Transcript Even if you aren’t a fan of classical music, you are probably at least familiar with what an orchestra is. But have you ever wondered why orchestras use the instruments they do? Or why they have them in that combination, or why it is even called an orchestra at all? And what exactly is …
Transcript In the early hour of March 18, 1990, two police officers enter Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The problem was, they weren’t police officers. They were thieves. In a little over an hour, they stole 13 valuable works of art which had a combined value of over $500 million dollars. It was the largest …
Transcript Humans and rats have lived in an uneasy relationship for millennia. Rats have spread diseases like the bubonic plague, destroyed grain harvests, and stolen our pizzas. In return, rats have given humans……pretty much nothing. As such, humans have waged a relentless war against rats, which for the most part has gone nowhere. However, there …
Transcript New Year’s Day is not only the day we turn over a new year on the calendar, but also a day where people start resolutions, companies begin new budgets, and everyone screws up writing checks. While documenting our trips around the sun makes perfect sense, why do we use this day, January 1, as …
Transcript There are lots of stories about technologies and knowledge from ancient peoples that have been lost to us through history. In reality, most things that were lost have been figured out independently by modern people, and we have better modern versions of almost everything the ancients had, including things like Damascus Steel. That is, …
Transcript Professional sports have become a multibillion-dollar industry with millions of fans who will live and die based on their favorite team’s performance. Occasionally, soccer hooligans and Raiders fans will take their exuberance a bit too far. Rioting after a team wins a championship happens more often than not. However, nothing in the world of …
Transcript Bread is one of the most important, most commonly consumed, and oldest food products in the world. It’s been called the Staff of Life. It even gets a prominent mention in the Lord’s Prayer. But how did this fundamental food, which ultimately comes from wild grass, get developed? And perhaps more importantly, why did …
Podcast Transcript The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus oversaw the rise of Sweden as one of the great powers in Europe. In 1626, he ordered the construction of a warship that would be the most powerful floating platform in Northern Europe. Its maiden voyage in 1628 was one of the most memorable of any ship in …
Podcast Transcript There are some subjects that are perceived to be mind-numbingly dull and boring. One such subject is accounting. Yet, believe it or not, accounting and bookkeeping have not only have been around since the dawn of human civilization, but they also had a hand in shaping it. Without it, the world would be …