description:
Adam Conover turns life as we know it on its ear by showing us how unnecessary, and sometimes horrible, things we think we know to be real and true really are.
episodes:
01. Adam Ruins Giving
Host Adam Conover dispels widespread misconceptions about everything. In the series premiere, Adam tackles the secret history of diamond engagement rings and explains why you should stop giving food pantries leftover canned goods.
02. Adam Ruins Security
Host Adam Conover sets his sights on “security theater,” explaining that airport security wastes too much of our time and money, medicine safety seals do nothing to protect us, and your credit card number isn’t remotely secure.
03. Adam Ruins Cars
Adam dives into the much-beloved auto industry exposing the surprising truths behind the car dealership monopoly, and the fact that the concept of “jaywalking” was created by auto manufacturers to blame pedestrians for car crashes.
04. Adam Ruins Forensic Science
Adam uncovers the scary truth behind unreliable methods used as evidence in criminal cases. He exposes the flaws of fingerprinting, hair strand matches and bite mark analysis – which often send innocent people to jail.
05. Adam Ruins Restaurants
Adam uncovers the hidden truths of dining out. He explains why tipping is a custom worth ditching, shows that experts can’t tell the difference between wines, and reveals that mislabeled seafood is rampant in the industry.
06. Adam Ruins Hygiene
Adam shows how mouthwash, soap and baby wipes companies invented terms like “halitosis” for their ad campaigns to make people insecure about their hygiene, and why running water and sewers are among the greatest miracles of the modern age.
07. Adam Ruins Voting
Adam explores the twisted history of the Electoral College, explaining that the Founding Fathers did not want most Americans to vote. He also takes a stab at fixing a political system that seems rigged against true democracy.
08. Adam Ruins Work
Adam Ruins Work: In “Adam Ruins Work,” Adam reveals how the 40-hour work week not only exhausts employees but also harms businesses. He then highlights the legal mess behind hiring interns and freelancers, and he explores how discussing your salary with co-workers is actually healthy for you and the workplace.
09. Adam Ruins Summer Fun
Adam crashes the last day of summer by revealing that extended vacation makes you dumber, and that iconic rodent Mickey Mouse has made a mess of our copyright laws. Adam also dives into the world of video games and unveils a surprising gender bias that’s forever changed the way we play.
10. Adam Ruins Sex
Adam reveals that circumcision was popularized by a bunch of masturbation-curbing 19th century prudes. Plus, he reveals why the fear of having herpes is overblown and explores why the term “pop your cherry” is a bunch of nonsense.
11. Adam Ruins Nutrition
Adam explores nutrition. Included: truths about vitamin supplements; a look at balanced breakfasts; the lack of science in “nutritional science.”
12. Adam Ruins Death
Adam explains that “the end” is inevitable; it’s a reality that should be accepted and embraced. He shows why immortality is a fantasy and reveals that the American funeral industry is a racket that exploits mourners’ grief and fear of dying. He then demonstrates that when people don’t accept death, they wind up making terrible medical decisions that ruin whatever life is left.
13. Adam Ruins Hollywood
Straight from the red carpet, and with the help of celebrity guests Rachel Bloom and Ariana Madix, Adam exposes the hidden truths behind Hollywood’s glitz and glamour, from the clothes stars wear to the process behind movie ratings.
14. Adam Ruins Football
Adam hits the gridiron to illustrate why the playoffs rarely determine which team is best, and he then explores how hydration myths spread by sports drink companies are putting kids at risk. Adam also tackles football-caused brain injuries.
15. Adam Ruins Weddings
Emily and Murph’s wedding day is finally here – but Adam’s gift of information may rain on their parade. Adam reveals how most wedding “traditions” were recently created by consumerism, and that divorce is actually a wonderful thing.
16. Adam Ruins Shopping Malls
Adam and Emily have a play-date at the mall, where he ruins malls, outlets, and supplements, before triumphantly rushing over to buy himself some new glasses, where Emily snags the opportunity to turn the tables on him.
17. Adam Ruins Animals
Adam explores how purebred dogs are genetic monsters created by bored Victorians; domestic cats are overpopulated lethal killing machines that threaten other animals; and wild animal trophy hunting can actually help endangered species.
18. Adam Ruins Immigration
Adam illustrates how: a border wall wouldn’t keep out legal immigrants who overstay their visas, racist mass deportations have historically led to disaster, and immigration courts are a huge mess.
19. Adam Ruins Housing
Adam gets kicked out of his apartment for throwing golf balls in the toilet and proceeds to explore the flaws with buying over renting, the pitfalls of Airbnb, and the easy solution towards ending homelessness.
