Birthdays
Happy New Year! Today we talk about the history of birthdays. They began as religious rituals in ancient Egypt and Greece and were later celebrated by Romans for wealthy men. Early Christians rejected...
8 Jan 13min
Santa Claus
This episode traces Santa Claus from the real Saint Nicholas to the modern red-suited icon, showing how folklore, poems, illustrations, and advertising shaped the cheerful symbol of Christmas that we ...
23 Des 202510min
Interesting Christmas Facts from Around the World
This episode highlights some of the strangest Christmas traditions around the world, from the mischievous Yule Lads in Iceland to Spain’s humorous squatting figure hidden in Nativity scenes. We also e...
16 Des 202510min
Candy Canes
During the month of December, we are discussing all things Christmas. On this week’s episode, we talk about candy canes. They actually began as plain white sugar sticks in 17th-century Europe, but leg...
9 Des 202511min
Christmas Trees
For the month of December, we will be talking about all things Christmas. This week we discuss Christmas trees which began as ancient symbols of life during winter and later became decorated indoor tr...
4 Des 202513min
The First Thanksgiving
This episode explains how the 1621 harvest feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag became known as the first Thanksgiving. It describes the Pilgrims’ difficult first year, the crucial help they r...
26 Nov 202511min
The Lambda Cold Dark Matter Model
This episode explains how the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model expands on the Big Bang theory by adding dark energy, which accelerates the universe’s expansion, and cold dark matter, which shapes galaxie...
18 Nov 202512min
In Cold Blood
Today we look at Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, a true account of the 1959 Clutter family murders in Kansas. It explains how Capote combined fact and storytelling to create a new kind of true-crime wr...
12 Nov 202510min
