Podcast Transcript A reconnaissance satellite, otherwise known as a spy satellite, is somewhere above your head right now, collecting images and gathering intelligence on whatever it sees below it. Ten countries are currently believed to have at least one spy satellite. While these satellites can gather an enormous amount of data, they do not have …
Podcast Transcript One of the most common and versatile forms of energy in the world is natural gas. Natural gas is used for cooking, heating, electrical production, and powering vehicles. Entire economies are dependent on its consumption, and others are dependent on its production. As such, it has become one of the most important commodities …
Podcast Transcript Depending on how you define it, there are about 193 to 200 countries in the world today. Over the last 100 years, that number has been constantly increasing. Sometimes, the number goes up a lot in short periods of time, and other times, there might be decades between the creation of a new …
Podcast Transcript In the 1950s and 1960s, the British Intelligence community was rocked by a series of high-profile defections to the Soviet Union. These defections proved to be devastating to British intelligence during the Cold War and may have led to the death or imprisonment of hundreds of undercover British operatives. These defections changed Western …
Podcast Transcript Located in East London is the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Passing directly through the observatory is an imaginary line that extends from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line is significant because it is the reference point for every other line of longitude in the world. What is even more remarkable is …
Podcast Transcript From August 1942 to February 1943, the Germans and the Soviets engaged in what would become the most brutal and bloodiest battle in human history. The battle took place in a city that probably had greater psychological and propaganda value than it did actual strategic value. The battle, in many respects, was the …
Podcast Transcript The most significant event in American history was undoubtedly the Civil War. The Civil War was, of course, the result of the institution of slavery, which had existed for generations by that time. By the same token, the opposition to slavery had existed for just as long. The opposition to slavery began amongst …
Podcast Transcript February is the shortest month of the year. It is the flex month, where we stick extra days to make the calendar work. Depending on what hemisphere you are in, it can be a month of warmth and sunshine or a month of short days and cold weather. But it is also a …
Podcast Transcript Organized crime wasn’t always so organized. In the early 20th century, in New York, what we would call the mafia was rather unorganized. There were competing groups, and while the individual groups had an organization, there was anarchy among them. From 1929 to 1931 there was a war between some of the crime …