The Battle of Thermopylae ( /θərˈmɒpɪliː/ thər-MOP-i-lee ; Greek : Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, Máchē tōn Thermopylōn ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I . Lasting over the course of three days, it was one of the most prominent battles of both the second Persian invasion of Greece and the wider Greco-Persian Wars . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support ...
Jan 11, 2023•38 min
Shock art is contemporary art that incorporates disturbing imagery, sound or scents to create a shocking experience. It is a way to disturb "smug, complacent and hypocritical" people. [2] While the art form's proponents argue that it is "imbedded with social commentary" and critics dismiss it as "cultural pollution", it is an increasingly marketable art, described by one art critic in 2001 as "the safest kind of art that an artist can go into the business of making today". [3] [4] But while shoc...
Jan 04, 2023•33 min
The battle of Castle Itter was fought on 5 May 1945, in the Austrian village of Itter in the North Tyrol region of the country, during the last days of the European Theater of World War II. Troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps led by Captain John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr. , a number of Wehrmacht soldiers led by Major Josef "Sepp" Gangl , SS- Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Schrader , and recently freed French prisoners of war defended Castle Itter against a...
Dec 28, 2022•33 min
Sherman's March to the Sea (also known as the Savannah campaign or simply Sherman's March) was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by William Tecumseh Sherman , major general of the Union Army . The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. His forces followed a " scorched earth " policy, destroying militar...
Dec 21, 2022•36 min
The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington . The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. Beer was difficult to transport and spoiled more easily than rum and whiskey. Rum distillation in the United States had been disrupted during the American Revolutionary War , and whiskey distr...
Dec 14, 2022•36 min
Charles Eugène Bedaux (10 October 1886 – 18 February 1944) was a French -American millionaire who made his fortune developing and implementing the work measurement aspect of scientific management , notably the Bedaux System . Bedaux was friends with British royalty and Nazis alike, and was a management consultant , big game hunter and explorer . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here ....
Dec 07, 2022•36 min
Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily . Two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael , a tramp who died from eating rat poison , dressed him as an officer of the Royal Marines and placed personal items on him identifying him as the fictitious Captain ( Acting Major ) William Martin . Correspondence between two British generals that suggested that the Allies planned to inv...
Nov 30, 2022•40 min
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London , England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7 million, [3] comprising soldiers, officers and adherents collectively known as Salvationists. Its founders sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute, and hungry by meeting both their "physical and spiritual needs." As opposed to other charities, that only focus on things that exist....
Nov 23, 2022•41 min
An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative , non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language , an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. [1] Idioms occur frequently in all languages; in English alone there are an estimated twenty-five million idiomatic expressions....
Nov 16, 2022•35 min
Sometimes, even with the very best marketing research and R&D departments that money can by, companies make bafflingly stupid decisions and bring terrible products to the market. This week, we explore a sampling. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Nov 09, 2022•33 min
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, also known as the August Coup, [a] was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Soviet Union 's Communist Party to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev , who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the Communist Party at the time. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials, including Vice President Gennady Yanayev , who together formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP). They opposed Gorbach...
Nov 02, 2022•33 min
Eve Online (stylised EVE Online ) is a space-based , persistent world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by CCP Games . Players of Eve Online can participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining , piracy , manufacturing , trading , exploration , and combat (both player versus environment and player versus player ). The game contains a total of 7,800 star systems that can be visited by players. In 2009, a player alliance ...
Oct 26, 2022•45 min
The illegal drug trade or drug smuggling is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs . Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license , of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws . The think tank Global Financial Integrity 's Transnational Crime and the Developing World report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652 billion in 2014 alone. [1] With a world GDP of ...
Oct 19, 2022•34 min
The Fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire , was a decisive event in the Spanish conquest of the empire . It occurred in 1521 following extensive manipulation of local factions and exploitation of pre-existing political divisions by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés . He was aided by indigenous allies , and his interpreter and companion La Malinche . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find ou...
Oct 12, 2022•38 min
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit . It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). [7] [8] The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. [9] The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific re...
