Latest Air and space Podcast Episodes
How Wonder Woman Got Her Groove Back
Sidedoor - January 13, 2021 05:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWonder Woman is the best known female superhero of all time, but she’s been through a lot. The brainchild of a psychologist, Wonder Woman hit the comic pages in the 1940s as an antidote to the “bloodcurdling masculinity” of male superheroes. But by the early ‘70s, Wonder Woman was havin...
Edison’s Demon Dolls
Sidedoor - December 16, 2020 05:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIn 1890, Americans were delighted when they heard the news that Thomas Edison was using his phonograph technology to give voice to porcelain dolls. But their delight turned to horror when they got their hands on his dolls. In this episode of Sidedoor, we’ll hear a short story that imagi...
Bonus Episode: Tempest in a Teacup
Sidedoor - December 02, 2020 05:00 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsThis week, we have an episode from the NHPR podcast “Outside/In” about passenger pigeons. The passenger pigeon is one of the world’s most symbolic extinction stories. It’s a cautionary tale of how in just a few short generations, one of the wonders of the world could be completely eradi...
Bonus Episode: That Time the FBI Called
Sidedoor - November 18, 2020 05:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsThis week, we’re sharing an episode of ‘Detours,’ a new podcast from our friends at GBH and PRX. The podcast shares surprising stories that unfold behind the scenes at the PBS classic TV show “Antiques Roadshow.” In this episode: a rare daguerreotype, Edgar Alan Poe, and…the FBI. ...
The Gorilla Epidemic
Sidedoor - October 14, 2020 04:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen a highly-contagious mystery illness spread through the world’s mountain gorilla population, biologists feared the entire species could be lost. Gorillas don’t wear masks or social distance, so there wasn’t much time for the scientists to identify the illness and find a cure for hum...
Dress Coded
Sidedoor - September 30, 2020 04:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsDress codes have been around a long time—from the old days of long skirts and bloomers to today’s regulation-length shorts. But while the specifics of what girls can wear to school have changed, the purpose of the codes has not.
Appalachia Goes Beijing
Sidedoor - September 16, 2020 04:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei first jammed together, “it was magic.” Fei was shocked to meet an American banjo player so curious about China’s culture; and Abigail Washburn met a classically trained composer whose talents on the guzheng, a 2500 year old 21-string Chinese harp, perfec...
The People's Insect
Sidedoor - September 02, 2020 04:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsTo look at them, you might think, “Monarch butterflies aren’t going anywhere fast.” But each year, these beauties complete one of the most remarkable migrations in the animal kingdom, soaring more than a mile high to gather on a few mountaintops in Mexico they’ve never seen before, yet ...
Bonus Ep: Cult of True Womanhood
Sidedoor - August 26, 2020 04:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsBonus Episode | This week, we wanted to share “And Nothing Less,” the new short series from our colleagues at the National Park Service and PRX. It gives a much-needed closer look at the twisty history of the 19th Amendment - and its lesser-known heroes. It’s hosted by two fabulous wome...
The Riverkeeper
Sidedoor - August 19, 2020 04:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsFred Tutman is the voice of the river. Specifically, Maryland’s Patuxent River. As the Riverkeeper, his job is to protect and preserve all 110 miles of that waterway – a role that takes him both to the courtroom and to the riverbank. But Fred is also the only African American Riverkeep...
Votes for Hawaiians
Sidedoor - August 05, 2020 04:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratings100 years ago this month, the 19th Amendment was ratified into the American Constitution. It’s widely remembered as the moment American women gained the right to vote, but history tells a more complex story. For millions of Indigenous Americans living in far-flung territories, the 19th ...
Apollo 12's Really Close Call
Sidedoor - July 22, 2020 04:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsOn November 14, 1969, just four months after Apollo 11’s “giant leap for mankind,” the Apollo 12 Saturn V rocket took off for the moon. Seconds later, a burst of static plunged the three-man crew into complete darkness while speeding toward space in a nearly dead spacecraft. For the 50t...
Take Who Out to the Ball Game?
Sidedoor - July 08, 2020 04:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsBaseball fan or not, you know this song…or at least, you think you do. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is one of the top three most recognizable songs in the country, next to the “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Happy Birthday.” But long-forgotten lyrics reveal a feminist message buried a...
Shredding Skateboarding’s Glass Ceiling
Sidedoor - June 24, 2020 04:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen Mimi Knoop entered her first skateboarding competition at 24 years old, she never anticipated leaving her mark on the sport forever. But in the early 2000s, she formed an alliance with pioneering skateboarder Cara-Beth Burnside to make a simple request: that the X Games – and the r...
