Transcript I’m sure everyone hearing this is familiar with the word outlaw. It mostly used as a synonym for “criminal”. However, if I can paraphrase Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, “that word does not mean what you think it means.”. Learn about the ancient punishment of outlawry, and how it was used throughout the …
Podcast Transcript Most people are probably aware of the events which took place on December 7, 1941. As Franklin Roosevelt said, “it was a day that would live in infamy.” However, the events of December 7 weren’t limited to Hawaii, and they weren’t even limited to December 7. It was part of a much larger …
Podcast Transcript One of the technologies which helped make the modern world is the internal combustion engine. Without it, the world would be a very different place today. Yet it wasn’t a technology that appeared fully formed. It was developed incrementally over a century. To get it to a point where it was viable for …
Podcast Transcript Located in Vatican City, just off St. Peter’s Square lies one of the plainest and most uninteresting buildings you might ever find. It has no adornments and it is just a solid beige color. However, inside that bland structure, you will find one of humanity’s greatest artistic achievements, and to enjoy it you …
Podcast Transcript You’ve probably heard of artificial intelligence systems which have gotten so good that they can beat the best humans at Go, chess, and even Jeopardy. However, over 200 years ago one Hungarian engineer created a mechanical device that could defeat the world’s greatest chess players. Sort of. Learn more about The Mechanical Turk …
Podcast Transcrip Despite what you might have been told, Christopher Columbus and his expedition were not the first Europeans to reach the Americas. Almost 500 years earlier, a small group of Norse settlers arrived on what is today the Island of Newfoundland. Yet, their presence on the continent was short-lived and no one ever came …
Podcast Transcript Believe it or not, one of the most valuable elements on the Periodic Table was also the first one that was discovered by humans. Since then it has held a prominent spot in almost every culture on Earth. We use it to signify first place, we use it as a metaphor for important …
Podcast Transcript On November 11th, 1918, the first world war came to an end. Or to be more precise, the fighting stopped. For the next eight months, a final peace treaty was hammered out, and hanging over the negotiations was the very real threat that fighting could break out again. In the end, the treaty …
Podcast Transcript 62 miles north of Los Angeles in the city of Palmdale, California, lies one of the most secretive aircraft design and production centers in the world: Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Program. From this location, some of the most famous and important military aircraft in the 20th and 21st centuries were created….and they are …