The Ridiculous Origin of the Modern Calendar

We all know pi, right? It's one of the most famous 'irrational numbers' in history, and mathematicians are still trying to figure it out in the modern day. While this may seem arcane to some of us non-mathheads, in today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max learn these numbers were3 once ...  Show more

As the Fox sisters became global superstars for their purported ability to speak with the dead, the Spiritualism movement became both a social phenomena and a booming business. Yet along with the rise of true believers and performing psychics, an army of skeptics and investigator ...  Show more

It's December 25th, 2024. Across this wide world, people commemorate one of the most famous birthdays in all of history: the birth of Jesus Christ. Then as now, adherents of Christianity celebrate the coming of the Messiah -- yet why does this holiday occur on a specific date in, ...  Show more

Why is the Western world's most famous birthday celebrated on a seemingly-arbitrary date? As Ben, Matt and Noel discover in the second chapter of this special two-part holiday series, the power structures of ancient empires experienced a progression of conspiracies, geopolitical ...  Show more

Professor Alexander Meyer visits Google to share the ways ancient Greeks and Romans kept time and their reasons for doing so. He discusses various time-keeping artifacts and works of literature to show that the manner in which time was kept and tracked reflected and continues to ...  Show more

As one of the world’s most historically important bodies of water, the Persian Gulf is home to fascinating evidence of ancient humanity. In tonight’s episode, Ben, Matt and Noel discover the true story of an ancient civilization lost to antiquity.They don't want you to read our b ...  Show more