The Treasure of Lima: A Bloody Mutiny and a $208 Million Curse
Picture up to 208 million dollars in raw treasure: chests of jewels, gold altarpieces, and two life-size solid gold statues of the Virgin Mary. Now picture handing the key to a merchant captain and te...
28 Jun 21min
The Messina Earthquake: 37 Seconds That Erased a City
At 5:20 a.m. on December 28, 1908, survivors heard a roar like a train rushing through a tunnel, then a sinister collective whistling. In just 37 seconds, the elegant Sicilian port of Messina and Regg...
28 Jun 25min
Ada Lovelace: The Enchantress Who Imagined the Computer
In 1828, a 12-year-old girl calculated the ratio between a bird's wingspan and body weight, drafted a book she called Flyology, and planned to fly across England using mechanical wings and steam power...
28 Jun 18min
Atlantis: How Plato's Allegory Became a Dangerous Myth
For centuries we have searched the ocean floor for a lost utopian civilization, but we misunderstood the assignment. The creator of the Atlantis story never meant it as a map. He meant it as a mirror....
28 Jun 23min
Ambrose Bierce: The Writer Who Vanished Into History
A 71-year-old famous American writer pens a final letter saying he is leaving for an unknown destination in the middle of a violent revolution, then vanishes without a trace. It is one of the most fam...
28 Jun 10min
Charles Babbage: The Victorian Who Built Tomorrow's Computer
Imagine a man in the early 1800s trying to build a programmable computer out of steam, brass, and gears, dying considered a total crank, and leaving behind only unfinished machines. Then, over a centu...
28 Jun 14min
Houtouwan: The Chinese Fishing Village Swallowed by Vines
Picture a thriving coastal village of over 2,000 people in 500 hillside homes, alive with diesel engines and the smell of salt and fish. Now fast-forward a few decades to find every street and rooftop...
28 Jun 16min
Dick Turpin: The Brutal Truth Behind the Highwayman Myth
Picture the romantic outlaw in a velvet coat on a black horse, robbing the rich and charming everyone else. Now erase it, and replace it with a pockmarked, insecure thug dragging a 70-year-old man bar...
28 Jun 23min
