Times Book ReviewIn The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird, comedian and co-host of the “No Such Thing as a Fish” podcast Dan Schreiber takes peculiar theories about some of life’s greatest mysteries and spins them into nonstop hilarity. Many of the ideas presented here are so implausible—such as the hypothesis that time travelers sank the Titanic—that Schreiber starts with a disclaimer, a suggestion that readers should “let the ideas alter your universe for a few seconds . . . but for God’s sake, don’t believe in a single one of them.” In fact, he uses the word batshit over and over to describe these unconventional beliefs and bizarre encounters, while also demonstrating that investigating such baffling notions (whether to solve them, prove them or disprove them) is often what leads people to discover something closer to the truth. We don’t know the answers to any of these questions (that includes the shower-curtain one, which is a mystery that has eluded scientists for decades, and which they are still trying to solve). But don’t worry, no matter what questions you have, you can bet on the fact that there is someone (or something) out there, investigating it on your behalf – and this book collects their latest findings. A pleasure. ... Suitable for beach reading or for mainlining before a dinner party." —Dan Piepenbring, New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

From the Silicon Valley tech billionaires currently trying to work out whether or not the universe is one giant video game simulation; to the self-proclaimed community of Italian time-travellers who are trying to save the world from destruction; The Theory of Everything Else will act as a handbook for those who want to think differently. In queste storie splende come il giorno che anche gli uomini di scienza (veri) incappavano in assurde teorie solo perché non riuscivano a capire il mondo, così come è chiaro che sicuramente anche ora staranno pensando a qualche teoria sbagliata ignari di dati di cui forse beneficeranno i posteri. Teorie assurde, tipo che il Titanic sarebbe affondato per colpa dei viaggiatori nel tempo, o che le piante in vaso potessero essere usate come testimoni oculari di delitti. Life is strange, and you never quite know how it’s going to play out nor where your big adventure may take place.” Let me also mention that the audiobook (read by the author himself) is a really fun way to experience this book. We don't know the answers to any of these questions (that includes the shower-curtain one, which is a mystery that has eluded scientists for decades, and which they are still trying to solve). But don't worry, no matter what questions you have, you can bet on the fact that there is someone (or something) out there, investigating it on your behalf - and this book collects their latest findings.The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power. We don’t know the answers to any of these questions (that includes the shower-curtain one, which is a mystery that has eluded scientists for decades, and which they are still trying to solve). But don’t worry, no matter what questions you have, you can bet on the fact that there is someone (or something) out there, investigating it on your behalf—and Dan Schreiber collects their latest findings.

And I did try a Ouija board once and definitely still kind of think it worked (it knew the name of my dead grandma which no one else in the room knew). It’s up to the reader, then, how closely to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Edison, who slept in his work clothes because he was convinced that “changing into pajamas at night messed with your body’s chemistry and gave you insomnia.” Or to support Kary Mullis — the chemist who invented the polymerase chain reaction that helped give us the Covid-19 PCR test — in his assertion that he was once politely greeted by a glowing raccoon outside his cabin in Northern California.Non-Fiction Books» Religion & Beliefs» Alternative Belief Systems» Eclectic & Esoteric Religions & Belief Systems Dan Schreiber, of QI & No Such Thing As A Fish brings us a love letter to the odder side of life, from Aliens to murder-solving plants, from time travellers on the Titanic to Native Americans on the English south coast - these facts and ‘facts’ will keep you laughing and gasping. You may just realise how weird you are, how weird we all are - and when we can all accept our weirdness and be weird together - that could be world changing.