It’s Flashcards Friday! This podcast is a follow-up to Tuesday’s episode about Benjamin Banneker. This brilliant individual was predominantly self-taught. I found his story very inspiring because he was self-educated. In other words, he learned everything he knew about astronomy and surveying without being in a classroom. And today, when people say they are self-taught, that means so more than
It’s Flashcards Fridays, and today I’m going to talk about something quietly universal about what humans do when the year begins to slow down. Across cultures, across centuries, when the days grow shorter and the nights stretch long, people gather. They sit closer together. They talk more. They tell stories. And again and again, they pose questions that do not
Today we explore something wonderfully nerdy: the neuroscience of puzzles. Not just why puzzles are fun, but what your brain is actually doing the moment you lean over a crossword, a logic grid, or a deliciously tricky time-travel cipher.
TRANSCRIPTS Welcome to Flashcards Fridays! If you had a chance to listen to Tuesday’s episode, I interviewed the theoretical physicist Dr. Ronald Mallett, who shares how a moment of heartbreak in his childhood became the foundation for his entire scientific career. It’s an inspiring interview, and I hope you listen to it. Today I’m following up on his concluding statement, and
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS Welcome to Flashcards Fridays on MATH! SCIENCE! HISTORY!. I’m Gabrielle Birchak and today we’re tackling a subject that’s both urgent and empowering. How each of us can play a part in conserving our oceans. The ocean covers more than 70% of the earth’s surface. It produces over half of the oxygen we breathe and supports a rich web
It’s Flashcards Friday! at Math! Science! History! and today we’re traveling back to the eighth century to explore the life of a man who helped rescue learning from the brink of oblivion, Alcuin of York. Alcuin isn’t exactly a household name. But if you’ve ever benefitted from the structure of a classroom, marveled at a manuscript, or even just read a
Imagine trying to build something, a home, a temple, a bridge, without measurements. No rulers, no angles, no formulas. That’s how humans began.read more
Darwin wasn’t alone. In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace, while battling a tropical fever in the Malay Archipelago, had a revelation that shook science forever. This Flashcard Friday, explore how an expedition, a fever dream, and an honest letter to Darwin changed biology.
Welcome to Flashcards Friday here at Math! Science! History! where every Friday, we take a little idea and make a big discovery out of it. I’m your host, Gabrielle Birchak, and today’s story is about a young scientist, a long, relaxing, boat ride, and a revelation that changed the way we understand the death of stars, and the birth of black holes.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS It’s Flashcard Friday here at Math, Science, History, when on Fridays we post a short little flash card about something mathy, sciency, or history. I’m your host, Gabrielle Birchak, and I’m sharing a story about the life of a remarkable woman who made a profound, yet often overlooked, contribution to mathematics and education: Jacoba van den Brande. Though