Podcast Transcript I am speaking these words in the year 2021. You might be listening to them in a different year, but whatever year you happen to be in right now, it will probably be a year using the same number convention for years. But why did we start counting years at year 1? What …
Podcast Transcript During the second world war, one of the biggest efforts of the war was the Manhattan Project: the secret American program to create an atomic bomb. The scientists and staff of the Manhattan Project were in a race to beat Nazi Germany to be the first country to build the A-bomb. When Germany …
Podcast Transcript In the year 331 BC, fresh from his conquest of Egypt, Alexander the Great established a new city in Egypt named after himself. This new city, situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at the end of the Nile Delta, would go on to become one of the most important cities in …
Podcast Transcript During World War II, the US Army assigned statistician Abraham Wald the task of statistically figuring out where extra armor should be added to American bombers. After analyzing the evidence and sharing it with the Army, he recommended the exact opposite of what the Army assumed. The reason was that the Army had …
Podcast Transcript When most people think of World War II, they think of the Allied power of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, versus the Axis power of Germany, Italy, and Japan. However, this wasn’t always the case. At the start of the war in Europe, Nazi Germany and the Soviet …
Podcast Transcript Statistically speaking, about 90% of you listening to my words right now are right-handed. Of the rest of you, almost all of you will be left-handed. The question of why so many more people are right-handed as opposed to left-handed is one that people have asked for centuries. It is an imbalance that …
Podcast Transcript The Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Great Pyramid of Khufu, is a structure in which superlatives don’t really do justice. It isn’t just old, it’s really old. It isn’t just big, it’s really big. It has served as a sentinel to some of the most important people and events in …
Podcast Transcript In the late 19th century, several of the world’s foremost investors engaged in a public battle for the future of electricity. The battle was fought in boardrooms and newspapers, and there was seemingly nothing that was off-limits. The battle eventually took the lives of several people…..and several dogs. Learn more about the current …
Podcast Transcript In 1961, the United States figure skating team was one of the top programs in the world. The year before at the 1960 Olympics, they took the gold in both the men’s and women’s competitions. Then on February 15, 1961, the team suffered a terrible catastrophe. One which took the better part of …