Tracing The Path

Robert Smalls was the defiant slave who decided freedom was a better choice. That is when his and President Abraham Lincoln's lives would be intertwined, from the Civil War all the way through death. In this episode we discover Lydia Polite, Harriet Buss, Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, the Freedsman Bureau, Parris Island, Andrew Johnson, Joe Louis and the Harlem Globetrotters.

Did you know the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the Chinese Spy Balloon and the International Space Station all have one thing in common? A law written in Roman Times. Let us tell you about NASA and Captain Skip Strong, the Stamp Act, H.G. Wells, Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Antarctica and the 1967 Space Treaty.

French Lick, Indiana was once the top resort town in the U.S. Famous people like Bing Crosby, Al Capone and Ronald Reagan all went there. But it's known for much more than that and what starts in there, changes the world. This week's episode features Tod Sloan, FDR, West Baden Springs Hotel, Sun Rayed Tomato Juice, Smirnoff Vodka, Cock & Bull and the Russian Revolution.

Everyone knows they changed it in 1985 to New Coke. But how many know of the other four times? And one of those might be considered a public duping. To get the answer today's story covers Thomas Edison, Cocaine, Kola Nut, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robert Gozuieta, Fanta, Tab, Diet Rite, Robert Woodruff, Atlanta's Jewish Community, Royal Crown Cola and just maybe the show The Walking Dead.

The 20th Century presented the perfect moment for the rise is Trivia, and the games that go with it. Maybe that window is beginning to close. In today's episode we explore the Han Dynasty, WW2, Merv Griffin, Charles Van Doren, NBC, College Bowl, Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, Alex Trebek, Radio Quiz Bowls, Information Please, the $64K Question, Columbia University and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Did you know "It's A Wonderful Life" started out as a dream? And then as a Christmas card? How did it beat the odds to become an American classic? The story starts back in 1876 and involves Amadeo Giannini, Philip Van Doren Stern, Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart, World War II, the Council on Books in Wartime, Jimmy the Raven, Cary Grant, Republic Pictures, Columbia Pictures, The Greatest Gift and the 1906 San Francisco Earth Quake.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an influencer is someone who made it big online. We disagree. Could there have been an influencer before the internet? Charles Dickens did have millions of fans, he did influence people, companies, governments and society. He was much more than an author and perhaps the world's first influencer.

Winston Churchill said it best "whomever controls the oil will win the war". Luckily, the United States had Wilcatters with true tenacity who would find oil no matter where it hid. In today's episode we explore the Big Inch and Little Big Inch piplines, Columbus Joiner, Spindletop, Cushing Oklahoma, Tom Slick, Texaco, the Rule of Capture, origin of kerosene, street lights, German U-Boats, H.L. Hunt, Lamar Hunt, the Superbowl and the NFL.

The Chinese Exclusion Act is one of our most undiscussed tragedies. Despite the bad, Chinese immigrants pushed through to help shapes these United States. Today's episode crosses paths with Bruce Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Bing Cherry, the Valencia Orange, the Citizenship Clause and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment, Oldsmobile, the TaiPing Revolution, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, Wong Kim Ark, Grover Cleveland, the NY Sun and the Statue of Liberty.

To get a button on the microwave for popcorn, it first had to touch the hands of Winston Churchill, Cracker Jacks, the 1893 World's Fair, Major League Baseball, a #1 hit song, Superman, Betty Boop, Raytheon, McCann Erickson, and popcorn balls at the North Pole. Sit back and hear a tale you've not heard before.

Today we honor Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" with this unbelievable tale. You'll never guess who it is about, but along the way the story touches Martin Luther King, Jr, Mbutu Sese Seko, Pearl Harbor, Goucher College, Rudolf Hess, Erwin Rommel, Apollo 13, the Israeli Air Force, Isaroku Yamamoto, and the Ebola Epidemic. All connected with one amazing revelation.

The path to creating the world's most important dictionary involved J.R.R. Tolkien, the constructed language of Esperanto, the Oxford English Dictionary, a murderer in an insane asylum, Alice in Wonderland and the Civil War in the United States. Today's story also featured Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bialystok Poland, L.L. Zamenhoff, W.C. Minor, James Murray, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift, and St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

Did you know a scientist once hijacked a satellite from NASA? And got a medal for it? Comets have been part of our world since the beginning, no matter what science fiction films tell you. Today we visit Einstein, Atilla the Hun, Isaac Newton, Robert Farquhar, Edmund Halley, NASA, Jimmy Carter, Jules Verne, Galileo, Mark Twain and a painter in Italy.

The history of email is over 300 years in the making . . . and every step is fascinating, especially the Enron Corpus. Without the story of the typewriter, Emilie Baudot, Alan Turing, Donald Murray, and the U.S. Air Force, there likely wouldn't be email today. This story covers Ray Tomlinson, Western Union, H.G. Wells, Remington, John Pratt, Christopher Sholes, Tom Hanks, and Kenneth Lay.

How could the smallest town in the furthest corner become the epicenter of music? Because it has been the silent epicenter of the US from the beginning. In today's episode we cross paths with King Ferdinand, Ponce De Leon, Beethoven, W.C. Handy, Sam Philips, Robert E Lee, Charles Dickens, Helen Keller, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, Woodrow Wilson and even Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil.

Alfred Hitchcock is known as the Master of Suspense and greatest director of the 20th Century. What made him different? Today's episode is the Six Degrees of Hitchcock as we encounter Cary Grant, Salvador Dali, John Steinbeck, Thornton Wilder, Ingrid Bergman, James Stewart, Jerry Mathers, Charles Gounod and J. M. Barrie.

From the beginning of time Santa's task has been to create the spirit of giving and spread it around the globe. Is it possible, however, to build the spirit of St. Nicholas so the energy powers Santa's Village and Santa's Village helps it grow? In today's episode Elf, Arthur Christmas, Fred Claus, Get Santa, Spirited, Polar Express, Tim Allen, Papa Elf, Bumble and NORAD collide. Welcome to the conclusion of The Canon of Santa Claus.

The Story of Santa Claus during the 20th Century includes navigating two World Wars, modernizing the mail system, rebuilding Santa's Village and seeing Christmas Carols change the world. In this episode we encounter John Duvall Gluck, A.C. Gilbert, Norman Rockwell, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Salvador Dali and the Spanish Flu.

Thomas Nast, Charles Dickens and Francis Pharcellus Church were all important figures in the most important 53 years of Santa Claus. While Christmas Spirit was rising, the new addition of "Letters to Santa" and "Christmas Cards" changed the way Santa handled toys. Also Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and even Galileo played a part.

Is Santa Real? That's the question that plagues every parent. We'll show you have every story you've ever heard about Santa are just stories from his life. In today's episode we track Clement Clark Moore, the Scottish Kirk, snowglobes, Ak the Master Woodsman, Little Saint Nick, Rudolph, Bumble the Abominable Snowman, Prince Albert and more.