Category: DailyShorts

One of the most ubiquitous forms of payment today is credit cards. The odds are good that you have one, and most probably have one on your person right now. But how did it develop that you could pay for something by just giving someone a piece of plastic? How exactly does this system work and how do credit card companies make money? Learn more about credit cards, where they came from and how they work, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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There are tens of millions of stories to come out of World War II. Many of them are tales of horrible human cruelty. However, there is one particular story that is as horrific as any other, yet it doesn’t involve human barbarity, it involves nature. It was so horrific that it has been the subject of books and movies, and was the inspiration for the film Jaws. Learn more about the USS Indianapolis and the terrifying fate of its sailors, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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If you were to call someone a snake oil salesman, it usually means they are trying to defraud someone, and more specifically it often implies making false medical claims. But what exactly is snake oil, and why did it develop such a bad reputation, and why specifically do we use snake oil for such a negative metaphor? Learn more about snake oil and why we still reference it on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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There are few things that are truly universal across all cultures and throughout history. These things are often so obvious that we overlook them and forget how they are things that make us human. One such thing which seems so simple yet actually has profound origins: singing children to sleep. Learn more about the lullaby and how it is one of the things which all humanity has in common, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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On Friday, October 21, 1966, the small Welsh village of Aberfan suffered woke up to a typical autumn day. Many of the men in the village went to work at the local coal mine and the children went to the local school. At 9:15 am, the lives of everyone in the village had changed forever. The village suffered one of the worst industrial accidents in British history. Learn more about the Aberfan Disaster, its causes, and its aftermath, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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On January 15, 1919, the city of Boston suffered its greatest disaster when a storage tank filled with over 2 million gallons of molasses burst and killed 21 people and injured 150 more. Researchers have been studying the unique circumstances surrounding this industrial accident ever since. Learn more about the Great Boston Molasses Flood on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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There is an old saying that everything old is new again. This is certainly true with electric cars. The recent surge in popularity of electric vehicles is technically a resurgence, because believe it or not, there was a time when electric cars were more popular than cars with internal combustion engines. Learn more about electric cars, their history, future, as well as their benefits and drawbacks, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

In lieu of my usual re-runs filling out August, I’m doing something different: a full-reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, presented in three parts.This is part 2.

Music for Gatsby was composed and performed by Mary Lattimore. Find and buy her music at marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com

The cover art is from Jen Corace. See more of Jen’s work at jencorace.com.

Back with the third and final part on August 19th. Back with new episodes of The Memory Palace in September.

In 2005, a small auction house in New Orleans sold a painting at auction labeled at Lot 664. The description of the item was simply, “Christ Salvator Mundi. Oil on cradled panel.” The painting was sold for $1,000. Twelve years later, the same painting was sold at Christie’s in New York for a record $450 million dollars. Learn more about Salvator Mundi, the world’s most expensive painting, and the controversy surrounding it, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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