There's a lot of talk about the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, this election season. Gun control has been a hot-button topic in politics for many years, and has seemed to increase in being discussed, as well as what the Founding Fathers could have meant when they wrote that amendment back before there were such things as assault weapons and nuclear bombs.

But we're going way back before all that in this episode -- starting with trying to find the Elixir of Life to the creation of fireworks to weaponry of the middle ages and how a plot to overthrow the King became a holiday still celebrated today. I'm your host, Emily Prokop, and this is The Story Behind Gunpowder.

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The role of Guy Fawkes was played by Paul from the podcast, Rick and Paul Heal the World.

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Media:

Music for Makers

Sources:

http://www.history.com/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us/videos/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us-gunpowder-to-guns

http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/10Kaleidoscope8482.html

http://www.livescience.com/7476-gunpowder-changed-world.html

https://epicfireworks.com/history-of-gunpowder

http://www.history.com/topics/gunpowder-plot

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw405.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/bonfire-night-why-do-we-celebrate-with-firework-displays-who-was/