History for Kids / History's Not Boring: The Kids History Podcast

Have you ever wondered what people did before minty toothpaste and plastic toothbrushes? Get ready for a hilariously gross trip through history! Long before your bathroom sink was invented, keeping your teeth clean was a serious (and sometimes yucky) business. Travel back in time with Mira and Finn to ancient Egypt and Babylon, where people chewed on frayed twigs to scrub their smiles. Then, hold your nose as we visit ancient Rome, where people actually used crushed bones and human pee to whiten their teeth! Ew!

But when did we get the toothbrush we know today? You won't believe it! Discover how the Chinese used freezing cold pig hair to make the very first bristle brush over 500 years ago. Then, travel to a dark, dirty London prison in the 1700s to meet William Addis, the man who invented the modern toothbrush using a leftover meat bone and hidden animal bristles! From fireplace soot to the invention of nylon and the first squeezy toothpaste tubes, this episode is packed with mind-blowing facts. Brush up on your history and find out how humans finally got their bright, clean smiles!

Did you know that your cute, fluffy kitty used to be a fierce desert predator? Join Mira and Finn as they uncover the amazing, hilarious, and sometimes totally weird history of cats! Journey back 10,000 years to the Middle East, where massive armies of mice attracted wildcats to human towns, and these clever felines decided to move right in. Travel to Ancient Egypt, where cats were adored like royalty, honored as the mighty goddess Bastet, and families even shaved off their eyebrows to mourn their passing! You will also hear the gross story of what happened to ancient cat mummies!

Then, set sail with Unsinkable Sam, the brave World War Two cat who survived three different shipwrecks! Discover the science magic behind a cat's healing purr (which NASA even uses for astronauts in space!) and learn the surprising reason why adult cats never meow at each other. From wild hunters prowling the tall grass to the superstars of the internet, find out how cats curled up and conquered the world. Grab your favorite furry friend and hit play on this purr-fect adventure!

Do you love eating sweet chocolate bars? What if we told you that your favorite treat used to be actual money, or that people used to drink it spicy and bitter?! Trace the epic, 3,000-year history of chocolate! Travel back in time to the ancient Maya and Aztec empires, where chocolate was a frothy, fiery cold drink that gave powerful warriors super energy. Discover how you could actually buy a whole live turkey using just 100 cacao beans! Then, hop on a wooden ship to Europe, where people finally added sweet sugar and vanilla to make the very first hot chocolate. Learn how amazing machines during the Industrial Revolution changed everything, pressing out cocoa powder to create the world's first solid, bite-sized chocolate bar! Plus, find out how sweet milk chocolate was finally invented, and hear the crazy story of a weird, potato-flavored chocolate brick made specifically for soldiers in World War II! Get ready for a delicious, mouth-watering historical adventure that will definitely leave you hungry for more!

Imagine swimming for four straight hours in the pitch-dark ocean, pulling an injured friend to safety with a life-jacket strap clenched right in your teeth! That unbelievably brave hero didn't just survive—he grew up to become John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States!

In this exciting episode of History's Not Boring, Mira and Finn dive into the amazing life of JFK! You'll discover how a sickly little boy who spent months stuck in bed reading history books transformed into a true World War II hero. Learn how he became the youngest elected president at just 43 years old and brought a huge wave of youthful energy to the country. We'll explore his biggest moments, from challenging America to land a man on the moon, to safely navigating the terrifying thirteen-day standoff of the Cuban Missile Crisis!

Plus, find out what it was like to have little kids living in the White House with an absolute zoo of pets—including a real pony named Macaroni! Tune in to discover why a president whose time was cut tragically short remains one of the most famous leaders in history!

Imagine living in a place where girls were strictly banned from going to university! That didn't stop Maria Sklodowska. She attended a secret, hidden night school called the "Flying University" just to learn! Later known to the world as Marie Curie, she moved to Paris with almost no money and studied so hard she literally fainted from hunger. But she never gave up!

Marie and her husband Pierre discovered something completely mind-blowing: a brand new element that glowed in the dark like magical fairy lights! She invented the word "radioactivity" and spent three whole years stirring an elephant-sized pile of boiling dirt just to find it. Her hard work made her the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize—and the ONLY person in history to win two of them in two different sciences!

But Marie wasn't just a lab scientist; she was a real-life superhero. During World War 1, she built mobile X-ray vans called "little Curies" and drove them straight to the front lines to help save over a million soldiers! Tune in to discover the unstoppable story of Marie Curie!

