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  • Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries and Three Uncanny Four Productions Premiere New Podcast “Things You Don’t Need To Know”
  • Feb 18, 2021

YouTube Creator Ari Cagan Hosts New Podcast Series that Dives 
into the Most Interesting, Unconventional & Sometimes Useless Information

First Two Episodes, “Defuse a Bomb” and “Sell Your Soul,” Are Available Now

New York, NY – February 18, 2021 – Three Uncanny Four Productions and Academy Award winner Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries, in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment, today announced the launch of “Things You Don’t Need to Know,” a new podcast that examines some of the world’s most random topics, with a comedic and entertaining twist. Hosted by YouTube creator Ari Cagan, “Things You Don’t Need to Know” features conversations with experts, as well as Cagan’s friends and family, to teach listeners something completely new about an array of arbitrary subjects. 

The 30-episode series kicks off with an episode about bomb disposal and includes an interview with Cagan and Tom Gersbeck, a retired Marine Corps E.O.D. officer and author of “Practical Military Ordnance Identification.” The series also spotlights the art of selling your soul, beating the house at a casino, repossessing an airplane, getting rich quick through multi-level marketing, taking over the world, working as a pickup artist, operating as an air traffic controller, dropping out of middle school, and tricking a close friend. 

“Ari Cagan feels like he was raised in a country where he was the sole citizen,” said Adam McKay. “He is a total original. There’s no one I’d rather learn things from that I probably won’t need to know.”

“This podcast is a bit of everything. It’s like a job fair, you get a little taste. You won’t be able to defuse a bomb after listening but maybe you’ll decide air traffic controller is a career you’d like to pursue,” said Ari Cagan. “I’ve spent my life creating videos, I’d never even listened to a podcast before making this, and I think it’s resulted in a rather unique mix of different genres.”

The first two episodes of “Things You Don’t Need to Know” are available now.

The series is executive produced by Adam Davidson and Laura Mayer at Three Uncanny Four and Adam McKay and Harry Nelson at Hyperobject Industries. 

Listeners can subscribe to “Things You Don’t Need to Know” on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. For more information on “Things You Don’t Need to Know” and all other Sony Podcast shows, follow @SonyPodcasts on Twitter and Instagram.

Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries and Three Uncanny Four Productions Premiere New Podcast “Things You Don’t Need To Know”

About Ari Cagan
Ari Cagan is a 19-year-old New Yorker who dropped out of school in 8th grade and has since spent his time learning/teaching himself. Things You Don’t Need to Know expands upon Ari’s desire to learn new, interesting and unconventional things and he is excited to share all of them with you.

About Three Uncanny Four Productions
Three Uncanny Four Productions was co-founded by Adam Davidson and Laura Mayer in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment. The company’s first podcast, “Broken: Jeffrey Epstein,” was named one of the 50 best podcasts of 2019 by The Atlantic and has more than three million downloads. Davidson has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and more, and is a leading broadcaster and podcasting voice who co-founded and co-hosted NPR’s Planet Money and served as a frequent contributor to This American Life. His co-reporting on the episode “The Giant Pool of Money” for This American Life received the Peabody, DuPont-Columbia, and Polk Awards and was named one of the top works of journalism of the decade by New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. In addition, he has previously worked with Adam McKay as a co-host of Gimlet Media’s Surprisingly Awesome podcast. Mayer, who started her career in radio as a producer across multiple shows at WNYC New York Public Radio including the Fishko Files and On the Media, is a highly accomplished podcast producer. She previously oversaw all podcast production and launched dozens of shows for Panoply Media and also led the first season of production of Revisionist History. Most recently, she was the Executive Producer for Show Development at Stitcher where she developed and produced numerous projects for the company’s comedy-focused Earwolf network and Stitcher label.

About Hyperobject Industries
Hyperobject Industries is a multi-platform production company from Academy-Award winning writer-director-producer Adam McKay. The company’s name is a shout-out to environmental philosopher Timothy Morton’s use of the term ‘hyperobject’ and his belief that humankind needs to re-evaluate its relationship with nature as a whole. The team includes McKay’s longtime producer Kevin Messick and producers Betsy Koch and Todd Schulman. Hyperobject Industries’ focus is wide ranging from comedies, dramas, horror, documentaries and documentaries-series as well as politically charged and challenging subjects with which McKay has become synonymous. McKay serves as an executive producer on HBO documentary 537 VOTES from Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman. Hyperobject Industries also develops original podcasts.

Television projects include the previously announced HBO limited series, chronicling the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and a limited series based on Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown’s upcoming book about Jeffrey Epstein. McKay and Bong Joon Ho are partnering to develop an HBO limited series inspired by Bong Joon Ho’s Academy Award Best Picture Parasite. In addition, McKay is set to re-team with Amy Adams (Talladega Nights, Vice) for the limited series Kings of America for Netflix. McKay and Messick continue to serve as Executive Producers on HBO’s critically acclaimed and Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series Succession.

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