Podcast Transcript Two of the United States’s most distant territories are located in the Western Pacific Ocean: Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Despite being separate political entities today, the two groups of islands have a shared geography, history, and culture. Today, they find themselves on the doorstep of Asia and straddling …
Podcast Transcript On December 25, 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was launched from the European Space Agency launch center in French Guyana. After six months of testing and configuring the telescope, in July of 2022, its first images were transmitted. Since then, we have received a flood of images and data that have caused …
Podcast Transcript From 1899 to 1900, China underwent a widespread and violent uprising. The revolt, a reaction against China’s exploitation by foreign powers, was decades in the making. In response to the revolt, a group of eight nations joined together to put down the rebellion and ultimately subjected China to yet another humiliating treaty. The …
Podcast Transcript In late 1944, the Allies were on a roll, and Germany was on the ropes. Some Allies, considering how fast they were advancing, thought the war might be over by Christmas. However, Hitler had a plan. He would engage in one last desperate battle, which he thought would turn the tide of the …
Podcast Transcript For centuries, sailors told tales of gigantic waves that they encountered at sea, and for centuries, scientists didn’t believe them. However, over time, evidence began to pile up, which suggested that the legends of these freak waves were, in fact, true. These waves are rare, still not well understood, and terrifying to ships …
Podcast Transcript In the 1860s, one of the bloodiest wars in the Western Hemisphere took place….and it wasn’t the US Civil War. It was a war between Paraguay and an alliance of Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, and it was one of the bloodiest ever fought in Latin America. It was a conventional war that resulted …
Podcast Transcript At the end of the Second World War, Europe was a mess. The economies of most countries were in shambles and the threat of communism loomed over the continent. In a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a plan which could help get …
Podcast Transcript Every year, hundreds of millions of birds around the world migrate. Some migrate short distances, some migrate incredibly long distances, and others don’t bother to migrate at all. For centuries, people didn’t know why birds migrated, how they managed to travel such long distances every year, or where they went. Thanks to modern …
Podcast Transcript One of the defining events of the Middle Ages took place in Constantinople on April 12, 1204. Soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, under orders of the Doge of the Republic of Venice, breached the walls and sacked one of the greatest cities on Earth. The sack wasn’t just an orgy of violence and …