The Taiping Rebellion
In the mid-19th century, China experienced its greatest civil war. It was a conflict that set China on a course that eventually led to China’s Century of Humiliation and the fall of the Qing Dynasty...
10 Nov 202515min
Cracking the Enigma Code (Encore)
During the Second World War, the Germans used what they thought was an uncrackable encryption system. It was a really good encryption system, and for the longest time, the Allies had a difficult tim...
9 Nov 202513min
Kaliningrad
Located on the Baltic Sea, sandwiched between the nations of Lithuania and Poland, is the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad, as it is today, does not have a deep history. For most of its hi...
8 Nov 202514min
The Year 1950
In the year 1950, the world was halfway through the 20th century. In the 25 years prior, the world had seen the greatest economic downturn in modern history and the greatest war the world had ever k...
7 Nov 202514min
Compound Interest (Encore)
One of the most powerful forces in economics and finance is compound interest. Not everyone understands compound interest, even though they may reap its benefits or suffer its consequences. Compou...
6 Nov 202516min
The Sinking of the Lusitania
On May 7, 1915, nearly a year into the First World War, the British steamship RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat off the southern coast of Ireland. Over 1,100 people were killed, many of whom ...
5 Nov 202513min
The 1969 Sino-Soviet Border Conflict
Many people think that the closest the world ever came to nuclear war was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. To be sure, that was a very tenuous point in history. However, there is a good argument t...
4 Nov 202515min
The Origins of the Federal Reserve
In 1913, the United States created its third national bank. Unlike the previous two, this bank was organized in a completely different manner. It was organized differently, in an effort to avoid the...
3 Nov 202514min
