Wiki Walks
A Quick Journey Through The Most Interesting Articles on Wikipedia
2 years ago

Ep.52 – America's First (and only) Emperor

A 19th century deranged California businessman declared himself emperor and it...kind of worked

A fed up and down on his luck San Francisco businessman, Joshua Norton, declared that he was the new Emperor of the United States, and the people sort of...just went with it. He passed laws and issued his own currency, and literally for the lolz the citizenry just played along. But like, for real though.

Emperor Norton Wiki

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2 years ago

Ep.51 – Ship of Theseus

One of the most famous famous philosophical paradoxes is a real head scratcher

What makes a thing a thing? What makes you...you? How much can you change something before it stops being that thing? Just one tweak? Or all tweaks but one? The Ship of Theseus is a classic Greek thought experiment that lays this complicated question that has been debated for millenia.

Ship of Theseus Wiki

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2 years ago

Ep.50 – Bat Bombs

In WWII, the US Army developed a new weaponry program: bats with bombs just glued to them

World War II was a time of technological marvels and revolutionary new weaponry that changed the world as we know it. However, one military project stands alone as perhaps the nuttiest (and brutally effective) plan ever devised. Gluing bombs to thousands of bats and just letting 'er rip.

Bat Bombs Wiki

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3 years ago

Ep.48 – Sarah Rector

The world's richest black woman in the early part of the 1900s was a 12 year old Oklahoman named Sarah

Episode Notes

After her family was sold to the Creek Indians and moved to Oklahoma in the early 1900s, Sarah Rector was given land at the age of 4 that turned out to be sitting on liquid gold. Nearly overnight, this young woman became arguably the richest black girl in the world.

Sarah Rector Wiki

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3 years ago

Ep.47 – The Last Civil War Widow

The last widow of an American Civil War soldier died....SIX WEEKS AGO.

Episode Notes

The crazy story of Helen Jackson, the 101 year old Missouri woman who died just a few weeks ago in December of 2020. Oh, quick note on Helen, she was the WIDOW OF A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER. Ya know, the Civil War, like, the one from the mid 1800s. Her husband fought in it. How is that even possible??

Also, the utterly random but oddly related story of how cicadas got their sound, according to Greek mythology. I promise its connected.

Helen Viola Jackson

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3 years ago

Ep.46 – America's Oldest Ally

America's longest unbroken treaty is with an unlikely country who helped us fight off powerful pirate nations

Episode Notes

America was short on allies after its founding, and its Navy was getting absolutely thrashed overseas by pirate states. However, one surprising nation come to our rescue and was the first country to recognize the legitimacy of the United States, and still serves today as our companion in America's longest unbroken treaty.

America's Oldest Ally

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3 years ago

Ep.45 – The Forbidden Island

Hawaii's Ni'ihau Island is forbidden to outsiders, but has been owned by the same Scottish family since the 1860s!

Episode Notes

The Kingdom of Hawaii's Ni'ihau Island was purchased in the 1860s by Elizabeth Sinclair, a Scottish woman by way of New Zealand looking to find land to raise sheep and her family. Since then, "The Forbidden Island" has been off-limits to outsiders, even other Native Hawaiians, to protect the indigenous Ni'hauans' way of life. It has survived storms and even a wild escaped Japanese pilot who crashed there immediately after Pearl Harbor, where he took hostages and threatened to kill them all. But will it survive another 160 years with modernity just a quick boat ride away?

The Forbidden Island Wiki

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3 years ago

Ep.44 – Operation Babylift

At the close of the Vietnam War, the US attempted to evacuate thousands of orphans by tossing them on commercials airplanes

Episode Notes

In the closing days and hours of the end of the Vietnam War, as Saigon began to crumble, the American military attempted to evacuate as many orphans out of the country as they could. These children were flown out in makeshift airborne nurseries to be delivered to American parents waiting to take them in. But further investigations revealed that many of these children were stolen from families and would spend decades trying to locate the families lost to them years ago.

Operation Babylift Wiki

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3 years ago

Ep.43 – Auto-Brewery Syndrome

Auto-Brewery Syndrome is a disorder where your gut bacteria ferments and brews alcohol inside you and gets you blitzed!

Episode Notes

Well this is a bizarre thing. There exists a bonafide, honest to goodness medical disorder wherein your gut bacteria will ferment with the addition of carbs and turn the contents of your stomach into...alcohol. Which then gets absorbed into your body and you get drunk off it. Auto-Brewery Syndrome. If you thought you were a cheap date before, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Auto-Brewery Syndrome Wiki

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