As horrific as a nuclear war would be in the immediate, a common idea is that the real troubles for humanity, and the world, would actually occur in the long aftermath, triggering what is now commonly known as nuclear winter- a nightmarish scenario in which atmospheric temperatures would drop dramatically, crops would fail, and widespread famine, disease, and unrest would follow, leading to a catastrophic reduction in the global population, or even the end of human civilization. But just what is ‘nuclear winter’ anyway? Who came up with it, and is it actually a real possibility, or just some scientists with way too much time on their hands and a news media who loves them some good doomsday scenarios, whether they are valid possibilities or not. Well, put on your gas mask and lead-lined underwear as we dive into the controversial history and science of one of the most frightening doomsday scenarios ever conceived. Surprisingly, the first published suggestion that a nuclear war could alter the global climate appeared not in an official scientific publication, but rather in fiction. In the post-apocalyptic short story Tomorrow’s Children by American science fiction writer Poul Anderson, first published in the March 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, a team of scientists hunt down mutated humans in the wake of a nuclear war. At one point, the story’s protagonist High Drummond observes that: “Winter lay heavily on the north, a vast grey sky seeming frozen solid over the rolling white plains. The last three winters had come early and stayed long. Dust, colloidal dust of the bombs, suspended in the atmosphere and cutting down the solar constant by a deadly percent or two. There had even been a few earthquakes, se off in geologically unstable parts of the world by bombs planted right. Half of California had been ruined when a sabotage bomb started the San Andreas Fault on a major slip. And that kicked up still more dust. Fimbulwinter, thought Drummond bleakly. The doom of the prophecy.” Anderson later adapted this story into a full-length novel titled Twilight World, first published in 1961. The same phenomenon also appears in Christopher Anvil’s short story Torch, published in the April 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. In this story, a Soviet nuclear ballistic missile test in Siberia accidentally sets fire to an oil field, releasing large amounts of oily soot into the atmosphere that blots out the sun and triggers a global ice age. The term Fimbulwinter or “mighty winter” in Anderson’s original 1947 story is drawn from Norse Mythology, and refers to a series of three particularly harsh winters preceding Ragnarök, the apocalyptic battle of the Gods that will destroy and cleanse the world. While the origins of any mythological concept are hard to pin down, it has been speculated that Fimbulwinter may have been inspired by the Volcanic Winter of 536, in which a series of simultaneous volcanic eruptions ejected vast amounts of particulates - especially sulfur dioxide - into the upper atmosphere. They lingered there for years, blocking out the sun’s rays and causing global temperatures to drop by as much as 2.5 degrees Celsius or 4.5 degrees. As Roman historian Precopius recorded: “And it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed. And from the time when this thing happened men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing leading to death.” Author: Gilles Messier Host / Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila

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In the video today, we're looking at a variety of fascinating stories from WWII, everything from what the German public actually knew about the holocaust during WWII to the biggest POW camp breakout, to that time the U.S. government teamed up with the mafia against the Germans, to the young war gamers who changed the course of the war with their games and much, much more. 0:00 What Did the German Public Know About the Holocaust During WWII? 53:37 How Do the Japanese Teach About WWII? 1:05:53 The Wild Story of the Biggest POW Camp Breakout of World War II 1:19:45 A Dinner Jacket, the Nazis, the “British” Accent, and What This All Has to Do With the BBC News 1:26:13 How a WWII Famine Helped Solve a 2,000 Year Old Major Medical Mystery 1:35:10 That Time the US Government Teamed Up with the Mafia to Defeat the Nazis 1:47:26 That Time the British Pitted a Few Canoeing Commandos against a Fleet of Nazi Ships... And Won 2:01:13 Argentina's Secret Nazi Fusion Lab 2:16:46 The Forgotten Nazi Holocaust Plan Before They Decided On the Holocaust 2:28:02 The Young War Gamers Who Changed the Course of WWII 2:40:24 That Time British Witches Tried to Stop a Nazi Invasion Using Magic 2:49:57 The Nazi Interrogator Who Killed Them with Kindness

