Podcast Transcript At the start of the 20th century, the world’s third-largest lake was located in Central Asia. It had been known to the people of the Asian steppes for thousands of years. However, by the end of the 20th century, the lake had all but disappeared. Somehow, over the course of a century, one …
Podcast Transcript Every year on April 25, Australia and New Zealand celebrate a holiday that is unique to those two countries. It is one of the most important days on the calendar, and it was created to celebrate an event that took place over 100 years ago. Today the holiday has taken on a broader …
Podcast Transcript As long as humans have looked up in the sky, they noticed something. There was an unusually bright star that would show up in the early morning or early evening. This star was one of the few points of light in the sky that moved. They were dubbed planets, and the one that …
Podcast Transcript The English language is full of very quirky idioms and phrases. Every language has them, and these are just some of the things which make each language unique. Most native speakers of English may use these idioms and phrases all the time, even though they have no idea where they came from. For …
Podcast Transcript Sometime in the 15th century, a drink became popularized in the Arabian peninsula. It was dark, bitter, and people couldn’t get enough of it. From its simple origins, over the centuries, it has spread around the world to become one of the most popular beverages in history. Today you can find it being …
Podcast Transcript After the end of the second world war, Berlin was a divided city controlled by the four major allied powers. Despite the different zones of control, people could move freely between them. However, on August 13, 1961, the East German government decided to end the free travel of Berliners by building a wall …
Podcast Transcript For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived a nomadic life, hunting for game and foraging for food. Then, several thousand years ago, they stopped. They began domesticating animals, started growing crops, and lived a sedentary lifestyle. The question anthropologists have asked is, why? Learn more about the rise of agriculture, aka the …
Podcast Transcript Every country in Africa is unique and has its own history. However, many African countries share a similar story over the last 150 years, having gone through European colonization and decolonization. The nation of Liberia, however, has a history, unlike any other country in the world. From its founding to its modern-day governance, …
Podcast Transcript In 1906, George Soper, a freelance sanitary engineer, was hired to investigate several outbreaks of typhoid fever in wealthy New York households. The reason why these outbreaks were mysterious is that typhoid fever usually only occurred in places with unsanitary conditions. What Soper discovered radically changed our knowledge of infectious diseases and how …