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

Have you ever wondered where snakes came from? Believe it or not, millions of years ago, snakes actually used to have legs! In this spectacular episode of History's Not Boring, Mira and Finn slither back in time to uncover the wild history of snakes. Discover how ancient lizards burrowed underground and lost their limbs, leaving behind weird two-legged fossils! Then, travel to a steamy prehistoric jungle to meet the terrifying Titanoboa! This monstrous snake was forty-two feet long—the size of a school bus—and hunted giant crocodiles! You will also learn the awesome science behind snake venom, which is basically just super spicy spit used to paralyze their prey. Plus, we explore why snakes pop up in so many famous ancient myths, from the snake-haired gorgon Medusa to the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. Finally, find out why these creepy, legless, unblinking reptiles are actually heroes that protect our food and provide life-saving medicine. Get ready for some amazing facts, including how snakes smell using their tongues and can even fly through the air! Tune in for a totally snake-tastic adventure!

Have you ever had a giant argument on the playground? Now imagine if entire countries had a disagreement, but instead of fighting, they built a massive global clubhouse just to talk it out! After the devastating events of World War II, leaders from all over the globe realized they needed a permanent way to keep world peace. But how do you get 50 different countries to agree on a completely new set of rules? You throw the biggest, most important meeting ever! In 1945, thousands of delegates traveled to San Francisco to create the United Nations. It was a monumental task! Since they didn't have computers or emails, tired typists had to use 78 tons of paper—that's heavier than a dozen elephants! The final signing ceremony for the massive UN Charter took eight whole hours! Join Mira and Finn as they travel back to the 1940s to uncover how this amazing global team-up happened. You'll find out which US President coined the name, why the UN headquarters in New York is actually its own international territory, and why UN Peacekeepers always wear bright blue helmets!

Aloha, history explorers! Did you know the tallest mountain on Earth isn’t Mount Everest? It’s actually a massive underwater volcano in Hawaii! In this exciting episode, we are traveling to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to uncover the epic story of the Hawaiian Islands. Discover how deep-sea magma created a chain of 132 islands, and learn about the brilliant ancient Polynesian navigators who found them using only the stars, birds, and ocean waves! Then, meet King Kamehameha, a powerful warrior who flipped a 5,000-pound rhino-sized rock and united all the islands into one kingdom! We’ll also explore the time of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the tragic but important history of Pearl Harbor, and the happy day in 1959 when Hawaii became the 50th American state. Plus, find out why the Hawaiian alphabet only has 13 letters, how you can go snowboarding on a tropical island, and try your best to pronounce the name of Hawaii's state fish: the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a! Grab your surfboards and snow pants for a fiery, volcano-sized adventure!

Did you know that the deck of cards you use for Go Fish or Crazy Eights is actually an ancient spy tool? It's true! Grab your time machine and join Mira and Finn on a wild adventure to uncover the secret history of playing cards! The story starts way back in ancient China during the Tang Dynasty, where a real princess played the very first card game using long strips of paper money. From there, the cards traveled thousands of miles across the famous Silk Road to Egypt, where the original card suits were actually gold coins, swords, cups, and polo sticks! But the drama doesn't stop there. When cards made their way to Europe, card makers decided to base the kings on real historical rulers like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar! The absolute craziest part? During World War II, spies teamed up with an American playing card company to create top-secret map decks. When dropped in water, these sneaky cards would peel apart to reveal hidden escape maps for captured soldiers! Tune in to discover how a simple deck of cards became a brilliant historical treasure!

Did you know that one of the most famous sports in the world started with bored shepherds and wild rabbits? Grab your clubs and time travel back over six hundred years to the windy, sandy coast of Scotland to discover the wild history of golf! In this episode, Mira and Finn uncover how Scottish shepherds invented the game by using their long wooden walking sticks to whack round sea pebbles into empty rabbit holes. But did you know this fun new game was actually completely banned by the King of Scotland? Find out why golf was considered a massive threat to national security, and why soldiers were supposed to be practicing archery instead! You won't believe how the first fancy golf balls, called "Featheries," were made by cramming an entire top hat full of wet goose feathers into a tiny leather ball. From Old Tom Morris helping to design the first 18-hole courses to Apollo 14 astronauts sneaking clubs into a spaceship to play on the Moon, this episode is a hole-in-one! Join us as we tee off into the unbelievable true story of golf!

