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 …
Podcast Transcript On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the third mission to land on the moon. It never achieved its mission objective. Despite having failed in its goal, it still managed to return to Earth and, in its own way, achieved a type of success it could never …
Podcast Transcript Formerly located in the territory of Hong Kong was arguably the most densely populated place on Earth. In fact, it might have been the most densely populated place in human history. Not only was it packed with people, but it also had a unique political status. No government controlled it, which made it …
Podcast Transcript There are estimated to be over 1,300 active volcanoes in the world today. Almost all of them have one thing in common, they were around well before there were humans to record their creation. In fact, their creation might have taken many thousands of years. However, there is one volcano were know quite …