Month: April 2022

278: Chain Reaction

Mark Podcast

The cloud chamber result that detected a positron for the first time. The positron entered from the bottom and passed through a sheet of lead, which slowed it down. From the curvature of its path, you can determine its mass and electric charge.

The neutron, first hypothesized by Ernest Rutherford in 1921, was proved to exist in 1932. That same year, the positron was proved to exist, and nuclear fission, or “splitting the atom” was accomplished for the first time.

These discoveries gave atomic physicists new tools with which to probe further the structure and properties of the atom, leading refugee physicist Leo Szilard, in London, to have an uncomfortable thought.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major
Composed c.1723 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Public domain.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

277: The Empire Christmas Pudding

Mark Podcast

The British economy had not yet fully recovered from the war when the Great Depression struck.

As dependent on exports as its economy was, Britain was particularly hard hit by the sharp decline in world trade, and then by the international banking crisis. Inevitably, the UK was forced to abandon the gold standard.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Warriors Dance” from The Crown of India
Composed in 1912 by Edward Elgar. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

276: The Salt March

Mark Podcast

Mohandas Gandhi on the Salt March.

The Indian National Congress unilaterally declared independence in January 1930, but needed Mohandas Gandhi to lead the way forward. How would Indians challenge British rule?

Gandhi came up with a characteristically eccentric, but shrewd, strategy: mass resistance against the British monopoly on salt.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Qadam Qadam Badhaye Ja”
Composed in 1942 by Ram Singh Thakuri and Vandhidhar Shukla. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.