Have you ever heard of the King of the Wild Frontier? Join Mira and Finn as they explore the incredible life of Davy Crockett! Did you know he ran away from home at just twelve years old and walked almost 400 miles on a massive cattle drive? Or that he claimed to have hunted exactly 105 wild bears in a single winter? Davy's life was like a real-life action movie! From surviving in the deep wilderness to wearing his famous coonskin cap all the way to the United States Congress, Davy Crockett was a true American legend. We’ll uncover how he stood up for poor farmers, how wild "tall tales" said he could ride a lightning bolt, and the incredible bravery he showed defending the Alamo in Texas. Plus, find out how a catchy theme song and a TV show made millions of kids wear imitation coonskin caps more than 100 years later! Get ready to travel back to the 19th-century American backwoods for a wild, history-packed adventure!

Welcome to a sun-drenched adventure to the beautiful Caribbean island of Cuba! Did you know there is an island that looks exactly like a giant swimming crocodile from above? In this episode, Mira and Finn explore the amazing history of Cuba, located just 90 miles south of Florida! We will travel back in time to meet the native Taíno people, who actually invented the hammock! Then, watch out for ruthless pirates attacking Havana, and discover how massive stone forts with 10-foot-thick walls were built to keep out treasure hunters. You'll also learn about Cuba's rich and complicated past, from the blend of Spanish and African rhythms that created its world-famous music, to its fight for independence. We will find out why the game of baseball was once totally banned, how genius mechanics keep 60,000 vintage 1950s cars zooming down the streets in bright pink and turquoise, and meet the Zunzuncito—the absolute smallest bird on planet Earth that weighs less than a single dime! Jump in and get ready to explore!

Have you ever heard of a giant rock that is bigger than a skyscraper and acts like a desert iceberg? Welcome to the Outback of Australia, where the massive sandstone monolith called Uluru rises straight out of the flat red dirt! Standing taller than the Eiffel Tower, the wildest part is that most of this colossal rock is actually hiding out of sight, plunging 2.5 kilometers deep underground! Even crazier? Millions of years ago, this blistering hot desert was completely underwater at the bottom of an ancient ocean. But Uluru isn't just an awesome geological wonder. For over 30,000 years, it has been a deeply sacred place for the Anangu people, the traditional owners of the land. It’s a magical habitat filled with hidden waterfalls and amazing creatures like the spiky thorny devil lizard! Join Mira and Finn as they uncover the deep history of Australia's most famous natural landmark! You'll discover how tectonic plates flipped it completely sideways, why climbing the rock is now banned to show respect, and the amazing optical illusion that makes it glow fiery red at sunset!

Did you know that one of the greatest presidents in United States history grew up in a tiny dirt-floor log cabin? And that he was a champion wrestler who only lost one match out of three hundred?! Join Mira and Finn on History's Not Boring as they explore the incredible life of Abraham Lincoln! Honest Abe didn't go to a fancy school. In fact, he taught himself almost everything just by reading borrowed books by the firelight! But his amazing brain and incredible courage helped him lead the country through its darkest time: the American Civil War. Discover how this super tall, size-fourteen-shoe-wearing leader issued the Emancipation Proclamation to help free millions of enslaved people, and how he delivered the famous Gettysburg Address in just two minutes! Plus, we'll share some wacky facts you won't believe! Find out why an eleven-year-old girl told him to grow a beard, and how he used his famous tall black stovepipe hat as a portable filing cabinet! Grab your history hats and get ready for an amazing true story about honesty, bravery, and freedom!

Have you ever wondered why a year has 365 days, or where the months actually got their names? Get ready for a mind-bending time travel adventure! Long before digital clocks and wall calendars, ancient people used the sky to track time. We'll explore how the ancient Egyptians used a super bright star to predict river floods, and why the first Roman calendar only had ten months, leaving the end of winter as a dark, uncounted mystery! But timekeeping math can be tricky, and the calendar kept getting broken. Discover how Julius Caesar created a massive "Year of Confusion" that lasted exactly 445 days just to fix the seasons! Even crazier, find out why a pope had to literally erase ten whole days from history to keep the world on track. Imagine going to sleep on a Thursday and waking up a week and a half later! From ancient stargazers to the greatest time heist in history, join Mira and Finn to uncover the wild, surprising story of how the calendar began!