Oct 05, 2022•37 min
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms . [fn 4] He acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022 upon the death of his mother , Elizabeth II . He was the longest-serving heir apparent in British history and, at the age of 73, is the oldest person to ascend the British throne. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patr...
Sep 28, 2022•33 min
Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt [1] (22 May 1878 – 23 May 1960), commonly known as Rustam-e-Hind ( Hindi-Urdu for Rostam of Hindostan ) and by the ring name The Great Gama, [7] was a pehlwani wrestler and strongman in British Raj . In the early 20th century, he was an undefeated wrestling champion of subcontinent . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for mo...
Sep 21, 2022•27 min
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase . The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark . Clark and 30 members set out from Camp Dubois , Illinois, on May 14, 1804, met Lewis and ten other members of the gr...
Sep 14, 2022•40 min
A common misconception is a viewpoint or factoid that is often accepted as true but which is actually false. They generally arise from conventional wisdom (such as old wives' tales ), stereotypes , superstitions , fallacies , a misunderstanding of science, or the popularization of pseudoscience . Some common misconceptions are also considered to be urban legends , and they are often involved in moral panics . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the ...
Sep 07, 2022•46 min
Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician . During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Aug 31, 2022•44 min
The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human . Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains were still broadly accepted for many years, and the falsity of the hoax was only definitively demonstrated in 1953. An extensive scientific review in 2016 established that amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson was responsible for the fraudulent evidence. O...
Aug 24, 2022•34 min
Frederick Russell Burnham DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa , and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell in Rhodesia . He helped inspire the founding of the international Scouting Movement . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Pat...
Aug 17, 2022•53 min
The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The SLA was considered by the FBI and American law enforcement as the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Most fugitives of the group were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.
Aug 10, 2022•50 min
Among Ancient Romans , bestiarii (singular bestiarius ) were those who went into combat with beasts, or were exposed to them. It is conventional [1] to distinguish two categories of bestiarii : the first were those condemned to death via the beasts (see damnatio ad bestias ) and the second were those who faced them voluntarily, for pay or glory (see venatio ). [2] The latter are sometimes erroneously called gladiators ; to their contemporaries, however, the term gladiator referred specifically t...
Aug 03, 2022•37 min
William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see below ), [1] and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall , the Democratic Party 's political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and state . At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railroad , a di...
Jul 27, 2022•32 min
This episode is about forbidden places, like Ilha da Queimada Grande, also known as Snake Island, an island off the coast of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean . It is administered as part of the municipality of Itanhaém in the State of São Paulo . The island is small in size, only 43 hectares (106 acres), and has a temperate climate. The island's terrain varies considerably, ranging from bare rock to rainforest. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the sh...
Jul 20, 2022•41 min
Vincenzo Pipino (born 22 July 1943), also known as Encio, is an Italian thief from Venice whose exploits earned him the nickname "the gentleman thief". He is the first person to successfully steal from the Doge's Palace , and has been responsible for some of the most sensational art thefts in the city. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more detai...
Jul 13, 2022•41 min
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin ( /ˈpuːtɪn/ ; Russian: Владимир Владимирович Путин; [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn] ( listen ); born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia , a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 2000 until 2008. [7] [c] He was also the prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. He is also a diabolical monster bent on world domination....
Jul 06, 2022•40 min
A common misconception is a viewpoint or factoid that is often accepted as true in current times. They often arise from conventional wisdom (such as old wives' tales ), stereotypes , a misunderstanding of science, or popularisation of pseudoscience . Some common misconceptions are also considered to be urban legends , and they are often involved in moral panics . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our P...
Jun 29, 2022•36 min
Jeffrey Stephen Wigand ( /ˈwaɪɡænd/ ; born December 17, 1942) is an American biochemist and whistleblower . He is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky , who worked on the development of reduced-harm cigarettes and in 1996 blew the whistle on tobacco tampering at the company. This was adapted for 1999 film The Insider , with Russell Crowe portraying Wigand. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to s...
Jun 22, 2022•45 min
