logo
episode-header-image
May 2025
51m 46s

CLASSIC: Lawsonomy: How the Father of th...

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

When middling baseball player Alfred Lawson first learned of the Wright Brothers, he experienced a revelation that would guide the greater part of his life: Aviation, he believed, was the future of more than just transit -- it would become one of the most important advances in the history of the human race. Lawson, brimming with confidence and charisma, led the charge to popularize aviation, publishing magazines and even designing the first modern airliner. After the Great Depression dashed many of America's budding businesses, Lawson shifted focus to economic theory and, eventually, he discovered his own religion.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
CLASSIC: Benjamin Franklin's Advice On "Finding A Mistress"
<p>Founding Father Benjamin Franklin was a man of many interests, but his endeavors were by no means limited to technical innovation, philosophy and politics. In fact, throughout his life he had a reputation as an irredeemable lech -- literally, in later years, a dirty old man -- ... Show More
31m 43s
Nov 20
Wait! Can a tree really own itself?
<p>Do you have a favorite tree? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max head over to the famous college town of Athens, Georgia where -- legend has it -- one guy was so enamored with his childhood oak that he ultimately deeded it to itself. How much of the story is true? Can a tree ... Show More
42m 22s
Nov 18
Doc Holliday Was, In Fact, A Deadly Dentist
<p>Longtime listeners are well-aware that the history of the 'Wild West' is more than a bit... embellished. Yet a grain of truth exists at the heart of almost every legend, and the story of Doc Holliday is no different. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max learn more about Tombs ... Show More
40m 57s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2025
Captain Cook
Through his voyages in the eighteenth century, Captain Cook’s work as an explorer contributed to startling advances in scientific knowledge, and mapped swathes of unplotted territory in both hemispheres. To many, he was regarded as one of the greatest explorers in human history, ... Show More
55m 45s
Jan 2025
The Wright Brothers | The Art of the Bird | 1
<p>In the late-1890s, two brothers from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright, became obsessed with what Wilbur described as “the problem of flight.” With no formal training or funding, they threw themselves into studying the mechanics of birds, determined to design a new method of fly ... Show More
39m 50s
Jan 2025
The Wright Brothers | Fliers or Liars | 2
<p>By 1903, inventors and adventurers in Britain and France were launching their own experimental aircraft skyward. In the U.S., crowds gathered outside Washington, D.C. to see Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian Institution test his highly-anticipated “aerodrome”, only to watch th ... Show More
40m 28s
Oct 2024
History Daily: Breaking the Sound Barrier
<p>October 14, 1947. US Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, a feat many aviators previously believed impossible.</p><p><br></p><p>You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to ... Show More
16m 21s
Jan 2025
Saturday Matinee: American History Tellers
<p>On today’s Saturday Matinee, we prepare for takeoff with the Wright Brothers and hear their story about how they created the first airplane to take flight.</p><p><br></p><ul><li>Link to American History Tellers<em>:</em> <a href="https://wondery.com/shows/american-history-tell ... Show More
41m 18s
Sep 2024
ON BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Episode 3: Industry
Few people remember that Benjamin Franklin was America’s wealthiest self-made man. After being denied a formal education and then indentured to his own brother, he launched America's first media empire. But while Franklin could be a ruthless businessman, he was out for more than ... Show More
29m 10s
Sep 2020
#143 Alfred Lee Loomis (the most interesting man you've never heard of)
What I learned from reading Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II by James Conant. ---- [0:01] Few men of Loomis’ prominence and achievement have gone to greater lengths to foil history.  [0:17]  Independently ... Show More
56m 9s
Feb 2018
Adam Smith
Father of free market economics, Adam Smith was one of many great philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment period. His philosophies helped change the economy, putting an end to the long-standing feudal system. But outside of his well-known works, such as The Wealth of Natio ... Show More
1h 5m
Apr 2025
The Real Greatest Showman
PT Barnum may be better known as the loose subject of the movie The Greatest Showman, but his life was so much more than that work of fiction. A master of entertainment, an entrepreneur, and a genius of publicity, he built a career on feeding public curiosity with his grand illus ... Show More
1h 1m