A History of Cathedrals

A History of Cathedrals

Transcript If you have ever traveled in Europe, odds are you have visited at least one major cathedral. These massive religious buildings were and still are, the architectural centerpieces in most cities.  Yet, most visitors to a cathedral will usually walk around, gawking at lofty ceilings and old art without ever really knowing what they …

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Copyright Traps, aka Mountweazels

Copyright Traps, aka Mountweazels

Transcript Copyright is what protects creators from having someone copy and make money off of their work without compensation.  However, there are some things like directories or maps which have information that can be difficult to copyright. It’s just presenting information or data which exists out in the real world.  Such creators of maps and …

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Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve

Transcript On January 1, 1987, a paper was published in the journal Nature which rocked the world of anthropology.  Researchers Allan Wilson, Mark Stoneking, and Rebecca Cann used the then-new science of genetic analysis to analyze the DNA in human mitochondria.  What they found was evidence that humans on Earth can trace their ancestry back …

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Roman Decimation

Roman Decimation

Transcript You are probably familiar with the term decimation. The word is usually used in English to mean “to cause great destruction or harm”.  However, to ancient Rome, the word had a very different and very specific meaning.  It was one of the most devastating and brutal forms of punishment that the military could inflict.  …

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Domus Aurea – Nero’s Palace

Domus Aurea - Nero's Golden Palace

Transcript Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known to history as just Nero, was not the best of Roman Emperors. In fact, on most lists of Roman Emperors, he would rank somewhere near the bottom. In no small part, this is due to how he reacted after the greatest fire ever to engulf Rome and what …

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The Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi

Transcript In 1901, Swiss archeologists Gustave Jequier discovered a large stone stele in what is today western Iran. That large stone was 2.25m or 7.5 feet tall and was covered with cuneiform writing.  After it was translated, it was found to have been a list of 282 laws written down by the Babylonian King Hammurabi. …

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All About Chess

All About Chess

Podcast Transcript It is arguably the world’s oldest game, yet it is one of the most popular cybersports.  It has been called the game of kings, and yet it can be mastered by children.  Its origins are truly global having passed through several of the world’s greatest civilizations, and it can and is played almost …

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Lyudmila Pavlichenko: The Deadliest Woman in World War II

Lyudmila Pavlichenko: The Deadliest Woman in World War II

Podcast Transcript In 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a 24-year-old woman in Ukraine volunteered to join the Red Army.  She was initially pressured to become a nurse like most women who volunteered, however, that wasn’t what she wanted to do. She wanted to be on the front lines. Within a year, …

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The Louvre: The World’s Greatest Museum

The Louvre: The World's Greatest Museum

Podcast Transcript Located in the heart of Paris, along the banks of the River Seine, lies the Louvre.  It has over 750,000 square feet of gallery space, over 615,000 items in its collection, and in a non-pandemic year, gets over 10 million annual visitors.  Yet, it wasn’t always a museum, and the way it acquired …

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