Podcast Transcript When you hear about ancient battles and wars, the stories are often dominated by famous generals whose names have come down to us through history. However, military success often relied on more mundane things. In the year 107 BC, a Roman general and statesman by the name of Gaius Marius did exactly such …
Podcast Transcript It was the single most sacred object in the Jewish faith. According to the bible, it was an object of incredible power that could win battles. It was the entire reason why the temple in Jerusalem was built. Then…it just disappeared and it was never mentioned again. Since then it has become an …
Podcast Transcript In the mid 19th century while the industrial revolution was in full swing, Japan was still an agrarian, feudal society. By the end of the 19th century, Japan had become one of the leading industrialized countries in the world. What happened between those two points was one of the most radical social and …
Podcast Transcript Johannes Vermeer was one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Unlike many of his contemporary painters, however, he didn’t leave a large body of work behind. The paintings he did create have left experts in both art and technology wondering if he didn’t have a secret that helped him with …
Podcast Transcript It is an instrument that we are all familiar with, even if we don’t know how to play it. It is one of the most commonly played instruments in the world, yet its origins are rather recent. Its direct ancestor an instrument that most people don’t realize and it has significant differences from …
Transcript How small can a country be and still be a country? In theory, there is no lower limit on the number of people to be a sovereign state. However, in reality, there are costs associated with being an independent country. The fewer the number of people, the higher the cost for everyone in the …
Transcript In the middle of World War II, a small island in Scotland’s Hebrides Islands was suffering through war shortages like most of the country. However, on February 5, 1941, a very fortunate disaster struck the island, and the island’s residents couldn’t have been happier. The reverberations from this lucky calamity are still being felt …
Transcript Every day we are constantly using measurements. We have ways of measuring distance, temperature, time, light, pressure, energy….everything. Yet, why do we measure everything the way we do? Why is a second, a second, and why is a meter, a meter? Learn more about why our units of measurement are the way they are …
Transcript Early 19th century London was a dangerous, dirty, dingy place with tons of poverty and a lot of drinking. Alcoholism was common and excessive drinking, especially amongst lower-income people in London, was the norm, not the exception. All of that alcohol had to be produced, which meant lots of breweries and lots of beer. …