The Whaleship Essex: Real-life Moby Dick...

Part one of the mid-year coverage of things literally and figuratively unearthed in the last quarter includes updates, more updates, animals, edibles and potables, and accidental finds. Research: Addley, Esther. “Solstice-aligned 5,000-year-old monument ‘once in a lifetime find’, ... Show More

This 2023 episode covers how humans have worked on ways to make garments water resistant almost since they started to wear them. But figuring out how to manufacture a raincoat using rubber was a big breakthrough that took centuries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat ... Show More

Holly and Tracy discuss how frustrating Charles Goodyear could be. Then Holly talks a lot about shoes and how much she loves them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Today, Herman Melville's magnum opus Moby Dick is lauded as a classic of American literature -- but it turns out Melville didn't invent the whole thing on his own. In the first part of this special two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the story of a real-life white whale ... Show More

The ill-fated whale-ship The Essex, was rammed by an 85-foot sperm whale on 20th November, 1820. The incident inspired Herman Melville’s sea-faring novel, Moby Dick. Left to fend for themselves in tiny whaling boats, the young crew had to make terrible choices in order to preserv ... Show More

Captain George Pollard Jr. was just 29 years old when his whaling vessel, the Essex, met with disaster. As the hapless crew struggled (and largely failed) to survive their horrific time at sea, they encountered starvation, madness, exposure and some fates arguably worse than deat ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Herman Melville's (1819-1891) epic novel, published in London in 1851, the story of Captain Ahab's pursuit of a great white sperm whale that had bitten off his leg. He risks his own life and that of his crew on the Pequod, single-mindedly seeking h ... Show More

<p>In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why "Moby-Dick" is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "<a href="https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/everything-you-never-knew-about-whaling/">Everything You Never Knew About Whaling</a>.") ... Show More

If you went to high school in America, you probably read Moby-Dick — or, more likely, you skimmed the CliffsNotes and wondered why this dense, whale-obsessed novel was considered a classic.That was me in 10th grade.But earlier this year, I decided to revisit Moby-Dick in midlife, ... Show More

Phoebe reads a chapter a day of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Read along. Our other shows are Criminal and This is Love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

Nowadays most people know the pirates depicted in fiction bear little resemblance to real-life, historical pirates. Few actually buried any treasure, and fewer still lived in secretive island hideouts -- however, in at least one case, the truth appears stranger than fiction. Join ... Show More

A legend, used as a political allegory by the ancient philosopher Plato. But over the centuries, countless amateur historians and archaeologists have asserted that the lost island really existed - and one of them may have actually located it. Parcasters - If you lived through the ... Show More