Stuff You Missed in History Class

The myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy was a distortion of the history of the U.S. Civil War that’s still affecting the world today.

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Were revisiting a 2016 episode about the uprising of the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire during the Hellenistic period, which is an integral part of the Hanukkah story. After the restoration of Jewish religious freedom, the Maccabees started another revolt to obtain total independence.

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Tracy and Holly talk about the animated version of Ibn Al-Haytham's story, Omar Sharif, waffle cones, and what to do with holiday leftovers.

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Waffles are popular and commonplace on tables and as street food around the world, but they’ve evolved a lot over time to become the syrup vehicle most of us think of them as. 

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Ibn al-Haytham made massive contributions to the world’s understanding of light and vision through experiments that he did during a prolonged house arrest in the early 11th century. He also wrote about medicine, philosophy, astronomy, math and ethics. 

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This is a holiday throwback to a 2017 episodes. Tasty treats associated with winter holidays have some slightly hazy origins, because the evidence of their histories was eaten.

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Tracy and Holly discuss the issue of final resting places illustrated by Jim Thorpe's story, the pronunciation of poinsettia, and plant toxicity.

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Poinsett was a statesman who was connected to some very important moments in our nation’s history, with mixed results. He’s also credited with introducing the holiday plant named after him – the poinsettia – into the U.S. from Mexico. 

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The conclusion of our three-parter on the life of Jim Thorpe covers his time as a professional athlete, and his life after the end of his athletic career – including two pieces of his story that have tragically continued long after his death. 

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This episode is our 2016 live show from the Dallas Museum of Art about the Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin is described as the father of the modern Olympic Games, which took a few years to really take off.

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