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. I’m Gabrielle Birchak, your host, and today I’m going to do a callback to Tuesday’s episode, which was about capturing thoughts. Last Tuesday’s episode was about photographing thoughts. Today I’m going to talk about those moments where you wish you could have just thought about the subject better, especially when you’re trying to learn something new. But
Before calendars were printed, before clocks ticked, and before numbers were written, humans looked up. We looked up at the sky not just to admire the beauty of the stars and celestial bodies, but also to predict the best times for planting and harvesting crops. So stargazing was not just an enjoyable endeavor; it was a method of survival. In
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
You might not think of jigsaw puzzles as scientific objects. They seem soothing, domestic, almost meditative. But behind every little cardboard piece is a surprisingly rich story, one that spans global exploration, technological innovation, Victorian parlor culture, economic upheaval, wartime material shortages, cognitive science, and the digital age. And it all begins with an English cartographer who wanted to teach children
Is there a science behind spirits? What about the chemistry of ghosts and whiskey? Learn more …
As Halloween is upon us in the United States and in Canada, today we are talking about some creepy things, like why the tech guy can make your computer work as soon as he enters the room, why some people have bad juju wherever they go, and what spells you can do to either implement or break technical bad spells.
Today we interview Gillen D’Arcy Wood, the author of The Wake of the HMS Challenger, and learn about our 19th century oceans.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS [Gabrielle Birchak] I believe in the United States. I believe in our resilience and I believe that this experiment that is known as America can do so much better if we trust science. And after today, I hope you have the same revelation. Today’s very special episode includes an interview with the Director of Research at the Massachusetts
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