20. Adam Ruins Drugs
Adam weeds through the misconceptions of marijuana and exposes the blunt truth about the War on Drugs – that it stemmed from a racist and political agenda. Plus, Adam illustrates why prescription pills are the true gateway drug.
21. Adam Ruins Prisons
After her arrest last episode, Adam, along with Emily’s cellmate, explains how private prisons make money by keeping people in jail, that solitary confinement is a form of torture, and the whole system is ineffective at crime reduction.
22.Adam Ruins the Wild West
Adam reveals how prostitution – despite its reputation – actually helped settle the West. He then explains why the “All-American Cowboy” is a myth and that the real western hero wasn’t a person; it was air conditioning.
23. Adam Ruins the Internet
Adam shows how complaints about the Internet are as old as society itself, people in Europe and Asia pay less for faster Internet than in the U.S., and how we pay for sites like Facebook and Google with every keystroke of our information.
24. Adam Ruins Justice
Rhea takes on helping Emily’s cellmate Kendra, and reveals the struggles public defenders face, while Adam shows how juries are never completely impartial, and everything you heard about the McDonald’s coffee lady was wrong.
25. Adam Ruins Christmas
Ho ho…huh?! Adam teaches his sister that the real St. Nick story is a lot creepier than she thought, and modern Santa was created by commercialism only a century ago. Adam also reveals how gift-giving actually hurts the economy.
26. Adam Ruins Going Green
Adam meets a young dad on a personal mission to save the world and end climate change…until Adam turns his world upside down. Find out why electric cars and green products don’t make the impact you’ve been promised.
27. Why the 2016 Election Is Just a Big Rerun Special
Adam’s stand up special explains how the mudslinging politicians are nothing new; just look back to the Founding Fathers.
01. Adam Ruins Having a Baby
Adam dispels the myth about getting pregnant after 35, delves into breastfeeding vs formula, and explores postpartum depression for women – and men.
02. Adam Ruins Weight Loss
Host Adam Conover illustrates all the reasons low-fat diets can actually make you fatter, and why counting calories is a waste of time.
03. Adam Ruins the Hospital
Adam Conover explains that inflated hospital costs have created a system that’s unaffordable and unfair. Plus, the reckless prescription of antibiotics is making them worthless, and you might not need a mammogram.
04. Adam Adam Ruins Dating
Adam swipes right on knowledge by exposing the major flaws in dating sites. Plus, infamous alpha males – and the wolves that inspired them – don’t really exist, and personality tests are a total failure.
05. Adam Ruins Fine Art
Adam poses the question of what makes great art and shows why pieces visible to the masses are revered, regardless of artistic merit. He then exposes the masters as copycats and reveals that today’s art market is a moneymaking scheme.
06. Adam Ruins What We Learned in School
Host Adam Conover employs a combination of comedy, history and science to dispel widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted.
07. Adam Ruins College
Adam explains why the odds of becoming a dropout billionaire are so low, how manipulated school rankings have little to do with education quality, and why the privatization of student loans created a massive debt crisis.
08. Emily Ruins Adam Ruins Everything
Emily takes over to “ruin” Adam, pointing out where his facts fall short. She debunks the idea that IQ tests measure intelligence and points to information Adam has gotten wrong in the past. Plus, she explains the “backfire effect.”
09. Adam Ruins His Vacation
Adam Conover and his girlfriend take a journey across America, where he reveals that Mount Rushmore was built on stolen Native American land, Vegas slot machines are purposely designed to be addicting, and a whole lot more!
10. Adam Ruins The Suburbs
Adam explains how the idealized lawn is an unnatural monstrosity, and that the design of the suburbs is slowly killing you. Plus, the racist history of suburban planning led to today’s institutionalized segregation in schools.
11. Adam Ruins The Economy
Adam explains why lobbying makes filing taxes so complicated, and why the economic numbers that are focused on do not provide the whole story; the possibility of a return of American manufacturing.
12. Adam Ruins Conspiracy Theories
Adam Conkver debunks the fake moon landing theory, discusses the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, and reveals how to spot a false theory.
13. Adam Ruins Spa Day
Pricey “detoxifying” treatments cleanse you of cash (and may do more harm than good), while MSG’s scary reputation is undeserved. Plus, the placebo effect is way more powerful than you think.
14. Adam Ruins Halloween
Adam goes trick-or-treating for the truth behind myths and misconceptions like candy poisoned by strangers, the legendary War of the Worlds radio broadcast, and psychics who claimed to communicate with the dead.
15. Adam Ruins Science
Adam looks at scientific funding of science in the USA and how politics can effect the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
16. Adam Ruins The Future
Adam looks at the most perplexing dilemmas facing mankind, trying to be prepared for the future and just how cautious one should be about investments and new relationships.
