How the Metric System Was Stolen

Marie Antoinette’s world renowned extravagance made her an icon and then an example as the Queen of France, but her beheading, and the French Revolution, may never have come to pass if not for a lavish piece of jewelry at the center of a salacious con. Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad ...  Show more

While The United States and The Soviet Union flirted with existential disaster on a global stage during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an unknown conflict was unfolding under the ocean on a Russian submarine equipped to trigger an all-out nuclear war. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz ...  Show more

Why is the United States so culturally opposed to the metric system? According to a popular legend, this conundrum dates back to the late 1700s, when a French polymath named Joseph Dombey sailed to Thomas Jefferson with two crucial artifacts: a rod measuring exactly one meter, an ...  Show more

Harry goes the extra “yard” to find out why the United States is one of the few countries that hasn’t gone metric. Americans seem more than content in a hybrid world of liters AND gallons. Why can’t we choose one form of measurement? It turns out there’s a lot of national pride a ...  Show more

Pirates weren’t just a menace on the high seas - they were a direct threat to Spain’s empire-building ambitions in the Pacific. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Kristie Patricia Flannery to hear the untold story of how Spanish officials, Catholic missionaries, Indi ...

Daniel and Jorge talk about whether there are two or one kind of mass and the massive consequences.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.