Podcast Transcript Fritz Haber is unquestionably one of the greatest chemists in history. He was a Nobel prize winner and his inventions have touched billions of lives. However, Haber is a two-sided coin. He has touched the lives of millions for the better, and he also touched the lives of millions for the worse. Learn …
Podcast Transcript One of the most ubiquitous forms of payment today is credit cards. The odds are good that you have one, and most probably have one on your person right now. But how did it come about that you could pay for something by just giving someone a piece of plastic and who exactly …
Podcast Transcript There were tens of millions of stories to come out of World War II. Many of them are tales of horrible human cruelty. However, there is one particular story that is as horrific as any other, yet it doesn’t involve human barbarity, it involves nature. It was so horrific that it has been …
Podcast Transcript If you were to call someone a snake oil salesman, it usually means they are trying to defraud someone, and more specifically it often implies making false medical claims. But what exactly is snake oil, and why did it develop such a bad reputation, and why specifically do we use snake oil for …
Podcast Transcript There are few things that are truly universal across all cultures and throughout history. These things are often so obvious that we overlook them and forget how they are things that make us human. One such thing which seems so simple yet actually has profound origins: singing children to sleep. Learn more about …
Podcast Transcript On Friday, October 21, 1966, the small village of Aberfan, Wales woke up to a typical autumn day. Many of the men in the village went to work at the local coal mine and the children went to the local school. At 9:15 am, the lives of everyone in the village had changed …
Podcast Transcript There is an old saying that everything old is new again. This is certainly true with electric cars. The recent surge in popularity of electric vehicles is technically a resurgence, because believe it or not, there was a time when electric cars were more popular than cars with internal combustion engines. Learn more …
Podcast Transcript In 2005, a small auction house in New Orleans sold a painting at auction labeled at Lot 664. The description of the item was simply, “Christ Salvator Mundi. Oil on cradled panel.” The painting was sold for $1,000. Twelve years later, the same painting was sold at Christie’s in New York for a …
Podcast Transcript Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known to almost everyone in the world. If he isn’t known, then his music certainly is. Even though he is one of the greatest composers in history, he was not the only musician in his family. In fact, according to some, he might not have even been the best …