Podcast Transcript Ancient people around the world all made a rather similar discovery. In certain places, they could find a black stone in the ground which could burn. Coal. For the most part, this combustible black rock took a backseat to wood as a fuel source, but eventually, it replaced wood and was the fuel …
Podcast Transcript In the year 70, the Roman Emperor Vespasian commissioned what would become the world’s largest amphitheater. Approximately ten years later, it opened to great fanfare and 100 days of games. No greater amphitheater has ever been built in the nearly 2000 years since its construction. Learn more about the Flavian Amphitheater, aka the …
Podcast Transcript On December 29, 1170, the Archbishop of Canterbury was brutally murdered on the floor of the Canterbury Cathedral by four armed knights while preparing for his evening prayers. The ramifications of that incident shook the country of England, its king, and the Catholic Church. Over 850 years later, it is still remembered and …
Podcast Transcript It is the world’s largest island, has the closest point of land to the North Pole, and is the least densely populated political territory on the planet. 80% of it is covered by an ice mass that is second only to the Antarctic ice sheet. Beneath that ice might just lie the largest …
Podcast Transcript In January of 1930, a 21-year-old by the name of Clyde Barrow met a 19-year-old by the name of Bonnie Parker. Together they formed one of the most infamous couples in history. For a period of four years during the Great Depression they terrorized the central United States. They went on a crime …
Podcast Transcript During World War I, a Dutch dancer and courtesan was recruited by the French as a spy. However, not long after this, the French turned on her and accused her of being a double agent and spying for Germany. It was a case that rocked the allied powers and one which is still …
Podcast Transcript In the history of mathematics, there were several times when mathematicians encountered problems that they didn’t know what to make of. It wasn’t a case of a problem with a very difficult solution so much as it was a problem that didn’t seem to make any sense. In one such case, the resolution …
Podcast Transcript Depending on how you define it, there were somewhere between 70 to 100 Roman emperors between the ascension of Augustus to the fall of the western empire in 476. A period of about 500 years. Some of them managed to be just and competent rulers who ruled for extended periods of peace and …
Podcast transcript In the mid-19th century, the various games called football separated and evolved into their own sports. While association football and rugby became dominant on one side of the Atlantic, a totally different version of football evolved on the other side. That version of the game, over the course of 150 years, has grown …