How to party: Ancient Roman style

This week on Self Improvement Wednesday, Dr Lauren Rosewarne, from Melbourne University's School of Social and Political Sciences, teaches us about her very festive special subject: Christmas films.  

Sydney's first government telephone exchange was established in 1882. By 1891 there was a petition that unleashed hell. 

Egyptologist Dr Camila Di Base-Dyson teaches Richard Glover all about Ancient Egyptian etiquette. 

The awesome, brutal power of the Krakatoa eruption, which had the explosive force of a 200-megatonne bomb, killed more than 36,000 people and cooled the entire Earth by an average of 0.6°C. Curiously, Krakatoa is not the most powerful volcanic eruption in history, but it is perha ... Show More

74,000 years ago, the Earth suffered the greatest natural disaster that it has seen in the last several million years. A supervolcano erupted in what is today the country of Indonesia. In addition to completely changing the Earth’s climate for years, it may have pushed a species ... Show More

Virginie Girod raconte l'une des plus célèbres catastrophes naturelles de l'Antiquité. En 79 de notre ère, le Vésuve entre en éruption. En quelques heures, la cité de Pompéi est ensevelie sous les nuées ardentes et ses habitants, figés pour l'éternité dans leur tentative de fuite ... Show More

EVENTS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (1) - We go way back in history to explore the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, the completion of the Great Pyramid, the creation of the Akkadian Empire, the law code of Hammurabi and the eruption of the volcano of the island of Thera. 

In the year 79 CE, Mt. Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman city of Pompeii. The ruins were only rediscovered in the the late 1700s, and have been under excavation ever since. In this episode we discuss written references and the archaeology of Pompeii, Vesuvius and the day the vo ... Show More

"What happens when a volcano erupts just six miles from a bustling city? In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius is regarded as a source of bounty by those who live in its shadow. But one of history’s most infamous natural disasters soon unfolds. How did the lucky ones make their escape? And how ... Show More

Would you fly to the top of a volcano that’s about to erupt at any moment? Volcanologist Helena Buurman did, and survived to tell the tale! In 2008, Helena was monitoring Mount Redoubt in Alaska, when the ground beneath the volcano began to shake. What follows is a tale of volcan ... Show More

At 8:32 a.m. PDT on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffered a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range and stood 9,680 feet before its erup ... Show More

Mes chers camarades, bien le bonjour !Quel est l’animal qui tue le plus d’humains chaque année ? Le moustique. Et la maladie la plus mortelle du monde ? Le trouble cardiaque, tout simplement ! En fait, ce sont les trucs les plus banals qu’on devrait craindre, mais on ne peut pas ... Show More

Pompeii history