Podcasts are more popular every year, which means there's a wealth of audio storytelling to listen to — and many options to choose from.

We're here to help.

Whether you need something to listen to on your commute or just want a brain-boost while you pick up around the house, you can always trust a science podcast to teach you something new.

Some of our favorites tell fantastic stories, others examine the science behind controversial topics, and a few delve deep into the mysteries of how we exist in and understand the world. Many of these podcasts stretch beyond science, talking about tech or culture, but all examine scientific topics, including psychology, artificial intelligence, pharmacology, and more.

These are our 12 favorite science podcasts.

SEE ALSO: The 23 best science movies and shows streaming on Netflix that will make you smarter

"Hidden Brain"

The NPR show "Hidden Brain" takes deep dives into one of the most complex objects we know of in the universe: the human mind. Covering everything from psychology to neuroscience, host Shankar Vedantam investigates why people act, feel, and think the way we do.

Vedantam looks at how parents do (and don't) shape their kids minds, the ways humans cope with the unexpected, and why our attention can be sucked into the internet for hours at a time.

"The Story Collider"

In this personal storytelling show, individuals recite their own tales — similar to "The Moth" — but they're all focused on science and more specifically, the ways that science touches people's lives. It's a science-themed show about people.

In some cases, scientists tell stories about things that have blown their minds or gone horribly wrong. In others, you might get a heartwarming (or heartbreaking) tale informed by science. And some stories are just funny. 

"StarTalk Radio"

While some podcasts focus on humans or life on Earth, "StarTalk" takes a much larger-scale approach. Hosted by science-popularizing astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the show takes on the cosmos.

Tyson discusses what it would be like to live on Mars, the search for extra-terrestrial life, and occasionally dabbles in other scientific topics like technology in football or the new science of LSD. 

• Millennials have been accused of killing dozens of industries including fast-casual restaurants, napkins, golf, and beer. 
• Baby boomers— the name given to the generation born after World War II — are credited with ushering in lots of political and social change.
• And with those changes, some industries faded out and eventually died. 
• We've rounded up a list of industries that fell out of popularity when baby boomers were the age that millennials are now.

It's no secret that millennials have brought about significant change in recent years, but what about their predecessors?

We decided to give millennials a break and investigate the baby boomer generation. Baby boomers are defined by the US Census Bureau as those born in the years following World War II, from 1946 to 1964. 

For the purpose of this exercise, we looked at the period during which the boomers entered the workforce, between 1970 and 1990. 

"The boomers are rightly remembered for ushering in a lot of political and social change," Paul Taylor, a former executive vice president of Pew Research Center and author of "The Next America," told Business Insider.

But, the number of industries that died out during that period is "not the same level of magnitude," as today, he said. 

"Ultimately it is not really generations — it's technology that is the source of these changes," Taylor added. 

Even so, as baby boomers grew older, Americans started eating more fast food, using computers instead of typewriters, and shopping at big-box stores such as Walmart.

As a result, some major industries and products were phased out:

SEE ALSO: Millennials are waiting longer to get married, and it could wreak havoc on stores like Williams Sonoma and Bed Bath and Beyond

SEE ALSO: 'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing countless industries from napkins to Applebee's — here are the businesses they like the least

Five-and-dime stores

Before Walmart existed, five-and-dime stores selling inexpensive household and personal products were the place to shop. 

The original five-cents discount store was opened by Frank Woolworth in Upstate New York in 1879. This grew into the Woolworth store empire, which boomed in the wake of the Great Depression.

Eventually, these died out after big-box stores such as Walmart and Target took over in the 1970s. In 1999, Woolworth closed its final 400 stores. 

Typewriters

Typewriters became common in offices in the 1980s and were critical to opening the doors to women in the workplace. The early machines paved the way for electronic versions, which were ultimately replaced by computers. 

The first widely used personal computer was launched by IBM in 1981 and cost $1,565. The PC was named "Machine of the Year" by Time magazine in 1982. 

One of the grandfathers of the typewriter movement, Smith Corona Corporation, filed for bankruptcy in 1995.

Cassette tapes

Cassette tapes took off in 1979, the year that the Sony Walkman was invented. These portable devices enabled consumers to listen to music on the go.

In the early '90s, they started to fade out as CDs became popular. In 1991, sales of CDs overtook cassettes – total global shipments of CDs surpassed one billion in 1992 and two billion in 1996, according to Statista. 

Sales of portable tape players have steadily declined since then – from 18 million in 1994 to 480,000 in 2007, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

• John Skipper resigned suddenly as ESPN president in December, citing a long struggle with "substance addiction."
• In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Skipper shed light on the days leading up to his resignation, a time he said included being caught up in an extortion plot over a cocaine purchase.
• Skipper said he resigned after disclosing the extortion to Disney CEO Bob Iger, agreeing at the time that he had "placed the company in an untenable position."

In December, John Skipper resigned suddenly from his role as president of ESPN and cochairman of Disney Media Networks, citing a long struggle with "substance addiction."

The move came as a shock to the sports-media world at the time. But in a new interview with the ESPN historian James Andrew Miller for The Hollywood Reporter, Skipper described the difficult days leading up to his resignation, which he said included being caught up in an extortion plot over a cocaine purchase.

In the interview, Skipper said he had been an "infrequent" cocaine user and that his drug use did not interfere with his work at ESPN. When Miller pressed him on that, saying the behavior Skipper described didn't sound like an addiction, Skipper said that in December someone he had not previously bought cocaine from "attempted to extort" him and that this ultimately brought about a discussion with Disney CEO Bob Iger that led to his resignation.

"They threatened me, and I understood immediately that threat put me and my family at risk, and this exposure would put my professional life at risk as well," Skipper said. "I foreclosed that possibility by disclosing the details to my family, and then when I discussed it with Bob, he and I agreed that I had placed the company in an untenable position and as a result, I should resign."

"It was inappropriate for the president of ESPN and an officer of The Walt Disney Co. to be associated in any way with any of this," he later said. "I do want to make it clear, however, that anything I did in this regard, and anything else resulting from this, was a personal problem. My drug use never had any professional repercussions, but I still have profound regret."

Skipper described spending the day after his resignation by himself in New York City, crying as he "realized the profundity of what I'd done to myself, to my family, and that I'd given up the best job in sports on the planet."

He went on to call James Pitaro, the man who replaced him as ESPN president on March 5, "a good, smart executive" whose "style will work at ESPN."

Read the interview here.

SEE ALSO: John Skipper has unexpectedly resigned as president of ESPN, citing substance addiction

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: You can connect all 9 Best Picture Oscar nominees with actors they have in common — here's how

• Director Danny Boyle has confirmed that he will be directing the upcoming James Bond movie.
• He's currently working on a script with longtime screenwriting collaborator John Hodge.
• If all goes according to plan, Boyle will begin shooting the movie by the end of this year.
• The 25th Bond movie is slated for release November 2019 and will mark Daniel Craig's last time playing 007.

After months of rumors, Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle has confirmed that he will be directing the upcoming James Bond movie.

Boyle talked about the project to Metro US Wednesday night in New York during a screening of his upcoming FX series, "Trust." It seems he's trying to make the Bond movie after he's done with a project he's about to work on, which has a script by "Love Actually" screenwriter, Richard Curtis.

“We are working on a script right now," Boyle said. "And it all depends on that really. I am working on a Richard Curtis script at the moment. We hope to start shooting that in six or seven weeks. Then Bond would be right at the end of the year. But we are working on them both right now.”

“We’ve got an idea, John Hodge, the screenwriter [for the James Bond movie], and I have got this idea," Boyle continued. "And John is writing it at the moment. And it all depends on how it turns out. It would be foolish of me to give any of it away."

Hodge has been a longtime collaborator of Boyle's. He wrote "Trainspotting" and the 2017 sequel, as well as "Shallow Grave" and "The Beach."

The 25th Bond movie currently has a release date of November 8, 2019. It will mark the final time Daniel Craig will play 007.

Business Insider contacted MGM for comment but did not get an immediate response.

SEE ALSO: We talked to Walton Goggins about how he came up with the "grounded" villain role in "Tomb Raider" and his Oscar — yes, he has an Oscar

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: You can connect all 9 Best Picture Oscar nominees with actors they have in common — here's how

• Best Buy, Home Depot, Victoria's Secret, and other stores are tracking shoppers' returns dating back several years and, in some cases, punishing people who are suspected of abusing their return policies.
• Many shoppers are unaware their returns are being tracked.
• Home Depot engages in the practice to combat return fraud, which "is believed to be feeding the opioid epidemic," a Home Depot spokesman told Business Insider.
• Sephora says only customers with "excessive returns" are targeted.

At least a dozen major retailers are discreetly tracking shoppers' returns and punishing people who are suspected of abusing their return policies. 

Best Buy, Home Depot, and Victoria's Secret are among the many retailers engaging in this practice.

Most of these companies have hired a third-party firm, called The Retail Equation, to mine their sales data and keep a database of customers' returns to flag potentially problematic shoppers. Customers who are flagged are often barred from making future returns. 

Retailers say they use the service to combat return fraud. Some critics say its raises privacy concerns, however, and dozens of shoppers have complained online about being unfairly punished by the system.

Business Insider compiled a list of all the companies that use The Retail Equation, based on information from the companies as well as recent customer complaints on social media. 

Here's the full list: 

SEE ALSO: Toys R Us gift cards will expire in 30 days

Home Depot

Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said the company uses The Retail Equation to combat return fraud, which he said is "believed to be feeding the opioid epidemic."

"And returns fraud is also often the work of organized retail crime rings, thus funding serious crimes," he added. "These efforts not only protect the retailer’s bottom line, but they also help protect the communities where we do business. "

Unlike many other retailers, Home Depot only tracks returns that are not accompanied by a receipt, he said.

"The good news is that it’s pretty easy to avoid a non-receipted return these days because we can look up any card transaction or customers can opt to receive an email receipt rather than try to keep up with paper," he said.

CVS Pharmacy

CVS said it partnered with The Retail Equation (or TRE) last year.

"TRE's return management services are utilized by several major retailers representing more than 34,000 retail locations in the US," CVS said. "Since implementing TRE’s solution last year, approximately .003% (or one-third of 1%) of returns have been declined at our stores."

A customer whose return has been declined can dispute the decision through TRE, which will then initiate a review process with CVS, the company added.

Sephora

Sephora said it uses The Retail Equation, but only cracks down on customers with "excessive returns."

"We make every effort to accommodate returns, but a small fraction of customers take advantage of our policy, in many cases returning more than twice as much merchandise as they purchase," the company said. "This limits product selection and unfairly impacts other clients. When we identify excessive return patterns, we notify those customers that we may limit future returns or exchanges if no proof of purchase is provided."

• Scott and Mark Kelly are identical twins with two sets of the same DNA.
• While Scott spent a year in space, his brother Mark stayed on Earth, giving NASA a unique opportunity to see how space flight changes the human body and brain.
• They're uncovering some fascinating results: about 7% of Scott Kelly's DNA may have permanently changed in space.

