The Apollo 1 Disaster
In the early 1960s, the United States was always a step behind the Soviet Union in the space race. By the mid-1960s, the Americans had caught up. They didn’t have many glamorous firsts, but they were...
14 Juli 202414min
The Herculaneum Papyri
In the mid-18th century, excavations in the ancient town of Herculaneum, just outside the city of Pompeii and destroyed by the same volcano, discovered something….interesting. They found a villa that...
13 Juli 202414min
The Passenger Pigeon (Encore)
In the early 19th century, the most abundant bird in North America, and perhaps the entire world, was the passenger pigeon. An estimated three billion of them would fly in flocks so large that they co...
12 Juli 202413min
The Worst Roman Emperors (Encore)
Depending on how you define it, there were somewhere between 70 to 100 Roman emperors between the ascension of Augustus to the fall of the western empire in 476. A period of about 500 years. Some of t...
11 Juli 202413min
The Origin of Words and Phrases: Common Idioms
Let me cut right to the chase. This episode is going to be a deep dive into the origin of some common idioms. I don’t want to dance around the subject or have to walk on eggshells, so I’m using this i...
10 Juli 202413min
Unintended Consequences
One of the most famous lines in poetry comes from the poet Robert Burns, who spoke of ‘The best-laid schemes of mice and men.’ The line has been used in reference to the fact that no matter how good t...
9 Juli 202416min
The English Premier League
The most popular sports league in the world in terms of the number of people who follow and watch is the English Premier League. Unlike other sports leagues, the English Premier League is relatively ...
8 Juli 202415min
The Horrible Voyage of the 1905 Russian Baltic Fleet (Encore)
In February 1904, the Russian Empire found itself at war with the Empire of Japan over what was territory in the current nation of China. The problem for Russia was that a big chunk of its navy was l...
7 Juli 202411min
