The Roman Province of Hispania

The Roman Province of Hispania

Transcript Before Spain became Spain, it was part of the Roman province of Hispania.  To understand the language, and geography of not just Spain but of the entire Iberian Peninsula, you have to understand Hispania.  Learn more about one of the greatest provinces in the Roman empire, and how it created modern Spain on this …

Read more

The Nuclear Football

The Nuclear Football

Transcript Odds are, if you have ever seen a photo of the president of the United States over the last 60 years, there has been someone in the background or walking a few steps behind, who had in their hand a leather satchel. In that bag was everything the President would need to start armageddon.  …

Read more

The McRib

The McRib

Transcript The musical Brigadoon is about a Scottish village which appears for one day every 100 years. The village can be thought of as a metaphor for things that are fleeting, or why we must take advantage of opportunities when they appear.  Brigadoon doesn’t exist in our world, but we do have the next best …

Read more

The Erfurt Latrine Disaster

The Erfurt Latrine Disaster

Transcript In the year 1184 in the Dutchy of Thuringia, in what is today the country of Germany, a conflict raged between the Count of Thuringia and the Archbishop of Mainz.  To resolve this dispute, the German King Henrich VI called the parties to the city of Erfurt to settle their outstanding issues. Things did …

Read more

The Last Germans to Surrender

The Last Germans to Surrender

Translate Wars can start with a bang but end with a whimper. Often an attack or an invasion will begin a war, but even one when one side surrenders, it can take days, weeks, or months for word of the capitulation to get out to everyone.  While the European theater of World War II officially …

Read more

The Golden Record

The Golden Record

Transcript In the 1970s NASA embarked on a mission it had never attempted before. Due to a fortunate alignment of planets, they were going to attempt to send robotic probes on a flyby mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, before being sent to deep space, out of the solar system.  Some of the mission …

Read more

The 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas

Transcript I’m sure all of you have heard the 12 Days of Christmas song. It is the holiday equivalent of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, and no one ever sings it to completion because it’s so long.  But it does raise the question, what are the 12 days of Christmas? Why are there …

Read more

The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands

Transcript If you think of Spain as the country on the Iberian Peninsula which is sandwiched between France and Portugal, you are not wrong, but you are also not totally right.  There is also a significant part of the country which is located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Morocco: The Canary Islands.  …

Read more

Reginald Foster: The World’s Foremost Latinist

Reginald Foster: The World's Foremost Latinist

Transcript On Christmas Day, 2020, Reginald Foster passed away at the age of 81 in a nursing home facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a few days before. This episode is not necessarily about his passing however, it is about his life, and in particular how he had one of the …

Read more