Podcast Episodes
Back to Search7256: Neil Armstrong — The Engineer Who Treated Mortal Danger Like a Math Problem | pplpod
Episode 7256
Neil Armstrong nearly died in the Gemini 8 mission, ejected from a lunar landing training vehicle seconds before it exploded, and landed the Eagle on…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7257: Sergei Eisenstein — Montage, Stalin, and the Collision Between Art and Power | pplpod
Episode 7257
Sergei Eisenstein invented modern film editing with Battleship Potemkin and then spent the rest of his career trying to survive a dictator who unders…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7259: Emil Zatopek — The 1952 Olympic Heist That Defied Human Limits | pplpod
Episode 7259
Emil Zatopek won the 5,000 meters, the 10,000 meters, and the marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. No one had ever won all three distance events a…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7258: Steve McQueen — The Mechanics of Survival Behind the King of Cool | pplpod
Episode 7258
Steve McQueen spent his childhood in reform schools and on the streets before joining the Marines. He brought that survival instinct to every role, p…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7255: Le Corbusier — The Machine for Living and Architecture's Most Divisive Genius | pplpod
Episode 7255
Le Corbusier wanted to tear down central Paris and replace it with identical glass towers surrounded by highways. He called houses "machines for livi…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7254: Queen Christina of Sweden — How One Royal Name Conquered the World | pplpod
Episode 7254
Queen Christina of Sweden was raised as a prince, ruled one of Europe's most powerful kingdoms, then stunned the continent by abdicating her throne, …
6 days, 12 hours ago
7253: Ivan the Great — The Quiet Tsar Who Forged Russia from Scattered Fragments | pplpod
Episode 7253
Ivan III inherited a small principality that paid tribute to the Mongols and turned it into Russia. He did it not through dramatic battlefield heroic…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7252: Francois Truffaut — The Delinquent Orphan Who Invented Modern Cinema | pplpod
Episode 7252
Francois Truffaut was a juvenile delinquent, a school dropout, and a military deserter before he became the most important film critic in France. The…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7251: Ferdinand II of Aragon — The King Who Invented the Global Superpower | pplpod
Episode 7251
Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile, completed the Reconquista, expelled the Jews and Muslims from Spain, and financed Columbus. In do…
6 days, 12 hours ago
7249: Henri Cartier-Bresson — The Eye That Hunted the Decisive Moment | pplpod
Episode 7249
Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the concept of "the decisive moment" and spent fifty years proving it existed. He photographed Gandhi hours before his a…
6 days, 12 hours ago