Beyond Texas with W.F. Strong

This short story by Tolstoy is regarded as one of the finest in all of literature.  I've always admired it for its O'Henry-like ending.  It would have made a fitting story for The Twilight Zone or for today's Black Mirror.  I present it here in a shortened 12 minute version.  The full story takes about 40 minutes to read.    W.F. Strong:  wfstrongpodcast@gmail.com Support the show

Madame Curie's Scientific Genius changed the world in priceless ways, but beyond her contributions to physical and medical sciences, perhaps her most important achievement was opening doors for, and inspiring women (and men) in the fields of science and medicine.  W. F. Strong:    wfstrongpodcast@gmail.com  Support the show

Sharing Hemingways' famous Switzerland Christmas post which he wrote for the Toronto Star in 1923 when he was 24 years old.  He was on a skiing holiday with his first wife Hadley and his best friend, Chink.   Special thanks to Daryl Missen, podcast audio pro of Australia, who re-mastered this piece to add some magic to this classic story.  W. F. Strong:    wfstrongpodcast@gmail.com Support th...

Marcus Aurelius is enormously popular today, even though he lived nearly 2000 years ago.  Quotes from his famous Meditations are ubiquitous.  It is now the Bible of stoicism.  In this episode I take a look, with the help of classical scholar and author, Lindsay Powell,  at how Marcus Aurelius was perceived in his time, how his private notes to self survived the dark ages and wound up as a best sel...

Dr. Bass tells two stories about fascinating cases he worked on to identify people from their remains.   Support the show

How Dr. John Snow solved the cholera riddle and changed the medical world forever.   Support the show

A man dies in fiery crash in Mexico.   Dr. Bill Bass, father of CSI and creator of the first body farm, is brought in to identify the charred remains of the victim.  I talk with Dr. Bass about how he created the body farm and how he identified the skeletal remains of man said to be "burned beyond recognition."  Evidently, dead men tell a lot of tales these days.   Here's a link to p...

This story traces Dr. Gorgas's inspirational saga from Brownsville to  Cuba to Panama, in which he constantly sought a cure for,  or containment of,  Yellow Fever.  He ultimately succeeded in the latter,  which made the completion of the canal possible and made the whole world a bit smaller.  Because of his success there, he has been called "the Medical Hero of the Panama Canal."  ...

The story of Robert Falcon Scott's heart-wrenching effort to be the first man to the South Pole.  Support the show