Podcast Transcript At the 1862 London International Exhibition, an inventor by the name of Andrew Parkes introduced a new product based on cellulose that he called Parkesine. Little did he know that this material which could be made elastic when heated and molded into almost any shape imaginable would be the basis for an enormous …
Podcast Transcript Starting in the early Renisanase and going through to the early 19th century an intellectual community developed in Europe and later in the Americas. This community wasn’t in any particular geographic place, but rather was a network of intellectuals who shared their ideas about philosophy, science, and politics. This network was informally known …
Podcast Transcript In the 1880s, a Polish ophthalmologist set out to create a universal language. A language that could be a second language for everyone around that world that no one country or one people would control. It was a good idea, but things didn’t quite pan out as he had hoped, and along the …
Podcast Transcript We like to think of terrorist plots as being a condition of the modern world. However, there were such plots were around over two thousand years ago. During the hectic period of the end of the Roman Republic, Rome was faced with a terrorist plot of its own. A group of disgruntled aristocrats …
Podcast Transcript On the morning of August 7, 1974, the people of New York City woke up to witness one of the most incredible sights that the city had ever seen. Between the two towers of the New York World Trade Center, 1,350 feet off of the ground, was a man who was waking on …
Podcast Transcript In the United States and Britain in the 19th century, there was a competitive activity that at one time might have been the most popular sport in either country. Tens of thousands of people would show up to witness it live and the top athletes got endorsement deals and had their own trading …
Podcast Transcript If you’ve been around long enough, you might have heard something being described as a white elephant. A white elephant is something that is a burden, usually costly, that you can’t get rid of. Why did that particular color of that particular animal get picked to represent something so odious? Learn more about …
Podcast Transcript In 1696, the mathematician Johann Bernoulli posited a very simple question. Assuming no friction, what was the fastest shape for an object to slide down to go from point A to point B? That simple question stumped some of the world’s greatest mathematicians. The answer to that question isn’t what you think it …
Podcast Transcript Sometime almost 2000 years ago, a Chinese alchemist experimenting with three different ingredients discovered something astonishing. When the ingredients were subjected to a flame, they didn’t just burn, there was a bang. Over the course of centuries, this discovery spread around the world and dramatically shaped world history. Learn more about gunpowder, how …