Arabic Numerals Took Over 600 Years To Spread Across the West
Western scholars first encountered "Arabic" numerals in the seventh century, making mathematics and accounting much easier. But Roman numerals stubbornly stuck around until the invention of the printi...
23 Nov 20178min
A Short History of the War of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles that were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster (Lancastrians) and the supporters of the House of York (Yorkists). The wars were called...
22 Nov 20177min
Richard Francis Burton—The Man Who Knew the Most Languages in History
Richard Francis Burton was an explorer, translator, and contender for the 19th-century's world's most interesting man. He was also functional in dozens of languages and translated monumental works of ...
21 Nov 20177min
The Scopes Monkey Trial, HL Mencken, and Religion in Public Life—Darryl Hart
If you’ve seen the 1960 Spencer Tracy movie Inherit the Wind, you know about the Scopes Monkey Trial. In this real-life 1925 case, John Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which ha...
20 Nov 201755min
The Reformation Happened 500 Years Ago, But It's More Timely Than Ever—Benjamin Wiker
Secularism, radical Islam, and nationalism all sound like buzzwords pulled straight from today’s headlines. But you might be surprised to know that 500 years ago they were at the epicenter of one of t...
17 Nov 201739min
How Did You Call the Police Before the Phone Was Invented?
Dialing 9-1-1 is a new innovation (at least in the sense of the scope of human history), but the need for emergency services goes back to the earliest settlements. How did a pre-modern civilization ca...
16 Nov 20176min
All the Presidents Who Owned Slaves and How They Treated Them
A whole bunch of presidents owned slaves considering they took an oath to uphold the rights of their citizens. But how many of the pre-Civil War presidents actually owned slaves? And how did they trea...
15 Nov 20176min
Who Were Worse—The Spanish Conquistadors or the Aztecs?
The Spanish conquistadors have rightly been called out for their brutal treatment and enslavement of native populations. But did they behave worse than the Aztecs?See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...
14 Nov 20177min
