The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Podcast Transcript When most people think of World War II, they think of the Allied power of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, versus the Axis power of Germany, Italy, and Japan.  However, this wasn’t always the case. At the start of the war in Europe, Nazi Germany and the Soviet …

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Syndrome K: The Disease That Saved Lives

Syndrome K: The Disease That Saved Lives

Transcript In 1943, the Italian government surrendered to the Allied forces. The Germans, not wanting to cede such a large part of Europe to the Allies, quickly occupied northern and central Italy.  However, as the Germans occupied Rome there occurred an outbreak of what was known as Syndrome K.  Caes of Syndrome K in one …

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The Wives of Henry VIII

The Wives of Henry VIII

Podcast Transcript Henry, Eighth of his name, King of England, Ireland, and Wales, and head of the House of Tudor, was one of the most significant monarchs in British history.  One of the things which made his reign so noteworthy was the controversy surrounding his wives.  His marriages completely changed the course of England and …

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The Erfurt Latrine Disaster

The Erfurt Latrine Disaster

Transcript In the year 1184 in the Dutchy of Thuringia, in what is today the country of Germany, a conflict raged between the Count of Thuringia and the Archbishop of Mainz.  To resolve this dispute, the German King Henrich VI called the parties to the city of Erfurt to settle their outstanding issues. Things did …

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The Golden Record

The Golden Record

Transcript In the 1970s NASA embarked on a mission it had never attempted before. Due to a fortunate alignment of planets, they were going to attempt to send robotic probes on a flyby mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, before being sent to deep space, out of the solar system.  Some of the mission …

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The 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas

Transcript I’m sure all of you have heard the 12 Days of Christmas song. It is the holiday equivalent of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, and no one ever sings it to completion because it’s so long.  But it does raise the question, what are the 12 days of Christmas? Why are there …

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Reginald Foster: The World’s Foremost Latinist

Reginald Foster: The World's Foremost Latinist

Transcript On Christmas Day, 2020, Reginald Foster passed away at the age of 81 in a nursing home facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a few days before. This episode is not necessarily about his passing however, it is about his life, and in particular how he had one of the …

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Really Big Telescopes

Really Big Telescopes

Transcript Since the dawn of time, humans have looked up at the night sky to watch the stars. …and then nothing happened for hundreds of thousands of years until a guy by the name of Galileo Galilei point a telescope at the stars and saw a bunch of stuff that everyone had missed. Since then, …

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The Legend of Srinivasa Ramanujan

The Legend of Srinivasa Ramanujan

Transcript In 1913, a young man from the city of Madras in British India sent a letter to one of the world’s preeminent mathematicians, G.H. Hardy, in Cambridge Univerisity in England.  The young man had no formal education in advanced mathematics, yet that letter would end up changing the landscape of mathematics for the rest …

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