When NASA astronaut Scott Kelly stood up last March after spending a year in space, he was two inches taller than his identical twin brother Mark.

The engineer and veteran of four space flights is part of a long-term NASA study that aims to figure out how being in space changes our bodies and brains.

Scott Kelly is uniquely positioned to give NASA key insight into these changes because he is both an astronaut and a twin. For its research, NASA is comparing Scott Kelly's DNA with the identical DNA of his twin brother, Mark Kelly. Mark stayed on Earth for Scott's 340-day stint aboard the International Space Station, giving NASA the rare opportunity to compare how being space affected his genes.

Although each Kelly brother was born with the same set of DNA, life has exposed each set of genes to a range of divergent experiences — space being one of them. Those experiences affect the way the Kellys' genes are expressed (also known as being "turned on" or "turned off").

Scott's newfound height turned out to be only a temporary result of his spine being physically stretched in a gravity-free environment, and not a tweak to his genes. But it's just one of the many alterations the researchers have documented so far. Deep within Scott's DNA, they are finding a range of tweaks that are not present in his brother Mark. While some were temporary and seemed to occur only while he was in space, others were long-lasting.

"When he went up into space it was like fireworks of gene expression," Christopher Mason, a principal investigator on the NASA twins study and an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Business Insider. "But the changes that seem to have stuck around include changes in immune system function and retinal function related to his eye health."

Roughly 7% of Scott Kelly's genes may have permanently changed as a result of his time in space

According to Mason, some 7% of Scott's genes have not returned to normal since he landed back on Earth more than two years ago. Kelly said he was surprised by that change in an interview on Marketplace.

"I did read in the newspaper the other day … that 7% of my DNA had changed permanently," Kelly said. "And I'm reading that, I'm like, ‘Huh, well that's weird.'"

Those changes appear to have occurred in genes that control functions related to Kelly's immune system, bone formation, and DNA repair, as well as in those involved in responding to an oxygen-depleted or carbon-dioxide rich environment.

"With a lot of these changes, it's as if the body is trying to understand this, quite literally, alien environment and respond to that," Mason said.

In many respects, Kelly's genes display the hallmarks of a body reacting to what it perceives as a threat, he added.

"Oftentimes when the body encounters something foreign, an immune response is activated. The body thinks there’s a reason to defend itself. We know there are aspects of being in space that are not a pleasant experience and this is the molecular manifestation of the body responding to that stress."

The full results of NASA's twin study aren't public yet — but here are some interesting findings

The full results of NASA's twin study haven't been released yet, but the preliminary data is already giving scientists a lot to ponder.

Some of those findings build on what we already knew, like the fact that being in space stretches your spine, shrinks your muscles, and messes up your sleep cycle.

But the long-term effects of taking our bodies for a jaunt outside Earth's protective atmosphere are much less understood. Here's a quick look at what the researchers have uncovered so far:

• Scott's telomeres got longer, then shrunk back to normal. Scott's telomeres, or the caps at the end of chromosomes, became longer than his brother's while he was in space, but quickly returned to their normal length once he returned home. "That is exactly the opposite of what we thought,” Susan Bailey, a radiation biologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, told Nature last year. That's because shorter telomeres are generally associated with getting older. Scientists are still studying what this means, but it could be linked to getting more exercise and eating fewer calories while in space, according to NASA.
• Scott's genetic expression changed in a variety of ways. Scott's genes showed both increased and decreased levels of methylation, a process that results in genes getting turned on and off. “Some of the most exciting things that we’ve seen from looking at gene expression in space is that we really see an explosion, like fireworks taking off, as soon as the human body gets into space,” Mason said in a statement last year. According to NASA, this could "indicate genes that are more sensitive to a changing environment whether on Earth or in space."
• The twins hosted different gut bacteria. Researchers noted differences between Scott's and Mark's gut bacteria (essentially the microbes that aid in digestion) throughout the year-long study. This was probably a result of their different diets and environments, NASA said.
• Scientists are looking for what they're calling a "space gene." By sequencing the RNA in the twins' white blood cells, researchers found more than 200,000 RNA molecules that were expressed differently between the brothers. It is normal for twins to have unique mutations in their genome, but scientists are "looking closer to see if a 'space gene' could have been activated while Scott was in space," NASA said.

NASA is still combing through the results of the study and expects to release the full set later this year. That research will inform space missions — including potential trips to Mars— for years to come.

Dina Spector contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: I got my dog’s DNA tested and what I learned shocked me

DON'T MISS: Scientists are beginning to learn how vaping impacts your health — and the results are troubling

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NASA and Lockheed Martin reveal their plans to build the first-ever Mars space station

Countless products in the health foods isle of your local grocery store don't belong there.

Many of them boast labels like low or reduced fat.

The problem with low-fat products is simple. To accommodate for the loss of flavor that comes with removing the cream or richness in a product, food manufacturers tend to add sugar. The end result is a product that may have fewer calories and less fat, but has more sugar instead.

While high-fat diets have not been implicated in weight gain, high-sugar diets have.

The authors of a review of 50 studies on diet and weight gain published in the journal Food and Nutrition Research found that, on average, the more refined carbohydrates (such as sugar) that someone ate, the more weight they tended to gain over the study period. Similarly, the researchers behind a large review of 68 studies published in the British Medical Journal found that the more sugar someone consumed, the more they weighed.

In other words, the amount of sugar in a participant's diet could be used to roughly predict their weight, the researchers found.

Read on to find out what other high-sugar, low-fat foods truly don't deserve a healthy label.

SEE ALSO: The best ways to lose weight and keep it off, according to science

Peanut butter and jelly

The problem: PB&J is a ubiquitous lunch item among American kids — there's even a song about it — but it's actually a less-healthy alternative to sandwiches made with hummus or lean meats.

Most peanut butter contains added sugar; jelly is replete with the ingredient. Slap those ingredients between two slices of white bread and you've got a sandwich that packs 20 grams of sugar, 14 grams fat (3.5 grams saturated), and 400 calories.

How it happened: The Great Depression popularized peanut butter on bread as a cheaper-than-meat substitute for protein. When it was combined with Welch's Grapelade— one of the first iterations of jelly — in the rations of WWI soldiers in the US, the PB&J became an official hit.

Egg whites

The problem: For decades, we've been led to believe that eggs are bad for us because they're packed with cholesterol. Flavorless egg substitutes ranging from Egg Beaters to pre-blended cartons of egg whites packed grocery store shelves in the 1990s and early 2000s.

How it happened: As it turns out, the cholesterol in eggs doesn't significantly raise blood cholesterol for the vast majority of us; and the majority of the initial research which suggested it did was done in rabbits, who are vegetarians.

Bottled juices and fast-casual smoothies

The problem: Just because they pack lots of fruit, bottled smoothies and those sold at places like Jamba Juice are not necessarily healthy. But most are also incredibly high in sugar and calories. A 15-ounce bottle of Mighty Mango-flavored Naked Juice has 290 calories, 68 grams of carbs, and a whopping 57 grams of sugar. For comparison, a 16-ounce bottle of Coke has 44 grams of sugar.

How it happened: The first blender was invented in the late 1930s, and Steve Kuhnau, who was reportedly experimenting with blending fruits and veggies to combat some of his own allergies and health problems, founded the first Smoothie King restaurant in Louisiana in 1973.

• Vaping, which involves puffing on vaporized liquid nicotine using an e-cig or vape pen, seems to be healthier than smoking, a deadly habit that involves inhaling burning tobacco.
• And for some adult smokers, vaping may be somewhat helpful for quitting.
• But the practice also appears to be creating thousands of new smokers, most of whom are teens whose first exposure to nicotine is via an e-cig or vape pen.

Smoking kills. No other habit has been so strongly tied to death.

In addition to inhaling burned tobacco and tar, smokers breathe in toxic metals like cadmium and beryllium, as well as metallic elements like nickel and chromium.

It's no surprise, then, that much of the available evidence suggests that vaping, which involves puffing on vaporized liquid nicotine instead of inhaling burned tobacco, is at least somewhat healthier. Reaching for a vape pen instead of a conventional cigarette might also be helpful for some adults who are looking to quit smoking, though the evidence for that is somewhat limited.

But vaping also appears to be wildly popular among teens who use e-cigs illegally. In an ironic twist, teens who try vaping are at a far higher risk of becoming smokers compared with teens who don't.

Still, it has been unclear what all that elevated risk means in real terms. A new study published this month in the journal PLOS One adds some clarity. Using a mathematical model, researchers found evidence that vaping's popularity translated into as many as 168,000 new smokers in 2015 alone — all teens who otherwise were unlikely to have taken up the habit.

As many as 168,000 new smokers

For their new study, researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth University used 2014 census data and surveys to build a mathematical model of the link between vaping and smoking. Their evidence suggests that during 2015, roughly 2,070 smokers successfully quit with the aid of e-cigs.

But within the same time frame, their model suggested that as many as 168,000 young people who'd never previously smoked cigarettes started smoking regularly after vaping for the first time.

"Based on the existing scientific evidence ... e-cigarette use currently represents more population-level harm than benefit," the researchers wrote in their paper.

That said, the study is a model — it's not a controlled study that looks at actual habits, so the findings are somewhat limited. There's also no way to know, for example, if the e-cig users in the study who went on to smoke conventional cigarettes might have become smokers anyway, although the researchers attempted to control for that in their model.

Still, the paper's conclusions jibe with much of the emerging research on vaping.

Why vaping is so popular among teens

At high schools across the country, vaping has become a fad with its own verb.

This is not entirely surprising; aside from e-cigs' highly addictive nicotine content, the devices possess a handful of qualities that make them especially appealing to young people.

Unlike conventional cigarettes, which have a natural stop mechanism — they burn to the end — e-cigs can be re-filled and reused. Additionally, e-cigs are discrete and sometimes odorless (or have a non-offensive smell). Vaping isn't universally banned in indoor and outdoor places. Many vape pens are sleek, small, colorful, and fairly affordable.

But teens who use them illegally appear to be more likely to go on to smoke conventional cigarettes.

A 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested that teens who vaped had three times the risk of eventually smoking conventional cigarettes as teens who never tried e-cigs. A larger follow-up study done the following year appeared to confirm those findings, as did a 2018 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health which looked at roughly 1,150 British adolescents aged 11 to 18.

For the 2018 paper, teens whose nicotine exposure began with e-cigs appeared to have as much as a 12 times greater chance of smoking cigarettes 4 months later than kids who didn't vape, even after the researchers controlled for several big risk factors for smoking.

The first large and comprehensive review of all the published research on e-cigs added some additional weight to that conclusion, finding "substantial evidence" that young people who vape are more likely to smoke conventional cigarettes than those who don't.

