China's Foot Binding Tradition
Foot binding was practiced in China for more than 1,000 years -- far longer than can be attributed to a mere cultural or fashion fad. Why did such an extreme type of body modification become such an i...
19 Mar 201434min
13 Reasons for the American Revolution
"No taxation without representation" is often thought of as the main beef that led to the American Revolution, but it was only one of many moving parts in the bigger picture. Read the show notes for t...
17 Mar 201427min
Everest: Getting to the Top of the World, Pt. 2
After WWII ended, efforts were resumed to conquer Everest, but it took many, many teams and missions to reach the summit. Eventually, a bee keeper and a Sherpa achieved that loftiest of goals. But wha...
12 Mar 201423min
Everest: Getting to the Top of the World, Pt. 1
Once a British survey effort identified Peak XV of the Himalayan range as the highest point on Earth, a committee was formed with one goal: Get to the top. Early expeditions gathered data and made run...
10 Mar 201429min
It's the Jane Austen Episode!
She was not a shy spinster who wrote some little books mostly to amuse her own family. She also was not a real-life Elizabeth Bennett. Jane Austen's life was very different from any of her heroines. H...
5 Mar 201436min
The Peralta Grant and the Baron of Arizona
In the 1880s, James Reavis launched one of the most ambitious fraud schemes of all time when he claimed a huge part of the Arizona Territory as his own. He forged and planted evidence to back up his c...
3 Mar 201430min
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became the first African-American labor union to be recognized by the American Federation of Labor. What started as a campaign for more money and better treatme...
26 Feb 201431min
The Disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater
The 1930 vanishing of Joseph Force Crater is considered one of the largest missing person cases in U.S. history, and has fueled decades of speculation about what exactly happened to the New York State...
24 Feb 201427min
