Podcasts by Curious Minds Podcast

The Awful and Wonderful History of the Mir Space Station|Curious Minds Podcast from 2017-09-02T07:16:47

The Mir Space Station was a true Soviet engineering wonder, an achievement comparable with the US landing on the Moon. Yet in its later years, Mir survived some horrific&hair-raising accidents.....

The Lost Manuscript of Archimedes|Curious Minds Podcast from 2017-07-27T08:29:25

Archimedes is famous for being Ancient Greece's greatest engineer. Yet a random discovery - a prayers book found in an old church in Turkish Istanbul, casts this mysterious genius in an even mor...

The Dark Avenger [From: Malicious.Life]|Curious Minds Podcast from 2017-06-29T15:23:13

In 1989, a message was found in a virus:"Eddie Lives…Somewhere in Time!".'Eddie'was a particularly nasty virus, and its discovery led a young Bulgarian security researcher down a rabbit hole, on...

Are Software Bugs Inevitable? Part 2: The Most Expensive Failed Software Project Ever|Curious Minds Podcast from 2017-02-04T17:03:25

After describing the Software Crisis in the previous episode, we discuss the various methodologies and practices implemented over the years to combat the complexities of software development. We...

Are Software Bugs Inevitable? Part 1: FORTRAN and the Denver Airport Baggage Disaster|Curious Minds Podcast from 2017-01-23T13:03:10

Software errors and random bugs are rather common: We’ve all seen the infamous Windows “blue screen of death”... But is there really nothing we can do about it? Are these errors – from small bug...

Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense (SDI) Initiative, AKA–“Star Wars”|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-12-18T17:41:32

In 1983, president Ronald Reagan shocked the world when he announced that the United States was developing an ultra-modern defense system against intercontinental ballistic missiles. Hundreds of...

The History of File Sharing, Part 2: Grokster&BitTorrent|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-11-16T10:35:56

The fall of Napster (see Part I of this series) has left a vacuum in the world of file sharing - and as the saying goes, the Internet abhors vacuum... Various File Sharing programs such as Gnute...

The History of File Sharing, Part 1 (of 2): The Rise&Fall of Napster|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-11-02T09:00:25

Napster, a revolutionary Peer-to-Peer file sharing software, was launched in 1999 - and forever changed the media world. In this episode, we'll tell the story of Sean Fanning and Sean Parker, it...

Heroes Of Podcasting #5: Aaron Mahnke, Lore Podcast|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-10-04T06:45:05

Heroes of Podcasting: An interview with Aaron Mahnke about the role of storytelling in podcasting, his inspirations and how he started Lore.

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Heroes Of Podcasting #4: Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice (Blubrry)|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-09-04T07:09:35

Todd has an amazing story which begun with a serious injury - but ultimately led to a surprising career as an early entrepreneur in the new media of podcasting. He wrote the first book on podcas...

Heroes Of Podcasting #3: Leo Laporte, This Week In Tech|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-08-28T08:18:32

Leo Laporte is one of the very first podcasters.In 2005 Leo left - or almost left - traditional radio to start his own podcasting network, centered around cutting edge technology news, called TW...

Heroes Of Podcasting #2: Jay Soderberg (The PodVader), VP of BlogTalkRadio|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-08-16T11:21:54

Jay Soderberg started in podcasting back in 2006. Jay’s story is rather unique, since his first steps in podcasting were in the corporate world, whereas the vast majority of podcasters back then...

Heroes Of Podcasting #1: Inventor of MP3, Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-08-04T14:05:55

This series explores the history and future of podcasting, and each episode will feature a single guest who is a pioneer of podcasting. This time, we're interviewing Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg ...

The History of Open Source&Free Software, Pt. 2|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-06-27T11:03:35

In 1998, a group of people broke away from the Free Software Foundation and created instead the Open Source Initiative. What were their motives? Richard Stallman, the founder of the FSF, and Tim...

The Solar System’s Little Known Members–Astronomy Shorts 4|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-06-14T19:14:30

This episode will focus on a few of the lesser-known children of the Solar System neighborhood: The Oort Cloud, Kuiper's Belt&Dwarf Planets.

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The History of Open Source&Free Software, Pt. 1, w/ Special Guest: Richard Stallman|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-06-03T04:54:57

In the early 1980's Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF): a socio-technological movement that revolutionized the software world. In this episode we'll hear Stallman himsel...