Still, it's unclear exactly why or how e-cigs are linked with conventional smoking among young people. It could be that the highly addictive nicotine in vape pens encourages them to look for products with an even higher concentration of the substance, or that smoking may be cheaper in some places than vaping. Either way, public health researchers say they find the trend alarming.

"Vaping among teens is my (and most public health professionals) biggest worry," Ana Rule, a professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University and an author of another study on e-cigs and teens, told Business Insider earlier this month.

DON'T MISS: A vape pen with twice the nicotine of comparable devices is taking over high schools — and adults are frightened

SEE ALSO: Scientists are beginning to learn how vaping impacts your health — and the results are troubling

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The science of why human breasts are so big

• Her Majesty the Queen has given official consent for Prince Harry to marry Meghan Markle on May 19.
• A law passed in 1772 means that royals need formal permission from the monarch to get married.
• The news comes a week after Markle was reportedly baptised into the Church of England.

The Queen has given her formal consent for Prince Harry to marry Meghan Markle, two months before the ceremony.

The monarch gave her seal of approval to the marriage at a meeting of her Privy Council on Wednesday, details of which were made public on Thursday afternoon.

In a letter presented at the meeting, the Queen wrote:

"I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle, which Consent I am causing to be signified under the Great Seal and to be entered in the Books of the Privy Council."

(The letter uses the couple's real names, Henry and Rachel, rather than the nicknames we're used to.)

The news comes just one week after divorcee Markle was reportedly baptised into the Church of England by the Archbishop of Canterbury, removing a religious hurdle which prevents British royals from marrying Catholics.

The slightly archaic step of formal royal approval is necessary because of the 1772 Royal Marriages Act, which gives the reigning monarch a veto matches made by members of her family.

In 2013 the rules were tightened so that the Queen only needs to approve marriages for the first six people in line to the throne. At that moment that means (in order) Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Harry, and Prince Andrew.

The Queen had already made clear she was happy about the wedding, releasing a statement at the same time the couple announced their marriage:

The Privy Council approval is just an extra step to make it official.

The Daily Mail reported that Her Majesty signed a similar letter just a week before Prince William married Kate Middleton, though she called her "Our Trusty and Well-beloed Catherine Eliazabeth Middleton," higher written praise than Markle has received.

It added that if the Queen had not given her consent before the couple marry on May 19 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Harry "and his descendants would be banned from ever ascending to the throne."

Luckily, the Queen has never formally denied a request.

SEE ALSO: Meghan Markle was reportedly baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a secret ceremony this week

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The popularity of fail videos reveals a darker side of humanity

The comedies that film critics have deemed the greatest in history have often wrapped their humor in an inventive or thought-provoking package. 

From Charlie Chaplin's silent-film antics to quote-worthy parodies like "Airplane!," to the animated movies of the new millennium, comedy classics have taken many forms over the decades.

To find out which movies in the genre have gained the most critical acclaim over time, we turned to the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes for its list of the top-rated films labeled "comedy" on its site.

As happens with many films and the idea of "genre," some may argue that certain of these entries are dramas rather than comedies (or horror in the case of "Get Out"). But we went with their categorization on Rotten Tomatoes.

We arranged the films in chronological order by decade, stretching from the 1920s to the present.

Here are the 100 best comedy movies of all time, according to critics:

SEE ALSO: The 13 movies that made $1 billion at the box office the fastest, including Marvel's 'Black Panther'

1920s:

"The Gold Rush" (1925)

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 93%

Summary: "A prospector goes to the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more."

1930s:

Life is anything but ordinary when your mom and dad are some of the richest people in the world.

We already met the world's richest black billionaires, so it is time to take a look at their kids. 

Being born into a billionaire family can certainly make life interesting. Many of these kids followed in their parent's footsteps, whether that meant playing basketball or running an oil company.

Despite growing up in undeniable privilege, many of the kids of billionaires have made an impact in their own right.

Keep scrolling to meet the children of the world's richest black billionaires.

SEE ALSO: A Nigerian businessman is half as rich as he was 3 years ago — but he's still the richest black billionaire in the world

DON'T MISS: Meet the kids of the world's richest tech billionaires

Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time, but also one of the richest African Americans on the planet with a net worth of $1.65 billion.

His son, Marcus Jordan, played basketball at the University of Central Florida from 2009 to 2012 where he scored an average of 12.3 points per game.

Sources: Sports-Reference 

Like his father, Marcus also got into business after his playing days. He opened a boutique sneaker shop in Disney World called Trophy Room.

Instagram Embed:
//instagram.com/p/Be_fqyqBWZp/embed
Width: 658px

Source: Bleacher Report

• Bottled water has twice the amount of microplastic in it that tap water does, according to a new report.
• Some plastic bottles have as many as 10,000 of these microplastic parts in a single liter.
• They're often the same kind of plastic that is used to make the bottle caps.

When you drink from a plastic bottle of fresh H20, you're sipping more than just water.

A new report from Orb Media reveals how major bottled water brands, including Aquafina, Dasani, Nestle and Evian all have tens, hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of microplastic particles floating in their products. These microparticles are typically about the same thickness as a single strand of human hair, and scientists don't know yet what gulping them down might be doing to our bodies.   

It turns out, we're all drinking a bit of microplastic in our water. But plastic bottled water drinkers have it worse. 

In the Orb study, conducted at the Fredonia State University of New York labs, researchers sampled 259 water bottles purchased from 19 different locations in nine countries around the world. 

They confirmed the average 1-liter water bottle has around 10.4 tiny plastic particles inside that we swallow when drinking.

And they think there may be more, smaller plastic particles than that. Using a microscope and fluorescent dye, the researchers found around 315 tiny microparticles, on average, per bottle. They think those are probably little bits of plastic, but they're not quite sure.  

