Podcast Transcript On Christmas Eve, 1914, something remarkable happened on the western front during the First World War. Soldiers in the trenches on both sides of no man’s land ceased fighting. Not only did they stop fighting, but they came out of their trenches to meet each other to celebrate Christmas. It has become one …
Podcast Transcript Of the many traditions associated with the Christmas season, some of the biggest has to do with food. Foods that are often eaten only at this time of the year and seldom outside of the season. Unlike other Christmas traditions, food can vary greatly in different places, as well as through time. Many …
Podcast Transcript Most people know of Isaac Newton as one of the world’s foremost mathematicians and physicists. Listeners of this podcast might also know that he was inadvertently responsible for the creation of the gold standard. Yet there is another part of Isaac Newton that most people aren’t aware of. A part of him that …
Podcast Transcript Every year, and it seems like it is getting earlier and earlier, you start hearing the very familiar songs of Christmas. …and very year, we hear the exact same songs, many of which have been passed down for centuries. Where did these songs come from, and why do we call Christmas songs “carols”? …
Podcast Transcript Twice a year, the sun reaches an extreme point in the sky. It is the day with the least amount of sunlight or the most amount of sunlight, depending on where in the world you happen to be. It is a day that almost every early culture around the world recognized because it …
Podcast Transcript Today computers are ubiquitous. You are listening to this podcast right now on some sort of computing device. However, before computers were machines, the name computer was given to people. Computers were people who computed. In fact, in the early days of NASA, the space program relied upon these human computers to do …
Podcast Transcript After the horrors of the first world war, many of the nations in the conflict sought to build memorials to honor their dead. While there were many memorials built, often large and grandiose, the most important memorial in many countries is that of a tomb, oftentimes simple, dedicated to a soldier whose remains …
Podcast Transcript After the rise of Islam in the 7th century, it spread rapidly, conquering lands in Asia, Africa, and Europe. In Europe, it established a foothold on the Iberian Peninsula. For almost 800 years, Europeans sought to expel the invaders. It took the better part of a millennium, but they finally achieved their goal. …
Podcast Transcript Adolf Hitler single-handedly started the Second World War in Europe. While the allies were desperately trying to end the Third Reich and Hitler personally, they weren’t the only ones trying to bring Hilter’s reign to an end. Inside Nazi Germany, a small but committed group sought to remove Hitler from power, and they …