Podcast Transcript The month of February comes from the Roman month Februarius, which itself comes from the Februa purification ceremony, which was held during the festival of Lupercalia. The Romans would run around wearing goat skins, wielding strips of goat hide, also known as februa, and hitting people with them, which was considered to be …
Podcast Transcript Located in Central Cambodia, north of the great Tonle Sap Lake, lies the former city of Angkor. Today, the city is nothing but the ruins of its many temples and structures. However, during its heyday, it was one of the largest cities in the world and the capital of one of the world’s …
Podcast Transcript Spain, like most countries, has a unitary national government but also has a series of subnational jurisdictions. In most countries, these might be known as states or provinces; however, in Spain, they do things a little differently. The political divisions in Spain aren’t arbitrary lines on a map. The divisions are usually based …
Podcast Transcript Sometime around 5,500 years ago, an event took place on the Eurasian steppes that fundamentally changed the world. We don’t know who did it or exactly when it took place, but it was one of the single greatest moments in all of human history. It ushered in revolutions in agriculture, transportation, and warfare, …
Podcast Transcript On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed. It banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. The path to the 18th Amendment was something that was almost a century in the making, and once it was passed, it was widely ignored both illegally and through numerous legal …
Podcast Transcript In 1941, a minor league baseball team in Baltimore, Maryland, signed a young player from the St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys—a school for delinquent boys and orphans. Unbeknownst to them, the wayward boy would go on to completely transform the game of baseball and become one of the most famous people in …
Transcript Eliud Kipchoge is unquestionably the greatest marathon runner in history. He’s won an Olympic Gold Medal, holds the world’s record, and has won 12 of the 13 marathons he has ever entered. However, there was one accomplishment that had been out of reach for Kipchoge and every other marathoner: The 2-hour marathon. On October …
Podcast Transcript Sometime around eight to nine thousand years ago, ancient people in Asia Minor found a very dull grey metal that turned out to be easy to manipulate when it was heated. For thousands of years, it was used for a variety of purposes, including as a food additive. With the advent of the …
Podcast Transcript You are probably familiar with, or have at least heard of, several of the great pre-Columbian cities in the Americas. Places like Tikal, Guatemala, Copan, Honduras, and Tenochtitlan, Mexico are some of the great legacies of the civilizations that came before. However, all of these population centers were located Mesoamerica. Most of the …