Description
The late 19th century in France sometime gets called La Belle Époque or the "Beautiful Era". As the name suggests, this is a time that has been fondly remembered as an age of optimism marked by artistic and scientific triumphs. However, this era is also sometimes called the Fin De Siecle. When this nickname is evoked it's usually to cast this era as a cynical and pessimistic time, when people openly fretted about how different the 20th century would be from the 19th. This period was also marked by the first attempts at controlled manned flight. Perhaps the contrasting Belle Époque and Fin De Siecle attitudes can act as a helpful analogy to help understand the "lighter-than-air" and "heavier-than-air" approach to flight? The figure who somehow embodies all of this (Belle Époque optimism, Fin De Siecle ennui, lighter-than-air triumphs, and heavier-than-air controversies) is the Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont. Tune-in and find out how bar-hopping dirigibles, hydrogen explosions, and a gingerbread Santos all play a role in the story,
In 1592 the Japanese launched a massive invasion of the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi believed that Korea would submit without much of a fight and that his army would very quickly move on to the real target, the capital of Ming China. Six years later the Japanese were...
Published 04/17/24
For this throwback Sebastian takes you all the way back to a first season favorite. Ninjas, Japan’s shadow warriors, have been a pop-culture staple for generations. The legend of the ninjas has become so overblown, that some have gone so far to suggest that they never truly existed. But that is...
Published 04/10/24