The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: The Holiest Site in Chrisendom

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Transcript If you ask most Muslims what the holiest site is in Islam, they would probably tell you that it is the Kaaba at the Great Mosque of Mecca. Ask most Jews what the holiest site is in Judaism is and they would probably say the Western Wall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Ask …

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Pedro Rodrigues Filho: The Real Life Dexter Who Hunted Criminals

The Real Life Dexter

Transcript For eight seasons, the TV show Dexter showed the fictional life of a crime-solving forensics expert who just so happened to have been a serial killer who killed serial killers.  This got me wondering, has there ever been a real-life Dexter? A killer, or even a criminal, who targeted other criminals? Well, there sort …

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Damnatio Memoriae: Erasing People from History

Damnatio Memoriae

Transcript The ancient Romans had a practice called Damnatio Memoriae, which was to banish someone’s memory from public life. It was also sometimes known as oblivion. It called for the complete deletion of the person’s name or image from all statues, inscriptions, coins, and texts.  While the practice neither began nor ended with the Romans, …

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Kayfabe: The Secret Code That Built Professional Wrestling

Kayfabe

Transcript One of my dirty secrets is that I’m a fan of pro wrestling. Whenever I tell people this the first thing I inevitably hear is, “you know it’s fake right?” This idea that people think professional wrestling is real comes from the concept that wrestling insiders call kayfabe. Learn about the history of kayfabe …

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Queen Victoria: The Grandmother of Europe

Grandmother of Europe

Transcript Traditionally, the royal families of Europe would arrange marriages amongst their children to establish alliances and bonds between their houses.  While this really isn’t done that much anymore, it also wasn’t that long ago that it was done. One monarch, in particular, Queen Victoria, was really good and marrying off her children. So good …

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Drug Lord Hippopotamuses

Drug Lord Hippos

Transcript Pablo Escobar was the biggest drug lord the world has ever known. At his height, he had a monopoly on cocaine trade in the 1980s in the United States. He had a peak net worth of $60 billion in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars. He was personally responsible for thousands of murders and dozens of acts …

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Boxing’s Alphabet Soup

Boxing's Alphabet Soup

Transcript Boxing used to be one of the most popular sports in the world. A world championship bout would draw millions of people to their radios or televisions and could pack the largest stadiums.  Since then, it has waned in popularity in no small part due to the confusing array of titles and organizations which …

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The Original Dow Jones Companies

The Original Dow Jones Companies

transcript For many people, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is the measure of the health of the overall stock market. In reality, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is really just the performance of a collection of 30 blue-chip stocks. The index was created in 1896 and back then there were only 12 stocks in the …

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