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If you’ve ever shot a gun, then you will have quickly learned the first fundamental rule of shooting: recoil sucks. Depending on the calibre, weight of the firearm, and your technique, just a few minutes of shooting something like a hunting rifle can quickly leave your shoulder bruised and sore. And the bigger the firearm, the worse the problem becomes, with large-calibre military artillery pieces requiring elaborate systems of hydraulic cylinders to absorb their prodigious recoil. This, in turn, makes these weapons extremely heavy and difficult to move around the battlefield. There are two basic solutions to this problem: mount the artillery on heavy armoured vehicles… or somehow eliminate the recoil itself. Over the last century, engineers around the world have devised dozens of ingenious methods to achieve just that, creating weapons that are simultaneously powerful and long-ranged while being light and compact enough to be moved around the battlefield by regular troops or light vehicles. This is the fascinating technology behind recoilless weapons. To begin with, let’s first examine the physics behind recoil. One way to understand this phenomenon is via Newton’s Third Law - that is, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” A more useful principle, however, is conservation of momentum. Momentum, defined as an object’s ability to resist changes in motion, is given by the simple formula mass times velocity. When an object is split into pieces and those pieces propelled in different directions - such as in the case of a bomb exploding or, more relevant to our discussion, a firearm shooting a projectile - the momentum of the overall system is conserved. In other words, if you add up the momentum - mass times velocity - of every individual piece, they will sum up to the original momentum - in the case of a stationary object, zero. Most firearms shoot a projectile significantly lighter than themselves; however, as this projectile is travelling at a very high velocity, its momentum equals that of the firearm, which, being much heavier, will recoil at a significantly lower velocity. The heavier the firearm, the slower it recoils and vice-versa. This, along with surface area in contact with your shoulder, is why, despite sometimes being quite painful, the recoil of most firearms is nowhere near strong enough to actually rip your shoulder off - unlike the projectile being fired downrange. Based on this physical analysis, it stands to reason that if you placed two identical firearms back-to-back and fired them in opposite directions, their recoil would cancel out and the whole assembly would remain stationary. This is known as the counter-shot or counter-weight principle, and was the operating principle of the first recoilless firearm to see combat: the Davis Gun. Patented by U.S. Navy Commander Cleland Davis in 1914, the Davis gun was specifically intended for use aboard aircraft. During the First World War more conventional small-calibre cannons were experimentally fitted to various aircraft for use against balloons, zeppelins, ships, submarines, ammunition dumps, and other specialized targets; however, aircraft of the period were rather flimsy constructions of wood, wire, and canvas, and were easily damaged by the recoil of such weapons. Thus, by the end of the war both the American and British navies and flying services showed great interest in Davis’s design. The Davis Gun effectively comprised two gun barrels mounted back-to-back and fired a special double-ended cartridge. On firing, a conventional shell was propelled out the forward barrel towards the target, while an equivalent mass of lead shot and grease was expelled out the rear, the recoil of the two barrels cancelling each other out. Of course, standing directly behind what is effectively a gigantic shotgun is a good way to have a very bad day, meaning the Davis gun had to be rather awkwardly mounted at the very front of the aircraft with its barrel pointing downward at a steep angle so that the counter-shot was propelled safely up and over the top wing. There were other problems as well. Since the gun had to propel two projectiles at equal velocity, the propellant charge - and thus the cartridge - was much larger than usual, making it awkward to handle. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila

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“They could have fired me on the spot. But you know, they’re idiots” That’s a quote from James Cameron about the reaction of gathered executives to the first screening of The Terminator, which according to the director, really didn’t go all that well. However, largely due to Cameron’s background working on cheesy B-Movies, there was nobody else in Hollywood the studio could bring in to finish the movie. In fact, the success of Terminator and by extension the career of James Cameron owes a lot to the director’s B-movie chops, connections and experience. Oh, and a vicious bout of food poisoning that left him delirious and on the verge of shitting himself for like 5 whole days. On this, there is a long-standing industry legend that the genesis of The Terminator was a nightmare Cameron had whilst working on the cinematic turd that is, Piranha II: The Spawning, a film about genetically engineered flying piranha that is largely only noteworthy for being the directorial debut of Cameron, outside of a little film he made funded by his dentist. The legend posits that Cameron had to take a break from tossing rubber piranha at his actors when he came down with food poisoning. Whilst recovering in a cheap Italian hotel, Cameron is said to have had a nightmare about a chrome skeleton attempting to stab him with a kitchen knife and that that image was so terrifying he was convinced it could be a great hook for a film. Cameron then immediately sketched out the basic design of what would become the Terminator. Which is a great story, but it’s not the whole story and there are several details James Cameron himself has dismissed or clarified over the years. Author: Karl Smallwood Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Host: Simon Whistler

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In this episode, Gilles and Daven are doing a deep dive into the childhood of one of the greatest inventors in history, Thomas Edison.

