Podcast Transcript On April 12, 1862, one of the most daring and audacious events of the American Civil War took place. It wasn’t a major battle. It didn’t involve armies lining up across each other on an open field. Instead, it was one of the first examples in military history of a raid designed to …
Podcast Transcript Christmas is the time of year where we celebrate traditions that have been handed down to us over the centuries. However, traditions can vary from place to place and not all traditions are old. Some traditions are very modern. …and some traditions are downright bizarre. Learn more about the world’s strangest Christmas traditions …
Transcript László Polgár was born just after World War II in Hungary. His field of study was the nature of human intelligence. After studying the lives of over 400 great intellectuals from throughout human history, he came to a startling conclusion: geniuses weren’t born, they were made. So he set about conducting an experiment on …
Podcast Transcript The term “banana republic” is often used pejoratively to describe small, poor, unstable developing countries. Being called a banana republic is never a good thing. However, that term has a very real origin which involved actual bananas, mercenaries, corporate money, and the American government. Learn more about Banana Republics, where the name comes …
Podcast Transcript The Sahara desert is by far the largest desert in the world. It evokes images of sand dunes, camels and just being really really dry. However, it didn’t always use to be that way. Quite recently, at least geologically speaking, it was a place with grasslands and forests. While it disappeared and became …
Podcast Transcript In 1911, a Dutch physicist named Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was experimenting with ultra low-temperature metals. He was measuring the electrical resistance of mercury to find out what would happen What he found was shocking and totally upended everything we know about physics and electricity. Learn more about superconductivity, how it works, and its …
Podcast Transcript In the 1980s, two superpowers battled each other for global supremacy. Across the world, the two goliaths collided on almost every front. In the end, it left a landscape littered with millions dead…..tired of listening to their commercials. Learn more about the Cola Wars and how they changed economics, culture, and soft drinks, …
Podcast Transcript In 1605, members of the Catholic resistance in England hatched a plot that would have completely changed the political landscape of the country. They wanted to blow up the entire parliament and the king on November 5, which they thought would return a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters got caught, and …
Podcast Transcript 1902, the French governor of Indochina faced a huge problem in the city of Hanoi. They were suffering from a massive infestation of rats and the rats could carry diseases, including the plague. The governor implemented a plan to get rid of the rats. Thousands of people were recruited in the effort. However, …