Live from the Archives Podcast

Most people who know American history have heard of Sputnik 1, the Russian satellite launched on October 7, 1957 and ushered in the Cold War Space Race. Russia's satellite, we were told, was an unprecedented and unexpected achievement that shocked the United States into action. Congress flooded federal funding into schools, established NASA, and set to beat the Russians. That response, though real, was based on a lie. Sputnik 1 was part of an worldwide collaboration to study the Earth, called the International Geophysical Year (IGY). IGY involved 66 countries and over 6000 scientists studying every aspect of the Earth, including near space. Why don't we know about IGY? What are losing by not talking about IGY? And what can it tell us about American (and global) science?

David and Ian discuss the Gene Weltfish, the Red Scare, race(ist) science and progressive imagery.

What happens when corporations use science to sell...everything? Let's talk about the revolution that was the American Industrial science museums of the 1930s.

The American military have been a constant presence in American science museums. Today we'll look at a couple of examples and ask some questions about why it's happening and what it means.