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Who among us hasn’t had this experience? You are eating a lovely outdoor meal or working peacefully in the garden when unexpected guests arrive. Dressed in menacing yellow and black, they buzz annoyingly around you, coming between you and your juicy steak or prized roses. You try to gently shoo them away, but they just grow more and more aggravated until, suddenly, you feel it: that sharp, searing pain, flashing up your hand, as if you’ve just been stabbed with red-hot poker. If you’re lucky, your finger will swell up and you will have to endure that throbbing agony for an hour or two. If, however, you happen to be among the unlucky 0.5-7% of the general population that is allergic to insect stings, you can look forward to the delights of anaphylactic shock: a sudden drop in blood pressure, itchy hives, and difficulty breathing which, in severe cases, can lead to death without immediate medical intervention. Whether we like it or not, venomous creatures like bees, wasps, scorpions, spiders, snakes, and jellyfish are a part of everyday life for nearly every human on earth, with hundreds of thousands of species worldwide being capable of delivering some kind of painful or toxic bite or sting. Thankfully, however, as is often the case in nature, most of these organisms will not attack unless directly provoked. And, if you happen to live in a part of the world where the worst stings you have to face are those of bees, paper wasps, and yellowjackets, consider yourself very, very lucky, for mother nature holds far greater horrors in her arsenal, from ants with bites so painful they are used as tests of manhood, to wasps whose stings have been likened to being thrown into a live volcano, and fish with venom so excruciating it can literally stop your heart. But which bite or sting is the absolute worst? Which organism on this planet is, as the English rock band The Police might have put it, the “King of Pain”? Well, let’s find out as we dive into the agonizing world of the worst bites and stings in nature. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila 0:00 Intro 6:00 Schmidt Theory and His Wine Lover-esk Index 17:20 The Starr Sting Pain Scale 20:00 Nathaniel "Coyote" Peterson's BSI and Looking Beyond Insects 25:30 The Ultimate Stings- The Platypus and Stonefish

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In the podcast today, we're looking at what it was really like to be a gladiator in Ancient Rome, how corrupt the roman senate was, what's the deal with roman gods and much, much more. 0:00 What was It Like to Be a Gladiator in Ancient Rome? 18:13 How Corrupt was the Roman Senate Really? 32:50 What's the Deal with the Roman Gods? 46:51 The Roman Emperor Who Tried to Make His Horse Consul 59:46 Julius Caesar and His Pirate Adventure 1:06:22 History's Literal Deadliest Fart and the Origin of Mooning 1:20:49 Intentionally Removing People From History (Damnatio Memoriae) 1:24:45 Did Nero Really Fiddle When Rome Burned? 1:32:23 That Time the Title 'Emperor of Rome' was Up for Auction (and the Sorry Soul Who Won) 1:43:42 The Colosseum's Big Brother, The Circus Maximus 1:49:35 Are C-Sections Really Named After Julius Caesar? 2:00:12 Where Did Goth Teen Subculture Come From and Why is it Associated With Roman Invaders?

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At the southern tip of Spain, jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea, lies Gibraltar, a narrow peninsula measuring only 6.8 square kilometres or 2.6 square miles in area and dominated by a 426 metre or 1,298 foot high limestone monolith: the legendary Rock of Gibraltar. A British overseas territory and naval base since 1713, Gibraltar has long been of vital strategic importance, controlling the narrow passage between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. And at no time was this truer than during the Second World War, when the Axis powers plotted to capture Gibraltar in a bid to cut Britain off from its overseas Empire and starve her into submission. And though the heavily-defended enclave would be a tough nut to crack, the very real threat of invasion led British military planners to take elaborate precautions should the“Rock” ever fall. And perhaps the most extreme of these contingencies was an utterly bonkers plan to seal six men into a secret network of tunnels and chambers carved into the Rock of Gibraltar. Provided with several years’ worth of food and water, these volunteers were to spy on the occupying Axis forces and report their movements back to Britain, secretly keeping Gibraltar in the fight. This is the bizarre tale of Operation Tracer. What is now known as the Rock of Gibraltar was formed during the early Pliocene Epoch around 5 million years ago, when the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates lifted up and inverted a large slab of the Eurasian plate, composed of the 200-million-year-old Catalan Bay Shale, Gibraltar Limestone, Little Bay Shale, and Dockyard Shale formations. The ongoing movement of these plates continues to push the Rock of Gibraltar steadily skyward, with the monolith growing in height at a rate of around 0.05 millimetres or 0.002 inches per year. The area has been inhabited for at least 125,000 years, with the bones, tools, and other remnants of both neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens being found in numerous caves dotting the peninsula. In antiquity the Rock of Gibraltar, then known as Mons Calpe, was frequently visited by Phoenician, Greek, and Roman mariners, with the Greeks recognizing the mountain as one of the two “Pillars of Heracles.” According to Greek mythology, while trying to obtain the Cattle of Geryon - the 10th of his 12 Labours - the legendary hero smashed his way through the Atlas Mountains, forming the Straits of Gibraltar and connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The identity of the other pillar has been lost to history and is heavily debated among classicists, though it is now widely believed to be either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa in Morocco.... Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila

