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How a Room in New Jersey Gave Us the Film Industry

While Thomas Edison is best-known for inventing the lightbulb, it's often forgotten that he also set up the world's first movie studio, in Fort Lee, New Jersey




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A Right Whale Skeleton Arrives at the Smithsonian

See the process involved when a massive specimen arrives at the Smithsonian




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Ask Smithsonian: What Is Wind?

In this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian host, Eric Schulze, explains what causes wind. The answer might blow you away.




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Ask Smithsonian: How Much Stuff Is in Orbit Around the Earth?

Much more than you’d think – and it’s whirling around at dangerously high speeds




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Ask Smithsonian: How Does Daylight Savings Affect the Body?

The answer depends on how you feel about cluster headaches




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Ask Smithsonian: How Do Boomerangs Work?

It depends on which variety of boomerang you're using. Our host Eric Schulze has more




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Ask Smithsonian: Where Does Space Begin?

Watch to get the answer that surprised the heck out of us




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Ask Smithsonian: What Are the Weirdest Things Pregnant Women Crave?

Our host explains why you should never say ‘no’ to a hungry pregnant woman




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Ask Smithsonian: Why Do Songs Get Stuck in My Head?

The science behind earworms and why they won’t leave us alone




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Denali Has One of the Deepest Canyons in the World

Ruth Glacier’s Great Gorge is quite simply one of the continent’s most awe-inspiring sights. At 2,000 feet and over ten miles long, it’s one of the deepest canyons in the world.




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What Happens When Galaxies Collide?

In about four billion years from now, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will crash together Visualization: NASA, ESA, and F. Summers, STScI Simulation credit: NASA, ESA, G. Besla, Columbia University, and R. van der Marel, STScI




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Cooking with Crickets

Chef Darin Nesbit demonstrates how to cook cricket-crusted redfish. (Still Image: Natthanan Chumphookaew/iStock)




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Was This Cave an Ancient Lab for Preserving Human Bodies?

A series of remarkably well-preserved human remains in a remote cave in Scotland has archaeologists grappling with a staggering question: were these bodies brought here during the Bronze Age to be mummified?




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This London Blacksmith Forges Replicas of Medieval Swords

A London blacksmith has perfected a technique known as pattern welding to create elaborately-designed replica Saxon swords and knives. He demonstrates his technique on camera.




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SmartNews: Apps for Apes

Zookeepers at the National Zoo keep orangutans mentally stimulated with an innovative use of iPads




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Did New Orleans Invent the Cocktail?

Cocktail historians differ on the birthplace of the word "cocktail," but they cherish America' invention of drinks like the mint julep (Meredith Bragg)




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MIT's New Water-Powered Artificial Muscles

Scientists have created thin polymer sheets that expand and contract when in contact with water




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The Future Is Bright If More Teens Think About High School the Way Kavya Kopparapu Does

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma talks with the founder of the Girls Computing League about the promise of her generation




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Ask Smithsonian: How Does Skin Heal?

Our skin is an endlessly complex organ. Luckily, in this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze is here to explain exactly what happens after you get a scrape.




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SmartNews: 3D Printers in Space

If you need something while up in space, soon all you'll have to do is print it.




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How Coffee Breaks Became a Staple of American Life

Coffee - it's a staple of American life, and inside the vaults of the National Museum of American History, they know the secret to its wide spread success: packaging




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Sharks: Stewards of the Reef

In this trailer, experts discuss the importance of sharks to the health of coral reefs. Marine ecologist Enric Sala of Scripps Institution of Oceanography talks about the role of sharks as top predators in ocean ecosystems. Peter Knight, executive director of WildAid, and Sonja Fordham of the Ocean Conservancy detail the decline of shark populations worldwide as a result of fishing pressure




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Academy Award Nominee Kathleen Turner Discusses Political Journalist Molly Ivins

More on Kathleen Turner and her show at Arena Stage: http://j.mp/T0IkkZ Before taking the stage in "Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins," Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner discusses the woman who inspired the show.




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Down Under in Georgia

Take a virtual tour of the Kangaroo Conservation Center in Dawsonville, Georgia




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The Invisible Enemy Wiping Out Entire Species of Frogs

To save a species from extinction, scientists scour the Panamanian jungle for the few remaining frogs. But will they be too late?




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How Lizzie Borden Became the Main Suspect in Her Family's Murder

How did a god fearing church-goer like Lizzie Borden become a suspect in the gruesome crime of the century? Her inconsistent account, and an eerie nonchalance, immediately damaged her credibility with investigators.




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How a 'Non-Hazardous' NASA Mission Turned Deadly

In 1967, a horrific fire broke out during a routine pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy, Florida. It would claim the lives of three NASA astronauts




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Ask Smithsonian: What Would Happen if a Solar Flare Hit the Earth?

"Be prepared” might not cover it when it comes to super storms.




