SYMHC Classics: The Darien Disaster

Charles Goodyear's work is important to so many things we have in the 21st century. But his life and his work to create a stable rubber was full of problems -- many of them caused by Goodyear himself. Research: Britannica Editors. "Charles Goodyear". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 D ...  Show more

This 2022 episode covers the development of penicillin, which started – but definitely did not end – with the chance discovery of some mold in a petri dish. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

When charting the rise of Scotland’s global influence, few events have been as tragically remarkable as the Darien Scheme of 1698, which saw woefully unprepared Scottish pioneers attempt to settle and colonise the Isthmus of Panama. Scotland during this period was a country bound ...  Show more

The girlies tell the stories of two historical events that were doomed from the start: the Donner Party and The Great Emu War. From the cannibalistic Western settlers to the Australians who thought they could gun down 20,000 wild emus, humans vastly underestimated their environme ...  Show more

How devastating were European arrivals to the Americas in terms of deaths and the introduction of new infectious diseases? Tom and Dominic are joined by Professor Kyle Harper from the University of Oklahoma to discuss the relationship between disease and colonial expansion, the ...  Show more

While historians continue to explore the details of the infamous Salem witch trials, another, earlier panic swept through New England -- something modern historians often refer to as the "Vampire Panic." In part one of this two-part series, Ben is joined again with guest host ...