True tales,
well told.
For your information. From your imagination.
The real stories behind the stuff you know.
Why are school buses yellow? Who invented the popsicle? Why does your voice sound weird recorded? FYI Tales digs up the real, sourced answers — one fascinating true tale at a time.
Read the tales
About FYI Tales
FYI Tales is a library of short true stories about ordinary things — researched, sourced, and written to be retold. If a tale can’t cite the receipts (patents, archives, museum records), we don’t publish it. And when historians disagree, the dispute becomes part of the story.
Contact usWhat you’ll find
Accidental Inventions
Bubble wrap, popsicles, penicillin — great things invented by mistake.
Everyday Objects
Why stop signs are octagons and pen caps have holes.
Food Lore
The sandwich, the croissant, the fortune cookie — the surprising histories of what we eat.
Words & Phrases
Where sayings, symbols, and names really come from.
Amazing Body
Why you hiccup, glow in the dark (really), and can’t tickle yourself.
Wild Animal Tales
Cube-shaped wombat poop and 400-year-old sharks. All true.
Three ways in
Everything on FYI Tales is free to read. The books and custom storybooks help keep the lights on.
True Tales
A new researched, sourced true story every week — free to read, easy to retell.
Free
New tales every week
FYI Tales Jr.
The same amazing facts rewritten for curious kids, with free printables.
Free
For curious kids 6–10
Your Tales
Send us your kid’s drawing and a story idea — we turn it into their own storybook.
$9.99
Your kid’s drawing becomes a storybook
Tales you’ll tell at dinner
The immortal jellyfish
“Turritopsis dohrnii can age backwards — when injured, it reverts to a baby polyp and starts life over. Scientists call it the immortal jellyfish.”
Wombat poop is cube-shaped
“Real scientists won a real prize for figuring out how wombats produce cubes. The answer: intestines with stretchy and stiff zones.”
Your body glows
“Humans emit visible light — actual bioluminescence — about 1,000 times fainter than your eyes can detect. You literally glow.”
Honeybees vote
“When a swarm needs a new home, scout bees campaign for sites and the hive votes by dancing. Democracy, with wings.”
The latest tales
Pizzeria Uno vs. Due: Who Really Invented Deep Dish?
LA’s Two Oldest Restaurants Fought a Century Over One Sandwich
Why Is Bubble Gum Pink? Blame One Accountant’s Only Dye
Why Sheep Can Pick Your Face Out of a Photo Lineup
The $2,500 Contest That Gave the World the Recycling Symbol
Wi-Fi Was Never “Wireless Fidelity” — Here’s the Real Story
Why Your Hammer’s Claw Curves Instead of Going Straight
The Dish Shortage That Accidentally Invented the Ice Cream Cone