As statues are removed in cities across the United States, we revisit a story about what it takes to get one put up in the first place.
Everything Everywhere Daily - The Pitch Drop Experiment
In 1927, Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia created an experiment to demonstrate to his students the concept of viscosity and how some substances which appear to be solids are actually liquids.
That experiment is still running 90 years later.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everything Everywhere Daily - Beamonesque
In a single 6 second period in 1968, Bob Beamon completely rewrote the record books in track and field.
His gold medal-winning long jump at the Mexico City Olympics not only set a world’s record, but it added a new word to the English dictionary.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everything Everywhere Daily - The French Scrabble Champion
Nigel Richards is unquestionably the greatest Scrabble player in history. The 52-year-old Kiwi is a five-time world champion, and the only player ever to win more than once.
He is a five-time United States Champion and has won more major tournament titles than anyone else.
However, all these accolades are probably not his greatest Scrabble accomplishment.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bay Curious - Ethnic Studies: Born in the Bay from History’s Biggest Student Strike
Listener Michael Viray wrote in to Bay Curious asking to learn more about the origin story behind ethnic studies: “I’ve heard from one of my professors of ethnic studies at UC Davis that there was actually a revolution in the Bay Area for an ethnic studies field. Is this true? And how did it happen?”
Today on Bay Curious, we’re revisiting the longest student strike in U.S. history. We'll learn about the five-month standoff between students and administrators at San Francisco State, that ultimately led to the first College of Ethnic Studies in the nation.
Additional Reading:
- How the Longest Student Strike in U.S. History Created Ethnic Studies
- Sign up for the Bay Curious newsletter
Reported by Asal Ehsanipour. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Rob Speight. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Bianca Hernandez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Michelle Wiley.
Everything Everywhere Daily - The Interstate Highway System
After the end of WWII in Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed the military governor of the American Zone in Germany.
During his travels around Germany, he noticed that the German autobahn was really good. His respect for the German highways later became the impetus for passing legislation for the United States Interstate Highway System.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everything Everywhere Daily - How Many Planets Are There?
Poor Pluto. It was totally unknown, then it was a planet, and now it’s not a planet anymore.
This change in the status of planets isn’t the first time such a thing has happened. Since the dawn of history, the number of things we call a planet has gone up and down.
Find out why Pluto got demoted from a planet, and learn about our human history with planets on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everything Everywhere Daily - The Prime Minister Who Disappeared
What would happen if a world leader were to totally disappear? As in, the leader of a major country was to just vanish into thin air, without a trace?
Such a thing actually happened 50 years ago when a nation’s prime minister disappeared and his body was never found.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everything Everywhere Daily - The Julian and Gregorian Calendars
If you answer that question, most likely you are giving an answer based on a calendar that goes all the way back to one put in place by Julius Caesar.
Caesar’s calendar, aka the Julian Calendar, was pretty good, but it developed problems over time, so it was modified in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.
This calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, what we’ve been using for the last several hundred years, and it works pretty well.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Everything Everywhere Daily - Atlantropa: The Most Ridiculous Idea Ever
In the aftermath of the horrors of WWI, many people in Europe wanted to find a better future going forward. A future of peace and prosperity, where energy, food, and jobs would be available for everyone.
One man from Germany named Herman Sörgel had a VERY ambitious idea. An idea which would literally change the map of the planet Earth, and was the biggest proposed engineering project ever put forward.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices