The Origins of Boxing Day
Every year, primarily in Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is a legal holiday. It is a rather odd holiday in that it doesn’t celebrate anything or anyone in particular. Most people who ...
26 Dec 20229min
The Christmas Truce of 1914
In the very early morning of Christmas Day, 1914, something remarkable happened on the western front during the First World War. Soldiers in the trenches on both sides of no man’s land ceased fightin...
25 Dec 202211min
Christmas Foods
Of the many traditions associated with the Christmas season, one of the biggest is food. Foods that are often eaten only at this time of the year and seldom outside of the season. Unlike other Christ...
24 Dec 202213min
The History of Christmas Songs and Christmas Carols
Every year, sometime around the end of summer, it seems, you start hearing the very familiar songs of Christmas. Every year, we hear the exact same songs, many of which have been passed down for cent...
23 Dec 202213min
The Winter Solstice
Twice a year, the sun reaches an extreme point in the sky. It is the day with the least amount of sunlight or the most amount of sunlight, depending on where in the world you happen to be. It is a da...
22 Dec 202212min
Mount Athos (Encore)
In northern Greece, lying off the larger Chalkidiki peninsula is a place that is unique on planet Earth. It only has a population of about 2,400 people scattered across 20 settlements and some random...
21 Dec 20228min
NASA's Human Computers
Today computers are ubiquitous. You are listening to this podcast right now on some sort of computing device. However, before computers were machines, the name computer was given to people. Computers...
20 Dec 202213min
The Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers
After the horrors of the first world war, many of the nations in the conflict sought to build memorials to honor their dead. While there were many memorials built, often large and grandiose, the most...
19 Dec 202213min
