Deterrence and The Spectacle of Punishment
The idea of crime and punishment dates back to the earliest societies. As societies have evolved, so too have punishments, transitioning from overt, public forms of discipline to more discrete metho...
7 Aug 13min
Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson
In the early 20th century, one title in sports stood above all others: the boxing Heavyweight Champion of the World. It was the epitome of athletic prowess, and at that point, every champion had been...
6 Aug 15min
The French Resistance
In June 1940, France suffered one of the most humiliating military defeats in its history. The country was divided, its government surrendered, and millions of people suddenly found themselves livin...
5 Aug 15min
The Peasants' Revolt of 1381
In the late 14th century, England was recovering from the Black Death, fighting an expensive war, and struggling with a labor shortage that had upended the traditional social order. When the governme...
4 Aug 15min
The Rare Earth Hypothesis
In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi asked a very simple yet important question: If the universe has intelligent civilizations, as so many people believe, where are they? This became known as the Fermi Par...
3 Aug 15min
The Odyssey of the Odyssey
For thousands of years, a tale of war, wandering, monsters, and homecoming has traveled across oceans, languages, and civilizations. Its journey from ancient performance to written masterpiece revea...
2 Aug 14min
Questions and Answers: Volume 44
The number 44 has great significance. It is the atomic number of ruthenium; the 44th Roman emperor was Claudius Gothicus, and the 44th pope was Sixtus III. Perhaps most importantly, 44 was the number...
1 Aug 16min
The History of Glass
It began as a rare luxury, valued alongside precious stones and guarded by skilled craftsmen. Over thousands of years, it transformed architecture, science, art, and medicine. It allowed people to...
31 Jul 17min
