The 1978 Lufthansa Heist
On December 11, 1978, one of the most audacious heists in history took place at JFK Airport in New York City. A small group of thieves executed an almost perfect crime and walked away with 6 million ...
22 Sep 202413min
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
For decades, the nation of Ethiopia has dreamed of creating a damn on the Blue Nile River. Such a dam would provide an enormous amount of electricity for a country that is one of the lowest electrici...
21 Sep 202413min
Bowling
A popular activity that millions of people around the world engage in every week is bowling. Today, all the equipment manufacturers and bowling alleys constitute a multibillion-dollar business. Howe...
20 Sep 202415min
What is Calculus? (Encore)
As early as 2400 years ago, Greek philosophers were coming up with paradoxes that seemingly had no solution. Early mathematicians came up with problems that seemed impossible to solve. It wasn’t unti...
19 Sep 202414min
Black Tuesday and the 1929 Stock Market Crash
On October 28, 1929, a day known as Black Monday, the New York Stock Exchange suffered its greatest one-day loss in history. The next day, known as Black Tuesday, the market dropped even further, reg...
18 Sep 202416min
The French Origins of English
The English language is….different. Unlike other languages, English has borrowed and used words from a wide variety of other languages. However, no other language has had quite the influence that Fr...
17 Sep 202415min
Vichy France
After the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, the French were forced to sign a lopsided armistice that gave control over most of the country to Germany. However, about 40% of Frace was not occupied by t...
16 Sep 202414min
The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller (Encore)
In 1961, Michael Rockefeller, an heir to one of the greatest fortunes in the world, disappeared on an art-collecting trip off the coast of the island of New Guinea. For decades, the family simply ass...
15 Sep 202413min
