7284: Antoni Gaudi — Why Barcelona's Genius Architect Rejected the Straight Line | pplpod
Antoni Gaudi looked at the straight line and decided nature had no use for it. He built the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, and Park Guell using curves, organic forms, and structural innovations that en...
17 Jun 24min
7283: Tom Brady — The 199th Pick and the Myth of Athletic Inevitability | pplpod
Tom Brady was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, selected after six quarterbacks nobody remembers. Twenty-three years later he retired with seven Super Bowl titles, more than any franchise in NFL h...
17 Jun 20min
7282: Sugar Ray Leonard — The Trauma Behind the Smile of Boxing's Golden Boy | pplpod
Sugar Ray Leonard won an Olympic gold medal with a smile so bright that corporate sponsors lined up before he turned professional. Behind the charm was a childhood of sexual abuse and an adulthood of ...
17 Jun 21min
7281: Rocky Marciano — The Short Heavyweight Who Retired Undefeated | pplpod
Rocky Marciano stood five feet ten inches in an era when heavyweight champions towered over six feet. He compensated with a work rate and punching power that no opponent could survive for long. He ret...
17 Jun 23min
7280: Edward III — The Accidental Legacy of England's Warrior King | pplpod
Edward III overthrew his mother's regency at seventeen, launched the Hundred Years War, and presided over the devastating Black Death that killed a third of his subjects. He built a cult of chivalry a...
17 Jun 23min
7279: James I — The Wisest Fool in Christendom and the King Who United Two Crowns | pplpod
James I of England was called the wisest fool in Christendom — a king who wrote books on theology and demonology, commissioned the most famous English Bible in history, and managed to unite the Scotti...
17 Jun 21min
7278: Louis XVI — The Shy King Whose Hesitation Ruined France | pplpod
Louis XVI was a locksmith by hobby and a king by accident of birth. He was shy, indecisive, and more comfortable taking apart mechanical devices than governing the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Whe...
17 Jun 22min
7277: John Adams — The Science Nerd America Called a Tyrant | pplpod
John Adams was the most intellectually gifted of the founding fathers and possibly the least suited to politics. He was vain, honest to the point of self-destruction, and so obsessed with constitution...
17 Jun 21min
