Podcast Transcript Sometime during the reign of Ptolemy I or Ptolemy II, the Egyptian state decided to build an institution dedicated to accumulating all human knowledge in the City of Alexandria. As the city grew, this institution grew along with it to become the greatest knowledge repository in the ancient world. …and then Julius Caesar …
Podcast Transcript At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the delegates worked hard to create a document that would govern their new country. At the end of the convention, they had a session titled “Leftover Business.” It was here in the “leftover business” section of the constitutional convention where the Vice Presidency was born. Some say it …
Podcast Transcript In 1845, farmers around Europe suffered from a blight that devastated the potato crop. This lasted for several years, but nowhere was it more pronounced than it was on the island of Ireland, where it resulted in death and mass migration. The effects of this potato blight can still be witnessed in the …
Podcast Transcript On May 20, 1910, an event occurred that had never occurred before or since. Gathered for the funeral of the British King Edward VII, nine different European monarchs assembled inside Windsor Castle for a photo. In the immediate years after this image was taken, life would change dramatically for most of the monarchs. …
Podcast Transcript Barely a month after the Normandy Landing in 1944, the allied powers were already thinking of what the post-war world would look like. One of the big issue was the creation of a monetary system which could replace the then abandoned gold standard. So, in at a resort in New Hampshire, representatives from …
Podcast Transcript In 1839, a French scientist by the name of Edmond Becquerel was experimenting with an electrochemical cell when he discovered something interesting. When it was exposed to light, it produced an electrical current. For over a hundred years this was mostly a scientific curiosity. However, with the advent of the space age, this …
Podcast Transcript It is estimated that within the observable universe there might be as many as a septillion stars. While each of them is far larger than the Earth, they all differ in terms of age, size, color, and composition. Despite being very far away, we know a surprisingly large amount about them through observation …
Podcast Transcript Over the centuries, there has been a host of self-proclaimed prophets, astrologers, scientists, and cranks who have predicted the end of the world. Some of them have been extremely precise in when they predicted when the world will end. Spoiler: to date, none of the end of the world predictions have come true. …
Podcast Transcript In January 1920, an Italian American businessman in Boston started a new company. In order to raise money, he took $100 investments from 18 people and offered them a fabulous return on their money in only 45 days, and he delivered on his promise. Soon people were lining up to give him their …