Category: DailyShorts

If you’ve ever seen a sculpture or an ancient coin of a Roman Emperor, you probably have noticed that they were wearing a wreath on their head. That wreath, however, doesn’t mean what you probably think it means. It actually had a specific meaning which predated the imperial age, and the reason why emperors wore it all has to do with a single person. Learn more about the Civic Crown, also known as the Corona Civica, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Fritz Haber is unquestionably one of the greatest chemists in history. He was a Nobel prize winner and his inventions have touched billions of lives. However, Haber is a two-sided coin. He has touched the lives of millions for the better, and he also touched the lives of millions for the worse. Learn more about Fritz Haber, perhaps the best and worst chemist in history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In the 1970s NASA embarked on a mission it had never attempted before. Due to a fortunate alignment of planets, they were going to attempt to send robotic probes on a flyby mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, before being sent to deep space, out of the solar system. Some of the mission planners figured if they were going to send a probe all that way, maybe they might as well add something extra to the payload.

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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.

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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