Tracing The Path

This is the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Henrietta Lacks, Jonas Salk, the March of Dimes, the Tuskegee Institute and their collective effort to eradicate polio from the earth. But the story also touches on Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Lewis Adams, the Hampton School, Basil O'Connor, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cantor, Paul Alexander and Osama Bin Laden. 

In today's episode we look at all the people and plans it took to create the United Service Organization (USO). While there was enormous planning and smart people, it wouldn't be what it is without a trumpet player from Chicago. We cross paths with General Pershing, Glenn Miller, m&ms, Thomas Dewey, Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and little guy from England named Lesley Townes Hope.

It all started in the 1500s with Sir Francis Bacon, and then in the 1700s with Carl Linnaeus. And along the way we run into Thomas Jefferson, President McKinley, Melvil Dewey, Elihu Root, Napoleon Bonaparte, Al Capone, Teddy Roosevelt, the Library of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford and J. Edgar Hoover. All of them to birth the FBI. 

One of the greatest products of World War II was "cheesy".  And it's all Wisconsin's fault. In fact it's possible that without WW2 three of the greatest things in your daily life just wouldn't be there. In today's episode we cross paths with FDR, Ricos Nachos, Jean Nicolet, Cheetos, Fritos, Kraft, and would you believe . . . Care Packages. 

This is episode 61, the end of the first era and beginning of the second. In fielding your hundreds of ideas for shows, we decided to go over the 4 actual requirement that every story must have before becoming an episode of Tracing The Path. We look at old episodes and how they meet the requirements. We go over some unbelievable stories that haven't quite made it yet and preview what's in the works. Stay tuned.

The fact that our most beloved children's author was a spy for the British isn't the twist. The twist comes when his greatest enemy becomes an important advisor. Along the way we run into Ian Fleming, FDR, Cadbury, Quaker Oats, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Beatrix Potter, the Sopwith Camel Ace Flyer and C.S. Forrester

Did you know that if it weren't for the Mexicans and the Swedes, our Christmas would look substantially different? Yep, today we trace the world of Peppermint back to Santa Anna, Bob, Amalia Erickson, William Wrigley, the American Chicle Company, the Erie Canal, some French cellophane and maybe even Elvis

The "American Dream" was first coined in 1931. In 1971 two things happened on exactly the same day . . . the world's biggest song was released lamenting the end of the American Dream. And the world's biggest dreamer opened the most amazing American institution. In today's episode we cross paths with Apple Pie, James Truslow Adams, Buddy Holly, Billy McGuigan, Pat Hazell, Don McLean, Richard Valenzuela, Johnny Appleseed and Walt Disney among others. 

Have you ever heard the origin of Halloween? Perhaps you've heard about the Irish holiday Samhain, but there's more. And all of it converges on one year, 1848. In this episode learn about Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, the most powerful volcano ever recorded, Yellow Fever, premature burial, Galvanism, John William Polidori and vampires. You're about to hear the true origin of Halloween. 

The Resolute Desk was a gift to the President as the movie National Treasure says. But did you know it involved Tasmania, Van Diemen's Land, Explorer John Franklin, Maritime Salvage Laws, Senator Lawrence S Foster, Abel Tasman, Anthony Van Diemen, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the HMS Resolute, Sweden's 300,000 oak trees, Rutherford B Hayes and Harry Truman. 

When the Industrial Revolution came to town, it inspired an opposite movement that may have changed the world. It certainly inspired a construction style and a whole bunch more.  Today we rub elbow's with Teddy Roosevelt, David Sedaris, Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O'Keefe, the Carnegies, Crayola Crayons, Edgar Allen Poe, Chicago Academy of Design and the Veterans Memorial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

The Louisiana Purchase kicked off Westward Expansion in the United States. Then came the transcontinental railroad, Homesteading and factory towns.  Even the Industrial Revolution aided rural communities with new farming technology and access to bigger markets. But one day in 1971, Rural America was cancelled. In today's episode we cross paths with Arthur Nielsen, UNIVAC Computer, General Douglas MacArthur, punch cards, the US Census Bureau, Remington Rand, IBM, CBS, Fred Silverman, Eckert & Mauchly, Herman Hollerith, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, Starsky & Hutch and Eisenhower vs Stevenson

Robert Smalls was the defiant slave who decided freedom was a better choice. That is when his and President Abraham Lincoln's lives would be intertwined, from the Civil War all the way through death. In this episode we discover Lydia Polite, Harriet Buss, Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, the Freedsman Bureau, Parris Island, Andrew Johnson, Joe Louis and the Harlem Globetrotters. 

