The Message of the Flag

Liz Waid and Joshua Leo look at the singer Prudence Mabhena. She has faced many difficulties in her life, but today she is making beautiful music.http://spotlightenglish.comDownload our app for Android at http://bit.ly/spotlight-androidDownload our app for iOS at http://bit.ly/sp ... Show More

How do you greet people? Do you say hello, or shake hands? Tell us what you think. And then listen to today's Spotlight program on handshakes.http://spotlightenglish.comDownload our app for Android at http://bit.ly/spotlight-androidDownload our app for iOS at http://bit.ly/spotli ... Show More

How can the world learn about a terrible war? Liz Waid and Adam Navis tell about a film about real life in the Syrian civil war.http://spotlightenglish.comDownload our app for Android at http://bit.ly/spotlight-androidDownload our app for iOS at http://bit.ly/spotlight-appleFaceb ... Show More

Now that China is your "adopted country", you had better make sure you know what your flag looks like. The national anthem? Hmm, that we'll leave for you to learn before 2008 (or you can just hum along). In this podcast, learn a little bit about the flag and national anthem of Ch ... Show More

Rioters carried many familiar flags during the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol -- Confederate, MAGA, as well as some custom-made ones like a flag of Trump looking like Rambo. Except for onlookers who were already familiar with the design, it would have been ... Show More

13 equal horizontal stripes in red and white, with a navy blue square in the top left bearing 50 small white five pointed stars. It's recognisable the world over as the flag of the United States of America. But how did this become the American flag? When did it develop its own 'c ... Show More

Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. At least, that's what we were taught in school. But when historians go searching…there’s no proof to be found. In this collaboration with the podcast Sidedoor, we unravel this vexillological tall tale to find out how this myth got started ... Show More

The Gadsden flag -- with its coiled rattlesnake on a bright yellow field and the words 'don't tread on me' -- has symbolic roots stretching back before the American Revolution. Learn its history in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.c ... Show More

Correction: Our staff producer pronounced the the Japanese word "ōbōn" incorrectly in this episode. It is pronounced OH-bohn not oh-BAHN.Let us be the first to wish you a Happy Flag Day, beautiful nerds! Anyone who has listened to 99% Invisible regularly knows we have a thing for ... Show More