Have you ever wondered how humans went from grunting around ancient campfires to texting, writing books, and speaking over seven thousand different languages today? Grab your time-traveling dictionary, because we are exploring the amazing history of languages! Join Mira and Finn as they uncover how our early ancestors first started talking thanks to a special "language gene" called FOXP2. Find out how groups of people wandering across the globe created new words, and how nearly half the world's languages all share the exact same ancient great-great-great-grandparent language! We will also travel back to ancient Mesopotamia to see the world's very first written language, Cuneiform, which was actually invented just to count sheep and keep track of taxes! From drawing tiny emoji-like pictures on wet clay tablets to carving hieroglyphs on ancient Egyptian pyramids, writing changed the world forever. Plus, discover one of the weirdest and coolest languages on Earth: Silbo Gomero, a language made entirely of whistles that can be heard over three miles away across massive mountain ravines! Get ready to decode the awesome secrets of how we talk!

Grab your oars and get ready to set sail, because we are traveling back in time to the freezing, thrilling world of the Vikings! Have you ever wondered who these famous Norsemen really were? They weren’t just fearsome warriors—they were master shipbuilders, brilliant explorers, and amazing storytellers! In this episode, we uncover the epic truth behind the Viking Age. You'll discover their secret weapon: the legendary wooden longships that could cross deep oceans and glide right onto sandy beaches! Did you know a brave explorer named Leif Erikson sailed all the way to North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus? That’s right! We’ll also dive into their amazing mythology, featuring powerful gods like Odin and Thor (who actually has a day of the week named after him!). Plus, get ready to bust some massive historical myths. Did Vikings really wear heavy helmets with giant cow horns on them? And were they actually giant clean freaks who used tiny spoons for their ear wax? Tune in to find out! It’s time to launch our longships and explore the epic saga of the Vikings!

Get ready to time-travel back to one of the most colorful decades in history—the 1970s! Have you ever wondered what life was like before modern smartphones and high-tech video games? Imagine a world where the very first mobile phone weighed as much as a giant pineapple and took ten whole hours to charge! In this fun-filled episode, Mira and Finn explore an amazing era of wild fashion, incredible human achievements, and some seriously wacky trends. Discover how brave astronauts on the final Apollo moon mission fixed their lunar buggy using nothing but spare space maps and duct tape! Then, get ready to lace up your roller skates for a trip to the roller disco. We will also talk about the birth of home video games, where players had to stick plastic sheets to their TVs just to see the graphics! Plus, find out how one man made a million dollars by selling literal rocks in cardboard boxes as "Pet Rocks." From massive bell-bottom pants to the premiere of the very first Star Wars movie, the 1970s was an era of big ideas. Tune in for a totally far-out adventure!

Have you ever wondered how ancient farmers grew massive fields of food in the middle of the baking hot desert? Discover the incredible, muddy, and genius history of how irrigation began! Thousands of years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, early humans figured out how to tame the wild Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Without giant bulldozers or tractors, they dug miles of dirt canals entirely by hand to save their crops from drying up. You'll learn all about an amazing ancient water machine called a "shaduf" that worked exactly like a giant seesaw to lift heavy buckets of river water. We'll also explore King Hammurabi's super strict ancient laws—if you let your water dam break and wash away your neighbor's farm, you had to pay them back in pure grain! Plus, find out how ancient Persian engineers dug massive underground water tunnels called Qanats. Did you know that if you lined up all those tunnels, they would stretch all the way to the moon?! Grab your buckets and shovels, and join Mira and Finn as we uncover how moving water helped build the first human super-cities!

Have you ever wondered how tennis started? Believe it or not, it didn't begin with bouncy yellow balls and fancy rackets! Hundreds of years ago, French monks invented the game to get some exercise in their stone courtyards. But instead of rackets, they used their bare hands to smack a heavy leather ball stuffed with sheep's wool—and sometimes even human hair! Ouch! In this fascinating episode of History's Not Boring, Mira and Finn serve up the incredible history of tennis! You'll discover how the sport evolved from monks playing the "Game of the Palm" to kings playing in massive royal castles. Find out how early rackets were strung with sheep intestines, why a score of zero is actually called "love" (hint: it has to do with eggs!), and why the very first Wimbledon tournament was held just to raise money to fix a broken grass roller pulled by a pony! From a game with the completely unpronounceable ancient Greek name "Sphairistikè" to the massive Grand Slam tournaments of today, get ready to smash some amazing historical facts. Hit play and let's explore the wild, wacky origins of tennis!

Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik's Cube and ended up with a totally jumbled mess of colors? You are definitely not alone! In fact, the very person who invented it couldn't solve it either! Join Mira and Finn on a colorful journey back to 1974 to meet Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian architecture teacher. He wanted a fun way to teach his students about 3D shapes, so he built a puzzle using wooden blocks, rubber bands, and paper clips! He painted it with six bright colors, gave it a few twists, and suddenly couldn't get it back to normal. It took him a whole month of non-stop trying to finally solve his very own invention! Originally called the "Magic Cube," this little plastic puzzle has over 43 quintillion possible combinations and went on to become the best-selling toy in human history! Discover how it escaped behind the Iron Curtain to take over the world, learn mind-blowing math facts, and hear about professional speedcubers who can solve it in under three seconds! Get ready to twist, turn, and learn all about the most famous puzzle ever created!

Are you ready for an epic South American adventure? Grab your hiking boots, because we are traveling to the incredible country of Colombia! Did you know the famous legend of El Dorado wasn't actually about a hidden city of gold, but a real-life king covered entirely in gold dust? Discover the fascinating history of the ancient Muisca people, and find out how a daring general named Simón Bolívar led a ragged army across the freezing Andes Mountains to win the country's freedom in just two hours! But the adventure doesn't stop there! Colombia is the second most biodiverse country on Earth. We'll explore wild jungles filled with bubblegum-pink river dolphins and towering wax palm trees so tall they actually inspired the magical movie Encanto! From mining sparkly green emeralds and growing millions of bags of coffee, to building flying cable cars high above the city of Medellín, Colombia's story is packed with amazing treasures and strong, resilient people. Tune in for a dazzling journey you won't want to miss!

Imagine having to sneak onto a massive, 147-foot-long warship in the middle of the night to save your family! In this thrilling episode of History's Not Boring, Mira and Finn dive into the incredible true story of Robert Smalls! Born enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina, Robert was a brilliant wheelman who knew the harbor like the back of his hand. In 1862, he pulled off one of the most daring and brilliant escapes in American history! Disguising himself in the captain's long coat and wide-brimmed straw hat, Robert hijacked the giant steamship known as the CSS Planter. He bravely sailed right past five heavily armed Confederate forts—including the famous Fort Sumter! By using secret steam whistle signals, he tricked the guards and sailed his family out to the open ocean to freedom. But Robert's amazing story didn't end there! He delivered heavy cannons to the United States Navy, helped convince Abraham Lincoln to let Black soldiers fight in the Civil War, and eventually became a United States Congressman! Tune in to discover this heart-pounding adventure!

Have you ever heard of a battle where soldiers used chocolate candy to fix their trucks? Join Mira and Finn as they travel back to 1950 to uncover the amazing true story of the Korean War! When 75,000 North Korean soldiers launch a massive surprise attack across the 38th Parallel border, South Korea and the United Nations need a daring plan to fight back. Enter General Douglas MacArthur, who decides to sail 260 ships into Inchon, a port city where the ocean water literally vanishes twice a day, dropping a dizzying 33 feet! But that's not the only wild story from the front lines! You'll also meet Marguerite Higgins, a fearless 29-year-old reporter who carried a 10-pound typewriter into battle, dodging bullets in baggy pants and sneakers just to get the scoop. Plus, find out how freezing troops accidentally ordered crates of actual Tootsie Rolls from the sky to survive minus thirty-degree weather! Get ready for a history adventure packed with sneaky military strategy, incredible bravery, and candy!

Have you ever heard of a president who was basically a real-life superhero? Meet Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt! Born as a very sick little boy with severe asthma, Teddy decided he wasn't going to let illness stop him. He worked out, built his muscles, and grew up to become a rugged cowboy in the freezing Badlands! He even chased down armed boat thieves across 300 miles of ice and snow while reading a giant book! But that’s just the beginning of his wild adventures. Teddy led a brave cavalry unit called the Rough Riders, became the youngest president in United States history, and once survived being shot in the chest right before giving a speech! Spoiler alert: his thick steel eyeglasses case and a folded 50-page speech saved his life, and he still gave his speech for 84 minutes! Teddy also loved nature so much that he protected 230 million acres of wild American land, including the Grand Canyon. Plus, his kindness to a wild animal actually inspired the invention of the famous "Teddy Bear"! Join Mira and Finn as they explore the unbelievable, action-packed life of America's 26th president!