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Few brands are as closely associated with the idea of “luxury” as Rolls-Royce, a car manufacturer so fancy schmancy that the company's official website doesn’t even bother to list how much the things it sells are. Rolls-Royce knows that for anyone serious about buying one of their automobiles, price is not a concern. And to be clear, what you can get for said insane amount of money is likewise insane in customization, which we’re going to now talk about because it’s a lot more interesting, and occasionally bizarre, than even we originally thought when dreaming up this topic. But in any event, to this end, Rolls-Royce, who as a company can be fairly certain that the average person strolling into one of their showrooms likely has a credit card with a limit rivalling the GDP of a small nation, offers clients a level of customisation and self-expression seldom seen outside of old episodes of Pimp My Ride or the Need For Speed games to the point that literally every every car they sell is one of a kind. Or as we like to call the brand- Billionaire Build a Bear. One thing we should clarify first though is that even with a luxury brand like Rolls-Royce there are levels to the fanciness on offer with the price increasing accordingly. Now, we know we said in the introduction that Rolls-Royce themselves don’t list how much their cars cost because that would be tacky and only for plebians, but it’s not hard to find out how much they sell for by consulting things like trade magazines or browsing the secondary market. With this in mind the least you’d be looking to spend on a new Rolls-Royce is about £250,000 (about $310,000) for a stock Rolls-Royce Ghost which online auction site Auto Trader describes as the brand's “entry level model”. Meanwhile a Rolls-Royce Phantom will set you back a cool £350,000 (about $450,000). If this is too rich for your blood, older models, like from the 70’s, sometimes pop up for sale for as little as £10,000 (about $12,000). As good a deal as this may sound be warned, older models of many luxury cars are very often a huge pain in the butt to fix and maintain, with collectors frequently bemoaning that you can easily spend more than a car’s listed value, just to get it to run... Author: Karl Smallwood Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila

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Tesla is often cited to have been a genius ahead of his time and held back by finances. But what did he ACTUALLY invent, and is it true that most of his inventions only existed in his head because that is the only place they could possibly work? Well, let's dive into it all shall we?

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On October 4, 1957 at 7:28 PM Greenwich Mean Time, a massive R7 Semyorka rocket roared off the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and soared into the night sky. The following morning, the world awoke to the stunning news: the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, into earth orbit. In Washington, DC, American politicians and military officials flew into a panic. Not only had the supposedly backwards Soviets achieved spaceflight years ahead of Western predictions, but the same R7 rocket which had placed Sputnik in orbit could also place a nuclear warhead anywhere in the Continental United States with less than 30 minutes’ warning. Worse still, unlike a manned strategic bomber, such intercontinental ballistic missiles could not be intercepted or shot down. Overnight, outer space became a new battlefield in the escalating Cold War. As the American government and aerospace industry geared up to compete in this newly-declared Space Race, intelligence agencies like the CIA sought to learn all they could about Soviet space technology. This proved a daunting task, for the closed nature of Soviet society made it all but impossible to infiltrate using human agents. As a result, analysts were forced to glean what little they could from grainy spy plane and satellite photographs and intercepted telemetry signals. But then, in late 1959, an unlikely opportunity suddenly presented itself: a chance to “kidnap” and examine a genuine Soviet space probe. This is the audacious story of the Great Lunik Heist. Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen 0:00 Shirt 0:13 Intro 7:14 Planning the Luna Space Heist 8:46 Kidnapping the Spacecraft 13:32 The Results of the Heist

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