Transcript Let’s say you have a brand new country. You want to take it out of a spin and make some new laws. What is the first thing you do? Maybe ratify a treaty? Perhaps something about the economy. Well, if you were the United States back in 1789, you didn’t do anything nearly that …
Transcript At some point in the future, a phone call will be placed by the private secretary of the Queen to the British Prime Minister. In this call, he will utter the phrase “London Bridge is down”, which will set off a preplanned series of events following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. As it …
Transcript In October 1984, nine members of the Pintupi Tribe in Western Australia met some long lost relatives they hadn’t seen in years. The relatives invited the nine people to come and live with them in their community in Kiwirrkura. The significance of this event is that those nine people, two women with four boys …
Transcript Every so often, adults may be asked to perform a civic duty by sitting on a jury. Usually, the commitment might be nothing more than a few hours or a few days. Occasionally, some juries might get a case that lasts years. Why do we have juries, and where did this notion come from? …
Transcript On April 27th, 1865, just weeks after the end of the American Civil War, a steamboat carrying former Union prisoners of war sailed up the Mississippi River from Vicksburg. At 2 am, the boilers on the steamship exploded, killing 1800 people in what is still the largest maritime disaster in US history. Learn more …
Transcript History remembers the rulers and the leaders. We know of Napoleon, Caesar, Elizabeth, Ghengis Khan, and Captain Picard. However, for every one of the people I just listed, their success was due in large part to the people who worked underneath them. The ones who carried out their orders and made sure things got …
Transcript Sometimes the best way to win is simply not to lose. This strategy is called the Fabian Strategy and was given its name from an ancient Roman General and has been used throughout history, not just in warfare, but in many other areas as well. Learn more about the Fabian Strategy on this episode …
Transcript Here is a question I’m pretty sure no one listening to this has ever bothered to ask: Who is the current Roman Emperor? Obviously, the Roman Empire doesn’t exist, but if it did, who would be the claimant to the Imperial throne? Explore with me the very convoluted answer to this very meaningless questions …
Transcript On May 8, 1980, officials from the World Health Organization announced that smallpox, the disease which had ravaged humanity across the world for millennia, had been eradicated. Over the last century before the eradication of smallpox, it is estimated to have killed half a billion people. Learn more about humanity’s deadliest disease and how …