Episode – 0643 : One Word: Plastics Podcast Transcript At the 1862 London International Exhibition, an inventor by the name of Andrew Parkes introduced a new product based on cellulose […]
Episode – 0642 : The Republic of Letters
Episode – 0642 : The Republic of Letters Podcast Transcript Starting in the early Renisanase and going through to the early 19th century an intellectual community developed in Europe and […]
Episode – 0641 : Esperanto and the Search for a Global Language
Episode – 0641 : Esperanto and the Search for a Global Language Podcast Transcript In the 1880s, a Polish ophthalmologist set out to create a universal language. A language that […]
Episode – 0640 : The Catiline Conspiracy
Episode – 0640 : The Catiline Conspiracy Podcast Transcript We like to think of terrorist plots as being a condition of the modern world. However, there were such plots were […]
Episode – 0639 : The Battle of Yarmouk
Episode – 0639 : The Battle of Yarmouk Podcast Transcript From August 15 to August 20, in the year 636, one of the most important battles in history took place. […]
Episode – 0638 : Philippe Petit and the World’s Greatest Tightrope Walk
Episode – 0638 : Philippe Petit and the World’s Greatest Tightrope Walk Podcast Transcript On the morning of August 7, 1974, the people of New York City woke up to […]
Episode – 0637 : Pedestrianism
Episode – 0637 : Pedestrianism Podcast Transcript In the United States and Britain in the 19th century, there was a competitive activity that at one time might have been the […]
Episode – 0635 : White Elephants
Episode – 0635 : White Elephants Podcast Transcript If you’ve been around long enough, you might have heard something being described as a white elephant. A white elephant is something […]
Episode – 0634 : The Brachistochrone Problem
Episode – 0634 : The Brachistochrone Problem Podcast Transcript In 1696, the mathematician Johann Bernoulli posited a very simple question. Assuming no friction, what was the fastest shape for an […]
Episode – 0633 : The History of Gunpowder
Episode – 0633 : The History of Gunpowder Podcast Transcript Sometime almost 2000 years ago, a Chinese alchemist experimenting with three different ingredients discovered something astonishing.When the ingredients were subjected […]
Episode – 0631 : The British Peerage and Honors System
Episode – 0631 : The British Peerage and Honors System Podcast Transcript As an outsider, the British peerage system is really confusing. There are princes, dukes, earls, and barons. Some […]
Episode – 0630 : The Istanbul Canal
Episode – 0630 : The Istanbul Canal Podcast Transcript For centuries, humans have built canals to facilitate the transportation of people and goods. Usually, they are built to dramatically save […]
Episode – 0629 : The Roman Pomerium
Episode – 0629 : The Roman Pomerium Podcast Transcript Ancient Rome had an enormous number of customs and traditions. Some of them have been passed down to us in the […]
Episode – 0628 : Stephanie St. Clair
Episode – 0628 : Stephanie St. Clair Podcast Transcript The 1920s and 1930s were the heydays of organized crime in New York City. There were several mobsters from that period […]
Episode – 0627 : The History of the Tank
Episode – 0627 : The History of the Tank Podcast Transcript On November 20, 1917, German soldiers on the Western Front saw something that had never been seen in the […]
Episode – 0626 : The Eradication of Diseases
Episode – 0626 : The Eradication of Diseases Podcast Transcript The largest single killer of human beings throughout history has been disease. With the advent of modern medicine and the […]
Episode – 0625 : Ernest Shackleton and the Rescue of the Endurance
Episode – 0625 : Ernest Shackleton and the Rescue of the Endurance Podcast Transcript In 1914, the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out to become the first to cross the […]
Episode – 0624 : All About Hydrogen
Episode – 0624 : All About Hydrogen Podcast Transcript There is one substance that makes up 98% of the observable matter in the universe, yet you will almost never encounter […]
Episode – 0623 : The Rite of Spring Riot
Episode – 0623 : The Rite of Spring Riot Podcast Transcript Classical music aficionados are not usually associated with rowdiness and mayhem. They tend to be rather well-behaved and if […]
Episode – 0621 : The Mother of All Demos
Episode – 0621 : The Mother of All Demos Podcast Transcript Almost every single person listening to this podcast right now is doing so on some sort of personal computing […]