Podcast Episodes
Back to Search7167: Charles Mingus — Jazz Symphonies, Volcanic Rage, and a Cat Training Manual | pplpod
Episode 7167
Charles Mingus composed jazz that sounded like a symphony orchestra arguing. He fought club owners with his fists, fired musicians mid-set, and once …
6 days, 10 hours ago
Samuel Morse: The Failed Portrait Painter Who Connected the World With Dots and Dashes
Episode 7151
Samuel Morse wanted to be remembered as a painter. Instead, he invented the telegraph and the code that bears his name — motivated by his wife's deat…
6 days, 13 hours ago
Rudolf Diesel: The Engineer Who Invented the Diesel Engine and Vanished From a Ship
Episode 7152
Rudolf Diesel invented the most efficient internal combustion engine ever designed and then disappeared from a cross-Channel steamer in 1913. His bod…
6 days, 13 hours ago
Subhas Chandra Bose: The Indian Nationalist Who Allied With Hitler and Japan to Fight the British
Episode 7153
Subhas Chandra Bose allied with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to fight the British Empire for Indian independence. He escaped house arrest, met Hit…
6 days, 13 hours ago
Arthur Conan Doyle: Why Sherlock Holmes's Creator Believed in Fairies and Fought His Own Character
Episode 7163
Arthur Conan Doyle created the most rational fictional detective in literary history — and spent his later years championing spiritualism, defending …
6 days, 13 hours ago
Linus Torvalds: The Rude Finnish Genius Who Built Linux and Git and Changed Computing Forever
Episode 7161
Linus Torvalds built the Linux operating system kernel as a hobby project in his Helsinki bedroom, then created Git — the version control system that…
6 days, 13 hours ago
Jonathan Swift: The Ruthless Political Satirist Whose Pen Was More Dangerous Than Any Weapon
Episode 7156
Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, and some of the most savage political satire in the English language — all while serving …
6 days, 13 hours ago
Soichiro Honda: The Rebellious Mechanic Who Built a Global Empire From a Bicycle Engine
Episode 7155
Soichiro Honda had no engineering degree, no business training, and no patience for convention. He strapped a surplus radio generator engine to a bic…
6 days, 13 hours ago
Alexander Pope: The Four-Foot-Six Poet Who Fought Literary Wars With Loaded Couplets
Episode 7162
Alexander Pope stood four feet six inches tall, suffered from a spinal deformity that left him in constant pain, and became the most feared satirist …
6 days, 13 hours ago
Lord Kelvin: The Victorian Genius Who Called Radio Useless and Got the Age of the Earth Spectacularly Wrong
Episode 7157
Lord Kelvin was one of the greatest physicists of the nineteenth century — he laid the transatlantic cable, established absolute zero, and formulated…
6 days, 13 hours ago