Podcast Episodes
Back to Search7188: Samuel Johnson — The Man Who Defined the English Language Alone | pplpod
Episode 7188
Samuel Johnson spent nine years compiling a dictionary of the English language almost entirely by himself. The French Academy needed forty scholars a…
1 week, 1 day ago
7189: Isaac Asimov — The Paradoxical Life of Science Fiction's Greatest Mind | pplpod
Episode 7189
Isaac Asimov wrote or edited over 500 books spanning nearly every category of the Dewey Decimal System. He was terrified of flying, never learned to …
1 week, 1 day ago
7187: Bob Marley — The Bullet Scars Behind the World's Most Famous Smile | pplpod
Episode 7187
Two days before a peace concert in Kingston, gunmen burst into Bob Marley's home and shot him, his wife, and his manager. He performed the concert an…
1 week, 1 day ago
7186: The Blues Giant Who Traded Ledgers for Licks | pplpod
Episode 7186
Before the stage lights and the wailing guitar, there was an accounting textbook. One of the blues' greatest figures started with plans for a respect…
1 week, 1 day ago
7185: W.B. Yeats — The Bizarre Afterlife of Ireland's Greatest Poet | pplpod
Episode 7185
W.B. Yeats won the Nobel Prize, led the Irish Literary Revival, and wrote some of the most quoted poetry in the English language. Then he died in Fra…
1 week, 1 day ago
7183: Sergei Prokofiev — The Composer Who Died in Stalin’s Shadow on the Same Day | pplpod
Episode 7183
Sergei Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953 — the same day as Joseph Stalin. The dictator’s death consumed all public attention, and one of the century’s …
1 week, 1 day ago
7184: Sidney Poitier — From Dishwasher to Hollywood’s Barrier-Breaking Leading Man | pplpod
Episode 7184
Sidney Poitier arrived in New York from the Bahamas barely literate and working as a dishwasher. He taught himself to read with newspapers, was laugh…
1 week, 1 day ago
7179: Ma Rainey — The Fearless, Unapologetic Mother of the Blues | pplpod
Episode 7179
Ma Rainey was performing the blues before the genre had a name. She dressed in gold and ostrich feathers, sang about desire with a frankness that sca…
1 week, 1 day ago
7182: Prince — The Paradox of Total Control and Purple Genius | pplpod
Episode 7182
Prince played twenty-seven instruments on his debut album. He wrote, produced, and performed nearly everything himself, maintaining that control for …
1 week, 1 day ago
7181: Modest Mussorgsky — The Aristocrat Who Wrote Masterpieces While Living in Squalor | pplpod
Episode 7181
Modest Mussorgsky was born into Russian aristocracy and died in a charity hospital wearing a borrowed dressing gown. Between those points he composed…
1 week, 1 day ago