Luisa's Fun History Hour

A few cheap mines held the world’s strongest navy at bay for six months. How?This spring, Iran turned to one of the oldest tricks in naval warfare: mining the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. wiped out Iran’s navy in a single day, yet clearing the mines took half a year. In this episode, we trace the story of the naval mine, the ultimate weapon for the weak against the strong.We’ll cover:Ming China’s “underwater thunder” and the first modern mines of the American RevolutionThe Russian admiral who went down with his flagship in the Russo-Japanese WarHow 200 Turkish mines sank three Allied battleships and cost Churchill his jobOperation Starvation, the mine blockade that nearly starved Japan into surrenderFrom Wonsan to the Persian Gulf, and how the U.S. finally cleared HormuzCan a mine win a war? Tune in to find out.

A few cheap mines held the world’s strongest navy at bay for six months. How?This spring, Iran turned to one of the oldest tricks in naval warfare: mining the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. wiped out Iran’s navy in a single day, yet clearing the mines took half a year. In this episode, we trace the story of the naval mine, the ultimate weapon for the weak against the strong.We’ll cover:Ming China’s “underwater thunder” and the first modern mines of the American RevolutionThe Russian admiral who went down with his flagship in the Russo-Japanese WarHow 200 Turkish mines sank three Allied battleships and cost Churchill his jobOperation Starvation, the mine blockade that nearly starved Japan into surrenderFrom Wonsan to the Persian Gulf, and how the U.S. finally cleared HormuzCan a mine win a war? Tune in to find out.

A few cheap mines held the world’s strongest navy at bay for six months. How?This spring, Iran turned to one of the oldest tricks in naval warfare: mining the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. wiped out Iran’s navy in a single day, yet clearing the mines took half a year. In this episode, we trace the story of the naval mine, the ultimate weapon for the weak against the strong.We’ll cover:Ming China’s “underwater thunder” and the first modern mines of the American RevolutionThe Russian admiral who went down with his flagship in the Russo-Japanese WarHow 200 Turkish mines sank three Allied battleships and cost Churchill his jobOperation Starvation, the mine blockade that nearly starved Japan into surrenderFrom Wonsan to the Persian Gulf, and how the U.S. finally cleared HormuzCan a mine win a war? Tune in to find out.

A Turkish influencer tried to recruit a young Uyghur woman into Pan-Turkism online. She replied, “I’m Chinese.” What followed was an internet brawl that dragged in Greeks, Japanese, Iranians, and somehow even Indians.So what is Pan-Turkism, and how did a 19th-century dream of a “Great Turan” stretching from Anatolia to the Altai end up as the ideology everyone loves to mock?In this episode, we trace its story:How Tatar intellectuals in Tsarist Russia first invented itHow the Young Turks turned it into a war program, and the disaster at SarıkamışWhy Atatürk shelved it, and how Turkey resisted Nazi temptation in WWIIWhy the newly independent Central Asian states wanted nothing to do with itAnd how it lives on today, from the Grey Wolves to Erdoğan’s Organization of Turkic StatesGrab a snack and join us for another Fun History Hour.

A Turkish influencer tried to recruit a young Uyghur woman into Pan-Turkism online. She replied, “I’m Chinese.” What followed was an internet brawl that dragged in Greeks, Japanese, Iranians, and somehow even Indians.So what is Pan-Turkism, and how did a 19th-century dream of a “Great Turan” stretching from Anatolia to the Altai end up as the ideology everyone loves to mock?In this episode, we trace its story:How Tatar intellectuals in Tsarist Russia first invented itHow the Young Turks turned it into a war program, and the disaster at SarıkamışWhy Atatürk shelved it, and how Turkey resisted Nazi temptation in WWIIWhy the newly independent Central Asian states wanted nothing to do with itAnd how it lives on today, from the Grey Wolves to Erdoğan’s Organization of Turkic StatesGrab a snack and join us for another Fun History Hour.

A Turkish influencer tried to recruit a young Uyghur woman into Pan-Turkism online. She replied, “I’m Chinese.” What followed was an internet brawl that dragged in Greeks, Japanese, Iranians, and somehow even Indians.So what is Pan-Turkism, and how did a 19th-century dream of a “Great Turan” stretching from Anatolia to the Altai end up as the ideology everyone loves to mock?In this episode, we trace its story:How Tatar intellectuals in Tsarist Russia first invented itHow the Young Turks turned it into a war program, and the disaster at SarıkamışWhy Atatürk shelved it, and how Turkey resisted Nazi temptation in WWIIWhy the newly independent Central Asian states wanted nothing to do with itAnd how it lives on today, from the Grey Wolves to Erdoğan’s Organization of Turkic StatesGrab a snack and join us for another Fun History Hour.

A co-pilot with an axe nearly brought down a flight to Tel Aviv, and the cockpit door meant to stop the next 9/11 almost helped him do it. How did we get here? From a pistol over Budapest in 1919 to planes turned into missiles, this is the strange, century-long story of hijacking, and the one threat no one thought to guard against.

A co-pilot with an axe nearly brought down a flight to Tel Aviv, and the cockpit door meant to stop the next 9/11 almost helped him do it. How did we get here? From a pistol over Budapest in 1919 to planes turned into missiles, this is the strange, century-long story of hijacking, and the one threat no one thought to guard against.