Podcast Transcript After the end of the second world war, Berlin was a divided city controlled by the four major allied powers. Despite the different zones of control, people could move freely between them. However, on August 13, 1961, the East German government decided to end the free travel of Berliners by building a wall …
Podcast Transcript For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived a nomadic life, hunting for game and foraging for food. Then, several thousand years ago, they stopped. They began domesticating animals, started growing crops, and lived a sedentary lifestyle. The question anthropologists have asked is, why? Learn more about the rise of agriculture, aka the …
Podcast Transcript Every country in Africa is unique and has its own history. However, many African countries share a similar story over the last 150 years, having gone through European colonization and decolonization. The nation of Liberia, however, has a history, unlike any other country in the world. From its founding to its modern-day governance, …
Podcast Transcript In 1906, George Soper, a freelance sanitary engineer, was hired to investigate several outbreaks of typhoid fever in wealthy New York households. The reason why these outbreaks were mysterious is that typhoid fever usually only occurred in places with unsanitary conditions. What Soper discovered radically changed our knowledge of infectious diseases and how …
Podcast Transcript Songkran is a traditional festival celebrated in Thailand that marks the start of the Thai New Year. It is also known as the Water Festival, as it involves splashing water on one another as a symbolic gesture of cleansing and washing away the sins and bad luck of the previous year. However, it …
Podcast Transcript For over 1000 years, England has been a monarchy.…except for eleven years in the 17th century when it wasn’t. During that period, it was ruled by a man by the name of Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell was unquestionably a brilliant general and was also a bit of a hypocrite when it came to politics. …
Podcast Transcript Located on the tips of our fingers are features known as friction ridges. We evolved them to get a better grip on objects. It just so happens that those friction ridges are unique to every person. That allows us to use friction ridges as unique identifiers and for authorities to use them to …
Podcast Transcript Located in southeastern Europe is the Balkan Peninsula. It is home to multiple ethics groups, languages, and religions. It has one of the most dynamic and confusing histories of anywhere in Europe, with multiple migrations of people arriving over the centuries. Not surprisingly, it has also been the source of many conflicts, some …
Podcast Transcript Gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces of nature, yet, if you have enough of it, it can create the most powerful thing in the known universe: a black hole. The very idea of a black hole didn’t really exist until the early 20th century, and now they are regularly found by …