#44 - Mini-Myth: Ben Franklin and Electricity
Did Ben Franklin really discover electricity by flying a kite in a lightning storm? Well, he may have flown the kite, Buzzkillers, but knowledge of electricity’s been around a long, long time. Take th...
14 Aug 20152min
#42 - Mini-Myth: George Washington Carver and Peanut Butter
Like all good Americans, I just had a PB&J for lunch. I couldn’t help thinking of George Washington Carver, the reputed inventor of peanut butter. You won’t be surprised to hear that the invention of ...
7 Aug 20155min
#40 -Mini-Myth: Lady Godiva Riding Naked Through Coventry
What a great way to get taxes lowered! Get your land-owning husband to agree to lower property taxes if you ride naked on horseback right down main street. That’s just what Lady Godiva agreed to do in...
30 Jul 20152min
#38 - Mini-Myth: Caesar Wasn’t Born by Caesarian Section
It’s an exciting and romantic tale: a future Roman hero has to be cut out of his mother’s womb as she’s dying in childbirth. The procedure is later named after the famous baby who survived — Julius Ca...
23 Jul 20152min
#37 - Pre Dawn Raid: US-Cuba Relations
The Cuban Embassy in Washington DC re-opened yesterday, symbolizing the thaw in US-Cuba relations in the past year. This is all warm and fuzzy, but we look at one of the most important historical myth...
22 Jul 20153min
#36 - Black Adder and World War 1
It’s time to go over the top, Buzzkillers! We interview Professor Richard Grayson about the wildly popular BBC television series, BlackAdder, and how close it was to historical reality. There are prob...
21 Jul 201547min
#35 - Mini-Myth: Hitler and the Volkswagen
Herr Hitler gets credit for an awful lot, Buzzkillers, including the invention of the Volkswagen. The story is that he demand a “people’s car” that the average German could afford. Alas, Buzzkillers, ...
16 Jul 20155min
#34 - The Houses of Parliament
The Buzzkill has landed! Right in the heart of London, in Parliament Square. We interview Dr. Caroline Shenton, from the Parliamentary Archives, about myths surrounding the Houses of Parliament. We br...
14 Jul 201541min
