Podcast Transcript During the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, warfare and clan violence escalated, threatening the stability of Chinese civilization and igniting an era known as the Warring States Period. Out of the chaos emerged a prolific itinerant teacher, offering a path away from bloodshed and political ruin. His teachings would sustain Chinese culture for …
Podcast Transcript As a young child, she lost both her sight and hearing and seemed cut off from the world around her. Then, with the help of an extraordinary teacher, she learned to communicate and went on to become an author, lecturer, and one of the most famous women of the 20th century. Her story …
Podcast Transcript On December 28, 1958, a record-setting audience of nearly 45 million people watched the National Football League championship game. Pro football was on the rise, and investors took notice. They saw the potential to expand the brand into more cities. When the NFL resisted expansion, a group of spurned young investors dared to …
Podcast Transcript Rome has been called the Eternal City, but its history has had enormous ups and downs. It went from being the largest, most important city in the world to a small backwater, then made a remarkable turnaround, becoming once again the most important city in Italy. It has been a center of power, …
Podcast Transcript On Christmas Eve 1969, the nation of Norway received a massive Christmas present. After years of failed drilling attempts, Norway announced they had discovered one of the largest oil reserves on Earth. This remarkable find would immediately transform Norway from a quiet, industrial, and fishing-based economy into one of the world’s ten largest …
Podcast Transcript Flags are one of the oldest and most successful systems of visual communication ever devised. Long before they became symbols of countries, flags and flag-like objects identified armies, ships, military units, and rulers. However, their modern role as symbols of entire nations is actually a relatively recent development. Learn more about flags and …
Podcast Transcript In the years after the American Revolution, New York City was growing rapidly, and so was the demand for trained physicians. But medical education required something that was difficult to obtain legally, and rumors soon spread that the dead were not being allowed to rest in peace. Anger grew, suspicions hardened, and in …
Podcast Transcript According to the US Census, the single largest ethnic group in the United States are Germans. More than 40 million Americans identified their ancestry as German. Driven from Europe by unrest, poverty, famine, and religious persecution, Germans quickly assimilated into American society. So much so that it’s difficult to imagine an America without …
Podcast Transcript For more than a century, one of Europe’s richest cities worked on a building it didn’t know how to finish. Its designers created an enormous space that seemed impossible to cover, leaving future generations with one of the Middle Ages’ greatest engineering challenges. The solution would require new machines, new construction techniques, and …