Astronomy Shorts 3: Crazy Weather On Other Planets|Curious Minds from 2016-05-23T18:45:59

Humans have yet to have set foot on a different planet, but today, from their limited vantage point on Earth, astronomers are able to notice a few breathtaking phenomena that are beyond human im...

The Indo-European Language, Pt. 2: Linguistics&Genetics|Curious Minds Podcast from 2016-05-09T10:34:54

In the previous part of the episode we learned how linguists were able to reconstruct bits of the ancient&long lost Indo-European language. In this episode we'll discover what can these words te...

The Indo-European Language, Pt. 1|Curious Minds from 2016-04-15T08:59:15

A surprising discovery made by a William Jones, British judge in India uncovered the existence of an ancient language, the ancestor of an amazing variety of modern languages - from English and F...

Astronomy Shorts 2: Three Breathtaking Views within the Solar System|Curious Minds from 2016-03-31T14:25:42

A journey to outer space has many dangers and challenges; but for those courageous astronauts, the trip might be worthwhile. Some of the planets and moons in the Solar System have views that are...

Astronomy Shorts 1: The Scale of the Universe|Curious Minds from 2016-03-31T14:07:17

The universe we live in is really big: It's vastness is difficult to even comprehend. That vastness is why, even if our universe is teeming with life, it is unlikely that we will ever meet other...

The Longitude Problem (Maritime History)|Curious Minds from 2016-03-21T09:37:11

How a single navigation error cost the Royal Navy Four battle ships and 1,505 men - and led a humble carpenter to solve one of the most difficult&important engineering challenges of the last 300...

LSD History, Pt.2: Timothy Leary|Curious Minds from 2016-01-17T12:09:24

Dr. Timothy Leary help kickstart the LSD's involvement in the Hippie movement of the 1960's - and was imprisoned for it. But what really makes LSD so dangerous? We'll delve deep into the effects...

LSD History|Curious Minds from 2016-01-04T07:32:02

A 2-parts series on LSD history: it's discovery, it's initial uses by psychologists and the CIA and it's role in the'hippie revolution'of the 1960's. Also, how does LSD affects the brain?

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The Bubonic Plague|Curious Minds from 2015-12-09T11:39:06

The Black Death that swept across Europe in the 14th century wasn't the first time nor the last that the Bubonic Plague decimate large cities and brought empires to their knees. For many thousan...

Molecular Clock, Pt. 2: Y Chromosome|Curious Minds from 2015-11-30T07:27:39

The male Y Chromosome holds tantalizing clues about our own, personal past - but that past can turn out to be very troubling. Tatiana Zerjal's research on DNA samples brought by Spencer Wells fr...

Molecular Clock, Pt.1: Mitochondrial DNA|Curious Minds from 2015-11-17T14:34:32

In the 1970s and 80s, an interesting academic dispute rose between two rival camps of scientists in the field of Paleoanthropology, the study of human evolution. The main question dealt with the...

Arsenic Poisoning–A History|Curious Minds from 2015-11-04T13:32:41

Arsenic Poisoning was the weapon of choice for many women over the centuries. Find out Arsenic's deadly history - and how it kills.

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Digital Preservation&The Domesday Project|Curious Minds from 2015-10-12T06:14:18

What can we learn from the BBC's failed Domesday Project about the digital preservation of the wealth of information we produce each year?

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U Boats in WWII, Pt. II: Wolf Packs and Floating Coffins|Curious Minds from 2015-10-04T10:52:38

A 2-part series, exploring the role of technology in the Battle of the Atlantic in WW2. How did technical innovations by German, American and British engineers determine the ebbs and flows of th...

U Boats in WWII, Pt. I: The Battle of the Atlantic|Curious Minds from 2015-09-25T20:49:21

How did the small, outgunned German fleet manage to strike painful blows to the Great British Navy? The credit for this success belongs to the German flotilla of submarines: the Unterseeboots, o...

Medical History: Rontgen, Hounsfield&Radiology|Curious Minds from 2015-09-03T09:00:57

In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was an honored and admired physics professor. But reputation aside, Röntgen was 50 years old - and at that age, it is rare for a scientist to make a significant contribu...