It became known as the ‘Skandalkonzert’: an evening of expressionist, experimental pieces at Vienna’s Great Hall of the Musikverein on March 31, 1913, which so disturbed the audience that rioting and slapping ensued, followed by a lawsuit.
In time, it established the reputations of The Second Viennese School - a group of composers like Shoenberg and Weber, ... Show More
Yesterday
The First Ever Starbucks
When Starbucks opened in Pike Place, Seattle, on March 30th, 1971, it was a simple shop selling whole coffee beans, tea, and spices - with no creamy macchiatos or pumpkin spice lattes in sight. Founders Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker, mentored by Dutch coffee trader ... Show More
12m 44s
Aug 2025
America’s high-speed rail fail
The US is well behind much of the world in building passenger rail, especially high-speed trains. But we do have one major advantage. This episode was produced by Devan Schwartz, edited by Naureen Khan, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Patrick Boyd with help from And ... Show More
29m 35s
Feb 2024
Jake Berman, "The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Every driver in North America shares one miserable, soul-sucking universal experience—being stuck in traffic. But things weren’t always like this. Why is it that the mass transit systems of most cities in the United States and Canada are now utterly inadequate?
The Lost Subways o ... Show More
29m 56s