America’s Unknown Celebrity Chef
Sidedoor - June 10, 2020 04:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen Lena Richard cooked her first chicken on television, she beat Julia Child to the screen by over a decade. At a time when most African American women cooks worked behind swinging kitchen doors, Richard claimed her place as a culinary authority, broadcasting in the living rooms of Ne...
Young Harriet
Sidedoor - May 27, 2020 04:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIn 2017, a photograph of Harriet Tubman surfaced that had been lost to history for more than a century. In a feature of the National Portrait Gallery’s Portraits podcast, we hear the story behind this picture, and how its discovery changes the way we see Tubman – not just an icon of fre...
Best of the Rest II
Sidedoor - April 29, 2020 04:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsA perplexing tattoo. Ancient erotica. Killer bees on the loose. This episode is full of short stories we’ve been eager to tell, but couldn’t… until now. It’s Sidedoor’s second-ever “Best of the Rest!” Learn more about the Freer & Sackler’s collection of shunga, the National Museum ...
Birds, Birds, Birds!
Sidedoor - April 15, 2020 04:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsThree billion birds have gone missing since 1970. And conservation biologist Pete Marra considers it his life’s work to make sure more don’t slip away without a fight. In this episode, we go bird-spotting with Pete, and learn what each of us can do to bring birds back.
The Last Man To Know It All
Sidedoor - March 18, 2020 04:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsAlexander von Humboldt might not be a name you know, but you can bet you know his ideas. Back when the United States were a wee collection of colonies huddled on the eastern seaboard, colonists found the wilderness surrounding them *scary. *It took a zealous Prussian explorer with a thi...
Outer Space & Underwear
Sidedoor - March 04, 2020 05:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIn the Venn diagram of life, it’s hard to imagine what spacecraft and women’s underwear might have in common. And that’s probably what NASA engineers thought back in 1962 when they asked a handful of companies to design a spacesuit that would keep a man alive and mobile on the moon. Nob...
We're Back!
Sidedoor - February 26, 2020 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsGet ready for season five! Our new season begins on Wednesday, March 4th. Journey with Lizzie through our many side doors for a behind-the scenes view of the Smithsonian.
Cars, Stars, and Rock 'n' Roll
Sidedoor - January 22, 2020 07:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsSmithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III is no administrative assistant. He’s the head of the largest museum, education, and research complex in the world. He’s also the first historian to lead the Smithsonian. In our season finale, we talk with Secretary Bunch about two stories of peo...
Cars, Stars, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Sidedoor - January 22, 2020 07:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsSmithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III is no administrative assistant. He’s the head of the largest museum, education, and research complex in the world. He’s also the first historian to lead the Smithsonian. In our season finale, we talk with Secretary Bunch about two stories of peo...
Ponzi's Scheme
Sidedoor - January 08, 2020 05:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsNearly 100 years ago, Charles Ponzi stumbled across a loophole in the international postal system and turned it into one of the most infamous scams of all time. This time on Sidedoor, we follow Ponzi from his early days until his epic downfall, and hear from a postal investigator traine...
The Worst Video Game Ever?
Sidedoor - December 25, 2019 05:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsDeep within the National Museum of American History’s vaults is a battered Atari case containing what’s known as “the worst video game of all time.” The game is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and it was so bad that not even the might of Steven Spielberg could save it. It was so loathsome t...
Finding Cleopatra
Sidedoor - December 11, 2019 05:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsEdmonia Lewis was the first American woman of color to achieve international fame as a sculptor. Her 3,000-pound masterwork, “The Death of Cleopatra,” commemorated another powerful woman who broke with convention… and then the sculpture disappeared. On this episode of Sidedoor, we find ...
Adam Rippon's Olympic Mesh-capades
Sidedoor - November 27, 2019 05:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsWhen professional athletes face the end of their career, many look ahead with uncertainty and wonder: “What’s next?” But when Adam Rippon stood on the Olympic podium in 2018, making history as the first openly gay American to medal at the winter Olympics, he was sure about his next ste...
Dynamite!
Sidedoor - October 30, 2019 04:01 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsIn its heyday, dynamite was a transformative tool; it could blast rock quarries, excavate tunnels, and demolish buildings with power and reliability never before seen. But it also proved to be useful in some surprising ways. In this special episode of Sidedoor, we team up with the histo...
This Episode Smells
Sidedoor - October 16, 2019 04:01 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsSmell connects us to memories of the people and the places of our lives. But what if it could connect us to a past we’ve never experienced? That's the goal for one team of artists and scientists who used DNA to try to revive the scent of a flower extinct for more than a century.
The Dinosaur War
Sidedoor - October 02, 2019 04:01 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 2K ratingsBehind the fossilized teeth, bones, and claws displayed in the National Museum of Natural History’s new Fossil Hall is the story of two men and a nasty feud. During the paleontology boom of the late 1800s, scientists O.C. Marsh and Edward Cope went from good friends who named species af...
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