How Emergency Call Lines Became A Thing

In recent years the public has become increasingly aware of the long-term dangers posed by sports injuries -- but at the turn of the 20th century this wasn't the case. Football players didn't wear protective gear, and in 1905 alone more than 15 players died from game-related inju ...  Show more

Now, we know this is going to sound weird, but... it turns out one of the world's most popular pop music contests is also one of the world's best examples of 'soft diplomacy'. So what happens when countries that hate each other get together to determine the year's best song? Spoi ...  Show more

Remember pagers? They were huge in the 80s — these little devices that could receive short messages. Sir Mix-A-Lot even had a song about them! But then cell phones came along, and pagers more or less became obsolete.Except there's one group of people who still carry pagers: medic ...  Show more

NUMBERS STATIONS. Not a relic of the past. Intelligence agencies use shortwave to communicate with spies, agents and assets in the field. Right now. Today. Let's listen to a few and learn how to tune in from home -- for free. Since World War One, numbers stations have been transm ...  Show more

9-1-1 what’s your emergency? Because according to your calls there’s WAY more than just a few fireworks that we’re dealing with. Today Sofia is listening to ALL your voicemails and directly responding to help you solve whatever is going on in your life because like they say, it t ...  Show more

In the early 1980s, a series of bizarre phone calls came into the police switchboard in St Paul, Minnesota. A man sobbed on the phone, telling officers he'd hurt, even killed, people. He begged them to find him, but with no other evidence to go on, his identity remained a mystery ...  Show more