Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMalcom McLean: The Trucker Whose Container Cut Loading Costs 36-Fold
Episode 12518
Born in 1913 in Maxton, North Carolina, Malcom McLean had no money for college, so he bought a used truck and founded McLean Trucking with his brothe…
3 days, 15 hours ago
Icebreakers: Crushing Ice by Weight, from Pomor Boats to Nuclear Arktika
Episode 12517
An icebreaker does not ram through frozen sea like a battering ram. Because sea ice resists compression but has low bending strength, the ship slides…
3 days, 15 hours ago
Hydrofoils: Bell's 71 MPH HD-4, Soviet Meteors, and Electric Ferries
Episode 12516
In the summer of 1919 Alexander Graham Bell's HD-4 tore across Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia at 71 miles per hour, its 10,000 pound hull held clear o…
3 days, 15 hours ago
HMS Challenger Expedition: Mariana Trench Soundings and a Fake Missing Link
Episode 12515
In December 1872 HMS Challenger left Portsmouth as a stripped down Royal Navy warship with 15 of its 17 guns removed to make room for chemistry and n…
3 days, 15 hours ago
Fridtjof Nansen: The Fram's Ice Drift, a Stone Hut, and Refugee Passports
Episode 12514
Fridtjof Nansen was a 12-time Norwegian cross-country ski champion who refined his technique by studying Telemark skiers. After a sealing voyage to t…
3 days, 15 hours ago
Freediving: Sponge Divers, Bajau Spleens, and the Shallow Water Blackout
Episode 12513
Freediving turns the absence of breath into a survival skill and a sport. Ancient Greek sponge divers rode a skandalopetra stone of up to 15 kilogram…
3 days, 15 hours ago
El Nino Explained: Walker Circulation, Teleconnections, and Famine
Episode 12512
Peruvian fishermen named El Nino after the Christ child because the coastal water turned warm and the anchovies vanished around Christmas. The El Nin…
3 days, 15 hours ago
Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup: Snapped Booms, Towed Nets, River Interceptors
Episode 12511
In 2012 teenager Boyan Slat took a TED stage with a sketch of a passive barrier that would let ocean currents sweep plastic into its arms, delighting…
3 days, 15 hours ago
Scrimshaw: Whalers' Sperm Whale Tooth Art, Tobacco Ink, and Ivory Law
Episode 12510
Scrimshaw began on 19th century whaling ships, where men endured months of empty horizon between hunts. Carved from sperm whale teeth, bone, baleen, …
3 days, 15 hours ago
Outrigger Canoes: Crab Claw Sails, Shunting, and the Channel of Bones
Episode 12509
When Spanish galleons entered the Pacific, a priest aboard called them sluggish lead weights beside local boats that flew across the water like birds…
3 days, 15 hours ago