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 …
Podcast Transcript As an outsider, the British peerage system is really confusing. There are princes, dukes, earls, and barons. Some of the titles are hereditary, and some of them are not. The titles have a hierarchy, but is a viscount higher or lower in status than a marquess, and is a baron higher or lower …
Podcast Transcript For centuries, humans have built canals to facilitate the transportation of people and goods. Usually, they are built to dramatically save time, like how the Panama and Suez canals can help avoid a trip around an entire continent. However, there is currently a canal being built that is designed to replicate a natural …
Podcast Transcript Ancient Rome had an enormous number of customs and traditions. Some of them have been passed down to us in the names of our months, or the letters in the Latin alphabet. However, they also had a lot of very customs which to us seem very strange. One of the strangest, and most …
Podcast Transcript The 1920s and 1930s were the heydays of organized crime in New York City. There were several mobsters from that period such as Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano who terrorized the city and made a fortune. Amongst all of the organized crime figures in New York, there was one who was different from …
Podcast Transcript On November 20, 1917, German soldiers on the Western Front saw something that had never been seen in the history of warfare. They witnessed over 400 lumbering metal beasts heading their way. If they tried to shoot them, the bullets would just bounce off. They were some of the first people to be …
Podcast Transcript The largest single killer of human beings throughout history has been disease. With the advent of modern medicine and the understanding of how bacteria, viruses, and parasites work, we’ve made enormous strides in reducing incidents of disease. In a few cases, we have completely or almost completely eradicated diseases from the Earth. Learn …
Podcast Transcript In 1914, the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out to become the first to cross the continent of Antarctica by land. They did not achieve their goal. However, their failure ended up becoming one of the greatest stories of perseverance and of the tenacity of the human spirit. Learn more about Ernest Shackleton …