Podcast Transcript You’ve probably seen footage of a rocket launch. There is a bunch of smoke and fire as the rocket lifts off to begin its flight to achieve an altitude and velocity which will get it into orbit. It works, but it requires a lot of energy to get even a small amount of …
Podcast Transcript In the movie Forrest Gump, one man finds himself at the center of historical events, encountering famous people over the course of decades. While Forrest Gump was fictitious, there have been people who have served as a nexus at certain places and times in history. One such person existed in the early 20th …
Podcast Transcript In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a war erupted in the world of video technology. Two competing video tape formats fought to gain supremacy in the market. In the end, one format crushed the other and was left as the victor. However, legend holds that the inferior format was actually the victorious …
Podcast Transcript Located on the island of Honshu, in the middle of the Japanese archipelago, lies one of the most important and iconic places in all of Japan, Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji has held an important place in Japanese culture for centuries as both an important site in the native Japanese Shinto religion and as …
Podcast Transcript Having lost the race to the Moon, the Soviet space program decided to go in a different direction. If they couldn’t be first on the moon, then they could take the lead in the area of endurance in space and the development of space stations. In 1971 they launched the world’s first space …
Podcast Transcript Every day, millions of people around the world hit the links to play a round of golf. The very best at the game are able to earn millions of dollars a year as professionals. However, this global recreational and competitive sport has origins that most people aren’t aware of, dating back even earlier …
Podcast Transcript Centuries before the arrival of Europeans, one of the greatest civilizations in the Americas rose and fell. They left behind a rich legacy of roads and construction. They had an advanced system of writing as well as a highly developed system of mathematics and astronomy. However, this advanced civilization suddenly ended. The people …
Podcast Transcript For thousands of years, wine has been one of the most important beverages in the world. It has been consumed by common folk and by emperors, and it can be made in a surprisingly wide variety of geographies. It can be made by backyard vintners as well as by megacorporations. It is so …
Podcast Transcript In June 1942, American and Japanese naval forces squared off in what was a decisive naval battle of the war in the Pacific. The fleets, dominated by aircraft carriers, met just off the coast of a remote coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean known as Midway Island. The battle was unlike any battle …