Almost all of the bottles sampled (a full 93%,) had microplastics inside. Some bottles had none, but others had as many as 10,000 microparticles inside a single liter. Many of the microparticles were the exact same kind of plastic that bottle caps are made from, suggesting that flecks of cap are probably spilling into the drinks. 

Bottled water companies were quick to respond to the new study.

Nestle said in a statement that it has tested a range of its bottled water products for the presence of microplastics, and has not found any proof of their existence "beyond a trace level." The company also noted the lack of evidence that microplastics have a harmful effect on human health.

"There are a number of technical challenges involved with detecting intrinsic micro-plastic compounds in water samples. Indeed, testing methodologies must ensure that results are free from environmental context contamination and that they avoid the counting of false-positives related to compounds naturally present in water," Nestle wrote. "We are ready to collaborate with others to further develop the robustness and standardization of testing methods for micro plastics."

Dasani told Business Insider in a statement, "We stand by the safety of our products, and welcome continued study of plastics in our environment. It’s clear the world has a problem with plastic waste and that too much of it ends up in waterways and in the world’s oceans."

Aquafina had a similar statement, insisting that the way the company bottles its water is clean and subject to strict quality controls. The company said that "the science on micro-plastics and microfibers is an emerging field, in its infancy, which requires further scientific analysis."

Representatives from Evian were not immediately available for comment.

Microplastics come out of the tap, too. 

They're like a dust of the modern world, contaminating just about everything from our salt to our seas. But the researchers in this study found that on average, bottled water drinkers are ingesting twice as much microplastic as tap water drinkers. 

Marc Edwards, a civil engineer who was one of the first to sound the alarm about dangerously high levels of lead in the water in Flint, Michigan told Business Insider earlier this year that "it is not possible to achieve zero health risk" with any drinking water. 

Still, the World Health Organization is taking note of the new find. 

WHO Spokesman Tarik Jašarević told Business Insider in an email that the organization is looking for new ways to better assess whether there's any risk involved in drinking microplastics. "Currently there is no evidence on impacts to human health," Jašarević said.

SEE ALSO: A grueling diet beloved by Instagrammers cuts out everything from alcohol to dairy — here's how well it works

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Erin Brockovich: Here's why water across the US is turning brown, yellow, and other colors

• Income inequality measures the gap between the richest people and the rest of the population.
• In the US, southern states and high-population states tend to have the worst levels of income inequality.
• See where your state ranks compared to the rest below.

The gap between rich Americans and poor Americans has been a cause for concern in the United States for decades.

But although that gap has gotten significantly worse since the 1970s, income inequality is not the same across each state.

Careers data site Zippia used data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey to rank all 50 states by income inequality.

The states are ranked by their Gini coefficient, a commonly used metric that quantifies income inequality on a scale from one to 100. The lower the score, the more equal the income distribution — a  score of 100 would mean that one person controls all the wealth in an economy.

As a country, the US fares pretty poorly when it comes to income inequality: according to the CIA Factbook, the US has the 40th highest level of inequality out of 150 countries — around the same level as Jamaica, Peru, and Cameroon.

Within the US, there are some clear trends: the states with the least inequality tended to be western states and states with low populations, while the most inequality occurred in high-population states and southern states.

The results line up with previous research that showed that people in the South have much lower odds of moving from the lowest income bracket to the highest, and that people in the West have the best chances of doing the same.

Analysis from political geographer Richard Morrill showed that areas like the South, where income inequality was more pronounced, also have high minority populations. Meanwhile, heavily homogenous areas with high Germanic and Scandinavian populations — like the West — tended to have the most income equality, he found.

Read on to see how your state stacks up against the rest:

SEE ALSO: This map shows where Americans have the best chances of going from poor to rich

DON'T MISS: This map shows the US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures

50. Alaska

Gini coefficient: 41.74

49. Utah

Gini coefficient: 42.61

48. Wyoming

Gini coefficient: 42.79

• Jacquelyn Ward and Ana Maes saw an opportunity in the wedding dress market after attempting to sell their used wedding dresses online.
• Together, the two opened New York City's only consignment shop for wedding dresses.
• Today, Our Story Bridal sells pre-owned wedding dresses from high-end designers such as Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, and Carolina Herrera. 

Jacquelyn Ward and Ana Maes want to give wedding dresses a second life.

The two women co-founded Our Story Bridal, New York City's only consignment wedding dress boutique, after struggling to sell their own used wedding dresses.

For Meas, it took two years after her wedding to sell her wedding dress, and Ward had a similar experience. "Girls were coming to my cramped New York apartment, trying on the dress in front of my husband and dog, [while I was] trying to get money to make sure I wasn't scammed," Ward told Business Insider. 

Ward and Maes, who met while attending Wharton Business School, knew there had to be a better way for savvy brides who wanted a designer wedding dress at a fraction of the cost — and brides who wanted to sell their dresses post-wedding.   

After launching a successful pop-up shop in Manhattan with about 40 pre-owned wedding dresses, the two had a waiting list of over 300 brides wanting to see and try on the used dresses. 

Last May, they opened a brick and mortar location that provides brides-to-be the luxury of shopping in a small, boutique-like store, filled with over 200 used wedding dresses. Designers such as Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, and Carolina Herrera line the racks with heavy discounts — anywhere between 30% to 80% off retail price.

The average cost of a wedding dress in the US is $1,564, according to The Knot, but designer wedding dresses carry much higher price tags.