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Jose Gomez-Marquez Wants to Turn Every Doctor and Nurse into a Maker

Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter interviews the co-founder of MIT’s Little Devices Lab about democratizing health technology




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The Smithsonian Channel Commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act

Aerial America: Wilderness premieres Sunday, Sept. 7 at 9PM ET/PT




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Ask Smithsonian: How Do Noise-Canceling Headphones Work?

Our host, Eric Schulze explains how 1 + 1 = 0 when it comes to sound




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SmartNews: Why Are These Mice Unafraid of Cats?

Scientists are researching how the rodent can become less susceptible to its feline foe.




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Boston and New York Competed for America’s First Subway

In March 1895, Boston and New York City began an epic and highly competitive race to become the first American city with a working subway system.




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Did the Spanish Flu Impact America's Ability to Fight in WWI?

By late September 1918, in a bid to contain the spread of the flu, the U.S. had made the decision to cancel the draft. It was too little, too late—in October alone, over 200,000 Americans were killed by the disease.




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This 11,000-Year-Old Piece of Wood Is More Than It Seems

It looks like a fairly nondescript plank of wood, found in the fields of Star Carr. But from an archaeological perspective, it’s far more significant: It’s the oldest piece of carpentry found anywhere in Europe.




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Underwater Volcano

A remote camera captures the first-ever video of an erupting underwater volcano




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The Whistling Orangutan

Bonnie, the subject of a recently published paper, is the Smithsonian National Zoo’s famous whistling orangutan




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What It Took to Recreate a Portrait of Frederick Douglass

Kenneth Morris is the great-great-great-grandson of the heralded abolitionist and helped compile an illustrated biography of his ancestor. (Credit: Drew Gardner)




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Why Engineering Will Be Vital in a Changing Climate

Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough offers personal insights on the realities of climate change and the best ways for society to adapt




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This Dangerous Trick Wowed Houdini’s Fans

The water torture cell escape was arguably Houdini’s most memorable stunt. So much so that many people wrongly assume it killed him–a myth invented by the 1953 movie about his life starring Tony Curtis.




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Healing the Wounds of the Vietnam War

Every Veterans Day, Jeremy Redmon thinks about his father, Donald Lee Redmon — an Air Force veteran who survived more than 300 combat missions over Southeast Asia, but who took his own life when Jeremy was 14. This year, Redmon traveled back to Hanoi with a group of former prisoners of war, many of whom had flown the same missions as his dad. Jeremy asked these veterans questions he was never able to ask his own father, about how they’d healed from the war and lived rewarding lives thereafter. In this episode, guest host Jennie Rothenberg Gritz speaks with Redmon about the complexities of the Vietnam War, as well as his own experiences as a reporter in Iraq. Then, Vietnamese American author Mai Elliott discusses her family’s experiences in North and South Vietnam, and how her feelings about the conflict changed throughout the 1960s. Read Jeremy Redmon’s Smithsonian story “Fifty Years After Their Release, Former Vietnam POWs Journey Back to Hanoi” here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fifty-years-finding-freedom-vietnam-vets-healing-journey-hanoi-180983052/) . Order Mai Elliott’s book The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family here (https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Willow-Generations-Vietnamese-Family-ebook/dp/B074JBTTZ3?ref_=ast_author_mpb) . Find prior episodes of our show here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/podcast/) . There’s More to That is a production of Smithsonian magazine and PRX Productions. From the magazine, our team is Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Chris Klimek, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Adriana Rosas Rivera, Genevieve Sponsler, Terence Bernardo, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Fact-checking by Stephanie Abramson. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.




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Thomas Cromwell: Henry VIII's Partner in Crime

In 1536, Thomas Cromwell spotted an opportunity to enrich his master, Henry VIII, and further increase his own standing: the dissolution of the monasteries and claiming their wealth for the Crown.




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SmartNews: Maya Beheadings

Dismembered war captives from the 17th century uneartherd




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One Smart Crow

A crow named Icarus uses a short tool to extract a long tool, which he then uses to fish out a piece of meat.




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Ask Smithsonian: Why Do We Use One Hand More Than the Other?

So what exactly factors into how we end up being right or left-handed? In this one-minute video, Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze breaks down the science of being a southpaw.




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A Civil War Tour: Echoes of the Past




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The Funeral Parade for the Last Veteran of the War of 1812

In 1905, New York City hosted a grand procession for the last living soldier of a war that ended 90 years earlier




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An Evening with E O Wilson

E.O. Wilson discusses his new book, "Half-Earth," and his recent and thought-provoking proposal to devote half the surface of the Earth to nature. The livestream video features E.O. Wilson and Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the National Museum of Natural History.




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Weird Science: Tunnel

Sometimes, in fact, nature is stranger than fiction




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Ask Smithsonian: Does the Five-Second Rule Really Work?

You might think twice about picking that chip off the carpet and putting it into your mouth.