Operation Paperclip

Operation Paperclip

Podcast Transcript After World War II, the American forces in Germany implemented a program of de-Nazification in the parts of the country which they administered. The goal was to remove anyone who was a member of the Nazi party from any position of authority.  However, some of those Nazis were considered valuable, and the Americans …

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Wedding Traditions

Wedding Traditions

Podcast Transcript Weddings are full of traditions. Almost every aspect of a traditional western wedding involves customs that may date back hundreds or thousands of years.   However, most people have no idea where these customs or traditions come from. They simply do them because that’s what you do when you have a wedding.  Learn more …

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Stanislav Petrov: The Man Who Saved the World

Stanislav Petrov: The Man Who Saved the World

Podcast Transcript I’ve done episodes before about people who have saved a large number of human lives. Mostly, these people have done so through inventions or innovations in fields like agriculture or medicine.  What about people who prevented an impending disaster? Like when Superman stops an asteroid from hitting the Earth.  Well, there was such …

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Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift

Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift

Podcast Transcript In 1910, a German Earth scientist noticed something about the map of the world. South America seemed to fit into Africa. North America seemed to fit into northwest Africa and Europe.  He proposed that the continents may at one time have been joined and subsequently moved.  The scientific community laughed at him and …

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The Fall of Constantinople

Fall of Constantinople

Podcast Transcript History is full of battles and conflicts. Most of them are forgotten over time as they don’t really impact history. Whether one king or another wins a battle usually doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things. However, there are moments that truly change world history. When civilizations clash and the outcome can …

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Fritz Haber: The Best and Worst Chemist in History

Fritz Haber: The Best and Worst Chemist in History

Podcast Transcript Fritz Haber is unquestionably one of the greatest chemists in history. He was a Nobel prize winner and his inventions have touched billions of lives. However, Haber is a two-sided coin.  He has touched the lives of millions for the better, and he also touched the lives of millions for the worse. Learn …

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The Man Who Didn’t Want to be Pope

The Man Who Didn't Want to be Pope

Transcript On February 10, 2013, in what began as a rather innocuous assembly, Pope Benedict the XVI stunned the world by announcing that he would be retiring.  Not only were people stunned, but to paraphrase King George in the Musical Hamilton, most people weren’t even aware that was something a pope could do.  Yet, it …

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The New York World Trade Center

The New York World Trade Center

Podcast Transcript Prior to their destruction in 2001, the World Trade Center in New York was a wonder of architecture. It was a collection of seven different buildings which served as a hub of commerce in New York’s financial district.  The planning for the complex was decades in the making and during its brief history, …

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Air Force One

Air Force One

Podcast Transcript The era of presidential aviation began on October 11, 1910, when former president Theodore Roosevelt took to the skies in a Wright Brothers Flyer at a county fair in Saint Louis. The flight only lasted a few minutes. Fast forward 110 years and the President of the United States has one of the …

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