Have you ever wondered how a single wrong turn in a car could start a massive global conflict? Join Mira and Finn on History's Not Boring as we travel back to 1914 to uncover the unbelievable story of how World War 1 started! Discover how Europe was ruled by five giant empires that were like a huge pile of dry firewood just waiting for a spark. You won't believe how a teenager named Gavrilo Princip, a stalled car engine, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off a wild chain reaction that pulled the whole world into war in just five weeks!

We will also learn about the wild new inventions that changed history, from airplanes made of wood and cloth to massive metal tanks that crept along at walking speed. Plus, hear some amazing, lighter stories from the trenches, like how Marie Curie used trucks to save lives with X-rays, the genius soldiers who hid inside fake metal trees to spy, and the incredible true story of Sergeant Stubby—a heroic stray dog who earned a real military rank! Get ready for an unforgettable journey through time!

Did you know the famous Titanic had a gigantic sister ship? It’s true! Meet the HMHS Britannic, the biggest ocean liner of her time! After the Titanic tragically sank, the White Star Line completely redesigned the Britannic to be the safest ship in the entire world. She had a double-layered hull, extra-high watertight walls, and massive robotic cranes for her lifeboats!

But before she could carry a single vacationing passenger, World War I broke out! The Britannic was painted bright white with huge red crosses and transformed into a floating hospital to rescue wounded soldiers. But disaster struck in 1916! While sailing in the beautiful Aegean Sea near Greece, she hit a hidden underwater naval mine planted by a German submarine. BOOM!

Even with all her amazing safety upgrades, the massive ship sank in less than an hour—three times faster than the Titanic! Why did she sink so quickly? And how did almost everyone on board survive, including a famous nurse known as "Miss Unsinkable"? Join Mira and Finn as we dive into the forgotten story of this incredible World War I hero ship!

Have you ever wondered where those cool flying robots came from? Join Mira and Finn as they uncover the wild and wacky history of drones! You won't believe it, but the very first drone was built over a hundred years ago during World War One. It was made of papier-mâché, weighed as much as a full-grown grizzly bear, and almost always crashed!

Discover how the military used pilotless planes for target practice in World War Two, and learn the totally amazing secret about a famous Hollywood movie star who was discovered working in a drone factory! We'll trace the journey from massive, 27-foot-long spy planes to the tiny, super-fast quadcopters you can easily fly in your backyard using just a smartphone.

Plus, find out all the incredible things drones can do today! From inspecting dark, spider-web-filled bridges to flying piping hot pizzas right to your front door! We'll even explore how thousands of glowing drones fly perfectly together to create 500-foot-tall dragons in the night sky! Grab your virtual reality goggles and get ready for a high-flying history adventure that will blow you away!

Did you know that the man who invented Willy Wonka, the BFG, and Matilda wasn't just a writer sitting at a desk? He was actually a real-life secret spy and a daring fighter pilot! Join Mira and Finn on an unbelievable adventure to discover the incredible true story of Roald Dahl! Long before he sold 300 million books around the world, young Roald went to a strict English boarding school where he was given a top-secret mission: testing brand-new, unreleased chocolate bars for the Cadbury company! (Can you guess which famous book that inspired?) But that’s just the beginning! You will hear the heart-pounding true story of how he survived a fiery plane crash in the middle of the scorching African desert during World War Two, and how he later worked as a towering six-foot-six secret agent. Plus, we'll dive into his super cozy writing hut, his obsession with yellow pencils, and the silly made-up language he invented called Gobblefunk. Get ready for a scrumdiddlyumptious episode packed with history, action, and imagination!

Imagine dangling 500 feet in the air from a tiny cable... right in front of a giant stone nose! Welcome to the massive story of Mount Rushmore! In this episode, Mira and Finn travel back to 1927 to find out how four American presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln—were carved into a mountain in South Dakota. Did you know 90% of the monument was carved using actual dynamite? Boom! Learn how 400 workers blasted away 450,000 tons of rock and dangled from dizzying cliffs to smooth out faces the size of six-story buildings. Amazingly, not a single person died during the 14 years it took to build! We'll also uncover the fascinating secrets behind the monument, from a hidden room meant to hold America's most important documents, to why the mountain is deeply sacred to the Lakota Sioux people, who call it the Six Grandfathers. Grab your hard hat and get ready for an explosive adventure through history!