Both Ward and Maes tout the success of Rent The Runway, which allows customers to rent designer clothing for a fraction of the retail cost, for helping change how consumers view pre-owned wedding dresses.

While visiting the location, we documented bride-to-be Amy Pan, who was shopping for her upcoming wedding. 

SEE ALSO: Go inside the gorgeous New York offices where startup Rent the Runway wants to revolutionize fashion

Although Ward and Maes accept wedding dresses from sellers across the US, most of their inventory comes from brides in New York City. They only take dresses from the last three years, with a focus on high-end designers such as Vera Wang, Galia Lahav, and Inbal Dror. "[Our dresses] reflect the diversity in the city," said Ward.

Because the store is a consignment shop, the sellers are paid once a dress is sold. Wedding dresses can be on the rack for six months, and Our Story Bridal takes 35% of the commission on sales.

All wedding dresses are dry cleaned before going out onto the floor.

• The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will began at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle at midday on Saturday, May 19.
• The Dean of Windsor will conduct the service and the Archbishop of Canterbury will officiate as the couple make their vows.
• At 1 p.m. the newly married couple will embark on a carriage procession through Windsor Town.
• A reception at St George's Hall will follow for the couple and guests from the congregation, while Prince Charles will host a private evening reception for the couple and their close family and friends in the evening.
• Scroll down to see what time the celebrations will start where you live.

Prince Harry just got official consent from Her Majesty the Queen to marry Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday, May 19 — but wedding plans have been underway for months.

The wedding service will begin at midday, meaning it's unlikely to clash with the 2018 FA Cup Final that falls on the same date, but that usually kicks off later in the day, according to The Guardian.

The Dean of Windsor will conduct the service and the Archbishop of Canterbury will officiate as the couple make their vows.

Here's an outside look at the Chapel...

...and here's a glimpse inside.

At 1 p.m. Harry and Meghan will embark on a carriage procession from St George's Chapel through Windsor Town returning to Windsor Castle along the Long Walk, which will offer some members of the public a glimpse of the newly married couple.

Kensington Palace said the couple "hope this short journey will provide an opportunity for more people to come together around Windsor and to enjoy the atmosphere of this special day."

They'll also be inviting over 2,000 members of the public into the grounds of Windsor Castle to watch the couple and their guests arrive, and to watch the carriage procession as it departs from the castle.

There will be a reception for the couple and their guests from the congregation at St George's Hall following the service.

Here's a photo inside St George's Hall:

Prince Charles will host a private evening reception for the couple and their close friends and family later that evening.

If you want to mark it in your diary, here's what time the royal wedding will start in major cities across different time zones on Saturday, May 19:

• London (GMT) 12 p.m.
• Paris (CEST): 1 p.m.
• Moscow (MSK): 2 p.m.
• Tokyo (JST): 8 p.m.
• Sydney (AET): 9 p.m.
• Honolulu (HAST): 1 a.m.
• Los Angeles (PT): 4 a.m.
• Las Vegas (PT):4 a.m.
• Denver (MT): 5 a.m.
• Chicago (CT): 6 a.m.
• New York (ET): 7 a.m.
• Seoul (KST): 8 p.m.

SEE ALSO: 'Knocked Up' and 'Grey's Anatomy' star Katherine Heigl has confirmed she's joining the cast of 'Suits' as Meghan Markle departs

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• We've compiled a list of how many calories you can burn doing a number of popular exercises.
• If you want to see how many calories you can burn with practically any exercise, you can check those as well.
• But remember, the best exercise to burn calories is the one you like enough to keep doing it over time.

There are a lot of great reasons to exercise. But one of the most basic goals is to burn calories.

The best way to do that is by picking something you like enough to do regularly over time. That might be running, might be swimming, or might be tennis or soccer. If you are deciding between a few different activities, you may want to pick the one that burns the most energy.

The Mayo Clinic, drawing on research published by the National Institutes of Health, ranks 36 popular forms of exercise based on their caloric impacts. We've ranked those — and added a few more exercises — in another article. Here, we've listed ten of the more popular forms of exercise, with approximate calories burned per hour.

Each graphic lists calories burned per hour for a 200-pound person, while the header above lists calories burned for a 160-pound person. (According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American women weigh 168.5 pounds on average, compared with 195.7 pounds for the average American man.)

Exact figures vary across body types, gender, age, and other factors. Additionally, exercise on its own doesn't do much to make you lose weight. If you want to slim down, we suggest talking to a doctor about what a healthy weight is for you and cutting down on sugar and large portions.

Get out there and get moving. Have fun.

SEE ALSO: The 39 best ways to burn the most calories in an hour

Rollerblading: 548 calories/hour for a 160-pound person, 683 calories/hour for a 200-pound person

This calculation is for "recreational" rollerblading, though athletes traveling at top speeds will burn even more calories.

Basketball: 584 calories/hour for a 160-pound person

Flag football: 584 calories/hour for a 160-pound person

The happiest countries in the world have a lot in common — including their policies on immigration.

For the latest World Happiness Report, a yearly ranking from the United Nations that assesses a country's average well-being by looking at its income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, and trust and generosity, the authors paid particular attention to migration.

"Perhaps the most striking finding of the whole report is that a ranking of countries according to the happiness of their immigrant populations is almost exactly the same as for the rest of the population," the authors of the report wrote.

Finland earned the number one spot on the list this year.

Here's a snapshot of the top 20 countries on the 2018 list:

SEE ALSO: 13 ways one type of exercise is the closest thing to a miracle drug we have

20. Czech Republic — The country bumped Chile out of the top 21 countries this year.

20. United Arab Emirates — The most significant factor in the UAE's positive ranking (which improved one place since last year) was its GDP per capita, followed by its social support.

