Podcast Transcript In 2005, a small auction house in New Orleans sold a painting at auction labeled at Lot 664. The description of the item was simply, “Christ Salvator Mundi. Oil on cradled panel.” The painting was sold for $1,000. Twelve years later, the same painting was sold at Christie’s in New York for a …
Podcast Transcript There are few things that are truly universal across all cultures and throughout history. These things are often so obvious that we overlook them and forget how they are things that make us human. One such thing which seems so simple yet actually has profound origins: singing children to sleep. Learn more about …
Podcast Transcript There were tens of millions of stories to come out of World War II. Many of them are tales of horrible human cruelty. However, there is one particular story that is as horrific as any other, yet it doesn’t involve human barbarity, it involves nature. It was so horrific that it has been …
Podcast Transcript One of the most ubiquitous forms of payment today is credit cards. The odds are good that you have one, and most probably have one on your person right now. But how did it come about that you could pay for something by just giving someone a piece of plastic and who exactly …
Podcast Transcript In the 1950s and 1960s, the United States detonated nuclear bombs on land, on the water, underground, underwater, and in the atmosphere. The only thing that they hadn’t nuked was space itself. So, in 1962 they did just that. Learn more about Starfish Prime and the time that the United States detonated a …
Podcast Transcript In 1816, the world experienced something that it had never seen before. All over the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, and North America, summer never came. …or at least it didn’t in any way which it did before. It caused chaos and misery all around the world. Learn more about 1816, the year …
Podcast Transcript Beginning in 1801, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, the Earl of Elgin, began a project to document the sculptures located at the Parthenon in Athens. He then took it one step further and took half of the sculptures at the Parthenon and shipped them back to England. It has been a …
Podcast Transcript The Earth is pretty old. Our current, best estimate is that it is 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus 50 million years. Since then, however, a lot has happened. To help clarify the Earth’s timeline, geologists have divided the Earth’s history into various eras and periods. Each division of time represents a …
Podcast Transcript On July 17, 1944, one of the worst disasters to befall the American military during World War II occurred. It didn’t occur in Europe or the Pacific, however. It took place on US soil. The events leading up to this calamity and its aftermath permanently shaped the United States military. Learn more about …