One of the lowest points of World War 2 for the Allies was autumn 1943, when bombing runs from England to Germany were ramping up. Hundreds of B-17s flew out to strike military targets, but they flew unescorted due to being the only planes with enough...
Sep 29
Romans Quarried Marble, Cathars Hid in Caves, and Nazis Built Tank Turrets in These Same Mountains
The Pyrenees stretch 270 miles from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, separating France from Spain, and most people think of them as a natural barrier: remote, barren, and largely untouched. They would be wrong. These mountains sit at the edge of where early humans were supposed ... Show More
45m 38s
Sep 24
The Roman Emperor Who Spread Christianity Most Was Arguably Augustus (Even Though He Died in 14 AD)
Rome seemed fundamentally opposed to Christianity in the first century. After all, the empire fed Christians to lions, taxed their communities, and crucified their followers, making Rome look like the natural enemy of everything the new faith stood for. Christians returned the ho ... Show More
52m 8s
Sep 22
5,000 Years of Punctuation: Why It Terrified Roman Scholars and Started a Russian Revolution
The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Flash forward 1200 years, and in 1905, Moscow's typesetters went on s ... Show More
51m 9s
Sep 2022
75: Legend of the Phantom Fortress | The Plane that Flew and Landed Itself
World War 2 has countless stories of bravery, sacrifice, camaraderie, and heroism. But the war also has a lot of mysteries. Many of them still unsolved. Like the legend of the Phantom Fortress. A B-17 bomber that returned from a mission with no crew aboard; and somehow landed its ... Show More
15m 30s
Mar 2023
189 - The Stalingrad Airlift
<p>Stalingrad ranks as one of the most infamous, savage and emotive battles of the 20th century. To supply the trapped and exhausted German Sixth Army, the Luftwaffe mounted an airlift in the winter of 1942/43. The weather conditions faced by the flying crews, mechanics, and sold ... Show More
57m 49s