17. Reanimated History: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Truth
Adam sets the record straight on everything incomplete, outdated or even downright wrong about the American Revolution.
18. Reanimated History: The First Factsgiving
The pilgrims did not break bread with the Native Americans, but did dig up their graves; no romance existed between Pocahontas and John Smith; cities in the New World rivaled London in scale before their discovery.
19. Reanimated History: Mutually Assured Ruination
Adam Conover reveals that the US kicked off the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that you’ve probably never heard of the lone female politician who stood up to McCarthy! Plus, a bureaucratic mistake brought down the Berlin Wall.
20. Reanimated History: An Ancient History of Violence
Adam shares that it was against the rules for gladiators to kill opponents, and tells the story of a Celtic woman who brought the Roman Empire to its knees. Plus, the brave “300” Spartans numbered closer to 7000.
21. Reanimated History: The Copernican Ruin-aissance
Reanimated History: Adam sheds some light on Copernicus, who was actually supported (NOT persecuted) by the Catholic Church. Plus, a rogue dwarf revolutionized what we know about anatomy, and just wait until you hear about Tulip Mania.
22. Reanimated History: 100 Years Ago Today
Reanimated History: Adam digs into the Panama Canal, where Teddy Roosevelt formed a new country to snag free land. Plus, one man fought to keep food from killing us, while the Spanish Flu killed more Americans than all 20th century wars combined.
23. Adam Ruins Guns
Adam reviews the effectiveness of gun regulation including stating that a ban on assault weapons would be ineffective, showing how the NRA has evolved and influenced how the country interprets the meaning of the Second Amendment, and that both sides of the gun debate ignore how guns and gun regulation affect minorities.
24. Adam Ruins Sleep
Host Adam Conover employs a combination of comedy, history and science to dispel widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted.
25. Adam Ruins Tech
How big tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Facebook manipulate laws, influence government policies and create marketing ploys to promote their monopolistic businesses, ignore the rules and increase their financial and social power.
26. Adam Ruins Flying
Why free frequent flyer miles aren’t free, why commercial flying was even worse before, how the airline companies created a monopoly, how the stewardesses fought for their workers’ rights, and why blimps are far safer than planes.
01. Adam Ruins a Plate of Nachos
Adam ruins his friends’ nachos party by explaining how guacamole export to the US is run by Mexican drug cartels, how bacon is popular only due to the meat industry’s 1980s marketing ploy, and how the corn industry is killing the world.
02. Adam Ruins a Sitcom
Adam ruins a brand new sitcom by questioning its old stereotypes that African Americans are great at basketball but can’t swim, that Asians are great students, and that toxic masculinity is healthy for a man as the head of the household.
03. Adam Ruins Games
Adam faces a demonic storekeeper while also explaining why video games aren’t causing more violence, the anti-capitalist origin of the board game Monopoly, how Olympic athletes are being exploited, and how the Olympics bring mass poverty.
04. Adam Ruins Nature
Adam digs up the dirt on nature, revealing that Mount Everest is a frozen pile of poop, natural disasters are actually man-made, and there is no such thing as untouched wilderness.
05. Adam Ruins America
Adam lets his freedom flag fly by examining why America doesn’t have higher rates of social mobility. He then uncovers the flaws within our constitution and examines our country’s progression and regression.
06. Adam Ruins a Night Out
Adam and Emily prepare for a big night out by revealing the marketing ploy that convinced women to shave and the fashion agendas that created pockets. They then probe the truth about alcohol consumption.
07. Adam Ruins Doing Good
Adam takes down the do-gooders and reveals how Teach For America is harmful to both students and teachers. He then uncovers the ineffectiveness of recycling and calls out the billionaires who create charities for tax breaks.
08. Adam Ruins Murder
Adam shines a light on why drivers are rarely prosecuted for car accidents that result in death, he breaks down border patrol’s search policies, and Adam examines the messed-up history of corpses and medical studies.
09. Adam Ruins Music
Adam reveals the racism behind the origins of rock and roll, explores the monopolistic practices of entertainment company Live Nation, and defends musicians who “sell out” to make a living in today’s digital landscape.
10. Adam Ruins Little Bugs
Don’t let Adam’s facts bug you as he uncovers the benefits of spiders, serves up knowledge on why we should be eating more bugs as a protein source, and illustrates the benefits of little bugs on your gut health.
11. Adam Ruins Cops
Adam polices the truth behind the overuse of SWAT Teams, illustrates how using school officers can create a pipeline for prisons, and examines the origins and intended purpose of police officers.
12. Adam Ruins Himself
Adam battles with self-doubt over how biases affect the show, he shares the shortcomings of story-telling and the influence of advertising on the series integrity.