19. United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland remained in the same spot as last year, with social support and per capita GDP appearing to play the biggest roles in its score.

• Consumer Reports released its rating of America's 11 major commercial airlines.
• The airlines are scored based on survey responses from more than 55,000 travelers who completed domestic flights between July 2016 and June 2017.
• In economy, all airlines received low scores for seat comfort and legroom while also struggling with in-flight entertainment and WiFi connectivity.

The complexities of air travel can be overwhelming these days. Even with fewer airlines, the process of choosing which one to fly can still be an exercise in frustration.

Well, Consumer Reports is here to help.

The organization, best known for its independent product evaluation and consumer advocacy, has released a comprehensive ranking of America's 11 major commercial airlines using information gathered from a survey of passengers who completed domestic flights between July 2016 and June 2017.

Parameters of the survey included questions on pricing transparency, ease of check-in, information on flight status, seating comfort, legroom, staff service, cabin cleanliness, WiFi connectivity, in-flight entertainment along with the selection of complimentary snacks and paid food and drinks.

All 11 airlines are rated based on a reader score. A score of 100 means respondents are completely satisfied with the airline. A score of 80 means passengers are very satisfied while a 60 means folks somewhat satisfied. 

Consumer Reports broke down their ratings into two segments, business/first class and economy. 

Based on replies from 5,059 respondents who made 8,702 flights in business or first class, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines earned a shared spot at the top of the premium cabin rankings with a score of 89. The duo was followed closely by Delta with a score of 85. American and United closed out the ranking with scores of 80 and 79 respectively.

Since the vast majority of us spend our time back in the economy section, we'll spend more time on this portion of the Consumer Reports ranking.

Here, the publication based its ratings on information from 52,507 respondents who completed 97, 765 flights in economy. 

According to Consumer Reports, the overall trend in economy class travel is something with which we're all familiar, it's really uncomfortable back there. Every airline in the survey received low scores for legroom and seat comfort. In addition, most airlines also struggled with in-flight entertainment and WiFi connectivity.

Here's a closer look at how the economy class offerings of America's 11 major airlines fared according to Consumer Reports:

SEE ALSO: The next big thing in airplane tech is becoming a nightmare for some airlines

FOLLOW US: on Facebook for more car and transportation content!

11. Spirit Airlines: Reader Score — 62

10. Frontier Airlines: 63

9. United Airlines: Reader Score — 67

• Tiger Woods and his ex-wife, former Swedish model Elin Nordegren, divorced in 2010 after six years of marriage.
• In 2011, Nordegren purchased property in North Palm Beach, Florida, and custom built a mansion.
• The 11-bedroom mansion is now listed for $49.5 million.

Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren, who was married to the pro golfer for six years, has placed her 11-bedroom Florida mansion on the market for $49.5 million. Woods and 38-year-old Nordegren divorced in 2010.

The property was purchased by Nordegren in 2011 for $12.25 million, and the custom-built mansion was completed in 2014.

The 23,176 square-foot oceanfront home is in Seminole Landing — a private, gated community in North Palm Beach, Florida. The property comes with 11 bedrooms, 15 full baths, a guest house, and a four-car garage.

Other perks inside include a wine cellar, theater, fitness center, a catering kitchen, and a three-story Swarovski crystal chandelier. The home is inspired by British West Indies architectural design, and if the beach doesn't impress, there's also a swimming pool equipped with a waterslide and spa, lounge areas with fire pits, a half basketball court, and a putting green.

The listing is held by Cristina Condon and Todd Peter of Sotheby's International Realty.

Keep scrolling for a full tour of the mansion.

SEE ALSO: An elite networking group that counts professional athletes and fashion executives as members is turning an island off Finland into the next Soho House

DON'T MISS: Nobody wants to buy Warren Buffett's $11 million Southern California vacation home — take a look inside

In total the mansion is 25,878 square feet.

The home sits on 1.4 acres of land.

The design was inspired by British West Indies architectural design.

• Toys R Us is now preparing to sell or close all its US stores as part of a liquidation process after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.
• The company struggled to keep up with competitors and was burdened with over $5 billion worth of debt.
• Over its more than 60 years in business, Toys R Us gained lots of fans, many of whom are now mourning the death of the store and remembering their favorite childhood memories there.

As Toys R Us nears its end, fans of the store are lamenting its demise.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September and officially filed for liquidation early Thursday. As a result, Toys R Us will soon close or sell its more than 700 stores across the US.

The store has been saddled with debt since a leveraged buyout in 2005 and struggled to keep up with competitors.

Though many Toys R Us fans were aware of this, they're still heartbroken to see it go.

In 1948 in Washington, DC, Charles Lazarus opened a baby-furniture store that would become the first Toys R Us after expanding into toys in 1957.

In the 1990s, Toys R Us was the biggest toy seller in the US, expanding rapidly as it pushed out smaller chains. But by 1998, things had changed, and Walmart began selling more toys than Toys R Us in the US — a signal of more trouble ahead.

Take a look back at what Toys R Us was like in its heyday:

SEE ALSO: We went to a Kohl's store and saw how it's bucking the trend of dying department stores and malls

As Toys R Us prepares to close its doors for good, fans are lamenting the death of the chain and looking back on their favorite childhood memories.

This is what a store in New Jersey looked like in 1996.

It had everything a kid could want. This photo from 2001 shows the Imaginarium section of a New Jersey store.