Episode – 1068 : The Night the Stars Fell Down – 1833 Podcast Transcript In the early morning of November 13, 1833, one of the greatest astronomical spectacles in recorded […]
Episode – 1062 : Questions & Answers: Volume 7
Episode – 1062 : Questions & Answers: Volume 7 Podcast Transcript In June of every year, the sun has its solstice. In the north, the days are long; in the […]
Episode – 1050 : Irrational Numbers
Episode – 1050 : Irrational Numbers Podcast Transcript There is a particular type of number that is so common we have keys on calculators to handle them. However, thousands of […]
Episode – 1041 : Thorium
Episode – 1041 : Thorium Podcast Transcript Located in the 90th place on the periodic table is the element Thorium. Thorium, as with every element, has unique properties, making it […]
Episode – 1030 : Galaxies
Episode – 1030 : Galaxies Podcast Transcript For most of human existence, we looked up at the night sky and thought that was all there was to the universe. However, […]
Episode – 1021 : Venus
Episode – 1021 : Venus Podcast Transcript As long as humans have looked up in the sky, they noticed something. There was an unusually bright star that would show up […]
Episode – 1013 : Typhoid Mary
Episode – 1013 : Typhoid Mary Podcast Transcript In 1906, George Soper, a freelance sanitary engineer, was hired to investigate several outbreaks of typhoid fever in wealthy New York households. […]
Episode – 1009 : Fingerprints
Episode – 1009 : Fingerprints Podcast Transcript Located on the tips of our fingers are features known as friction ridges. We evolved them to get a better grip on objects. […]
Episode – 1006 : Black Holes
Episode – 1006 : Black Holes Podcast Transcript Gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces of nature, yet, if you have enough of it, it can create the most […]
Episode – 1002 : Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition
Episode – 1002 : Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition Podcast Transcript In 1947, a Norwegian adventurer named Thor Heyerdahl set out to prove a theory of his that the […]
Episode – 0998 : World’s Most Famous Bets
Episode – 0998 : World’s Most Famous Bets Podcast Transcript Throughout history, people have bet on everything and anything. From the mundane to the extremely important. From casino bets to […]
Episode – 0991 : Negative Numbers
Episode – 0991 : Negative Numbers Podcast Transcript Over the span of human history, there are certain ideas that humans have had a very difficult time accepting. Ideas that no […]
Episode – 0982 : RADAR
Episode – 0982 : RADAR Podcast Transcript In 1887, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves. While the first practical use of this discovery was communication, there were also […]
Episode – 0968 : All About Air
Episode – 0968 : All About Air Right now, as you are listening to the sound of my voice, you are breathing air. Air is all around you all the […]
Episode – 0967 : Perpetual Motion
Episode – 0967 : Perpetual Motion Podcast Transcript Imagine a device that could supply an unlimited amount of energy. It would solve many of the world’s problems in one fell […]
Episode – 0964 : Nanotechnology
Episode – 0964 : Nanotechnology Podcast Transcript In Greek, the word for dwarf is “nanos.” The International Bureau of Weights and Measures adopted the prefix ‘nano’ to mean one billionth. […]
Episode – 0961 : Game Theory
Episode – 0961 : Game Theory Podcast Transcript One of the most fascinating areas of mathematics and economics is game theory. Game theory involves analyzing competitive situations where multiple participants […]
Episode – 0957 : Artificial Sweeteners
Episode – 0957 : Artificial Sweeteners Podcast Transcript In 1879, Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist at Johns Hopkins University, made an astonishing discovery. He was conducting experiments with coal tar when […]
Episode – 0954 : Magnetic Pole Reversal
Episode – 0954 : Magnetic Pole Reversal Podcast transcript Once every 450,000 years or so, the Earth undergoes a radical transformation. The planet’s magnetic field will literally flip. The north […]
Episode – 0953 : The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Episode – 0953 : The Dunning-Kruger Effect Podcast Transcript In 1999, two social psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, published a seminal paper on a cognitive bias that can affect […]