Episode – 0193 : Did Gutenburg Really Invent the Printing Press? Transcript The printing press is considered to be one of, if not the greatest invention in history. The printing […]
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Episode – 0187 : The McRib
Episode – 0187 : The McRib Transcript The musical Brigadoon is about a Scottish village which appears for one day every 100 years. The village can be thought of as […]
Episode – 0185 : The Golden Record
Episode – 0185 : The Golden Record Transcript In the 1970s NASA embarked on a mission it had never attempted before. Due to a fortunate alignment of planets, they were […]
Episode – 0182 : The Canary Islands
Episode – 0182 : The Canary Islands Transcript If you think of Spain as the country on the Iberian Peninsula which is sandwiched between France and Portugal, you are not […]
Episode – 0162 : All About ZIP Codes
Episode – 0162 : All About ZIP Codes Transcript Back in the day, sending letters was slow and complicated. Nothing could travel faster than the speed of a horse or […]
Episode – 0159 : Aluminum
Episode – 0159 : Aluminum Transcript Hundreds of years ago gold and silver were rare and valuable, and today they are rare and valuable. Iron and tin were cheap and […]
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Episode – 0156 : Roman Concrete
Episode – 0156 : Roman Concrete Transcript There are lots of stories about technologies and knowledge from ancient peoples that have been lost to us through history. In reality, most […]
Episode – 0152 : The Voynich Manuscript
Episode – 0152 : The Voynich Manuscript Transcript In 1912, a Polish rare book dealer purchased an extremely old codex that contained an unknown system of writing. Since then, the […]
Episode – 0143 : Get the Lead Out
Episode – 0143 : Get the Lead Out Transcript Clair Patterson was a geochemist who worked at CalTech from the 1940s through the 1990s. His work involved studying the age […]
Episode – 0127 : Really Big Telescopes
Episode – 0127 : Really Big Telescopes Transcript Since the dawn of time, humans have looked up at the night sky to watch the stars. …and then nothing happened for […]
Episode – 0113 : The World’s Deepest Hole
Episode – 0113 : The World’s Deepest Hole Transcript In 1970, scientists in the Soviet Union set out to drill the deepest hole in the world. They weren’t drilling for […]
Episode – 0098 : The SR-71 Blackbird
Episode – 0098 : The SR-71 Blackbird Translate The Lockheed SR-71, nicknamed the Blackbird, holds the record for the fastest airplane ever. A record which it set in 1976 and […]
Episode – 0082 : Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Episode – 0082 : Isambard Kingdom Brunel Transcript In 2002 the BBC did a poll where they named the top 100 Britons in history. It had many people you have […]
Episode – 0079 : The Global Positioning System
Episode – 0079 : The Global Positioning System Transcript Today, GPS devices that can determine where you are in the world have become ubiquitous. In fact, there is a very […]
Episode – 0074 : Potpourri Volume I: Survival
Episode – 0074 : Potpourri Volume I: Survival Transcript In the course of doing research for shows, I often come across interesting facts that wouldn’t really make for an entire […]
Episode – 0069 : An Incredibly Bright Idea
Episode – 0069 : An Incredibly Bright Idea Transcript Thomas Edison is often credited with the invention of the light bulb. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. If […]
Episode – 0067 : The First Transatlantic Cable
Episode – 0067 : The First Transatlantic Cable Transcript Today the world can communicate with text, images, audio, and video at the speed of light. Most of this is done […]
Episode – 0062 : A Brief History of Timekeeping
Episode – 0062 : A Brief History of Timekeeping Transcript Our ability to measure time is one of the fundamental things which makes us human. We’ve gone from very crude […]
Episode – 0060 : Eponymous Laws
Episode – 0060 : Eponymous Laws Transcript Everyone is probably familiar with Murphy’s Law which says that “Anything which can go wrong will go wrong.” However, there are many such […]
Episode – 0052 : The Man Who Fed the World
Episode – 0052 : The Man Who Fed the World Transcript Which person can be credited with having saved the most human lives in history? There might not be a […]