Did you know the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the Chinese Spy Balloon and the International Space Station all have one thing in common?  A law written in Roman Times.  Let us tell you about NASA and Captain Skip Strong, the Stamp Act, H.G. Wells,  Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Antarctica and the 1967 Space Treaty. 

French Lick, Indiana was once the top resort town in the U.S. Famous people like Bing Crosby, Al Capone and Ronald Reagan all went there. But it's known for much more than that and what starts in there, changes the world. This week's episode features Tod Sloan, FDR, West Baden Springs Hotel, Sun Rayed Tomato Juice, Smirnoff Vodka, Cock & Bull and the Russian Revolution. 

Everyone knows they changed it in 1985 to New Coke. But how many know of the other four times? And one of those might be considered a public duping. To get the answer today's story covers Thomas Edison, Cocaine, Kola Nut, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robert Gozuieta, Fanta, Tab, Diet Rite, Robert Woodruff, Atlanta's Jewish Community, Royal Crown Cola and just maybe the show The Walking Dead.

The 20th Century presented the perfect moment for the rise is Trivia, and the games that go with it. Maybe that window is beginning to close. In today's episode we explore the Han Dynasty, WW2, Merv Griffin, Charles Van Doren, NBC, College Bowl, Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, Alex Trebek, Radio Quiz Bowls, Information Please, the $64K Question, Columbia University and Dr. Joyce Brothers. 

Did you know "It's A Wonderful Life" started out as a dream? And then as a Christmas card?  How did it beat the odds to become an American classic? The story starts back in 1876 and involves Amadeo Giannini, Philip Van Doren Stern, Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart, World War II, the Council on Books in Wartime, Jimmy the Raven, Cary Grant, Republic Pictures, Columbia Pictures, The Greatest Gift and the 1906 San Francisco Earth Quake. 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an influencer is someone who made it big online. We disagree. We think the world's first influencer wasn't a Youtuber or TikToker, but he did have millions of fans, he did influence people, companies, governments and society. Not only that but he lived 200 years ago and still affects us here today. 

Winston Churchill said it best "whomever controls the oil will win the war". Luckily, the United States had Wilcatters with true tenacity who would find oil no matter where it hid. In today's episode we explore the Big Inch and Little Big Inch piplines, Columbus Joiner, Spindletop, Cushing Oklahoma, Tom Slick, Texaco, the Rule of Capture, origin of kerosene, street lights, German U-Boats, H.L. Hunt, Lamar Hunt, the Superbowl and the NFL.

The Chinese Exclusion Act is one of our most undiscussed tragedies. Despite the bad, Chinese immigrants pushed through to help shapes these United States. Today's episode crosses paths with Bruce Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Bing Cherry, the Valencia Orange, the Citizenship Clause and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment, Oldsmobile, the TaiPing Revolution, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, Wong Kim Ark, Grover Cleveland, the NY Sun and the Statue of Liberty.

To get a button on the microwave for popcorn, it first had to touch the hands of Winston Churchill, Cracker Jacks, the 1893 World's Fair, Major League Baseball, a #1 hit song, Superman, Betty Boop, Raytheon, McCann Erickson, and popcorn balls at the North Pole. Sit back and hear a tale you've not heard before. 

Today we honor Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" with this unbelievable tale. You'll never guess who it is about, but along the way the story touches Martin Luther King, Jr, Mbutu Sese Seko, Pearl Harbor, Goucher College, Rudolf Hess, Erwin Rommel, Apollo 13, the Israeli Air Force, Isaroku Yamamoto, and the Ebola Epidemic. All connected with one amazing revelation. 

The path to creating the world's most important dictionary involved J.R.R. Tolkien, the constructed language of Esperanto, the Oxford English Dictionary, a murderer in an insane asylum, Alice in Wonderland and the Civil War in the United States. Today's story also featured Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bialystok Poland, L.L. Zamenhoff, W.C. Minor, James Murray, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift, and St. Elizabeth's Hospital. 

Did you know a scientist once hijacked a satellite from NASA? And got a medal for it? Comets have been part of our world since the beginning, no matter what science fiction films tell you. Today we visit Einstein, Atilla the Hun, Isaac Newton, Robert Farquhar, Edmund Halley, NASA, Jimmy Carter, Jules Verne, Galileo, Mark Twain and a painter in Italy. 

The history of email is over 300 years in the making . . . and every step is fascinating, especially the Enron Corpus. Without the story of the typewriter, Emilie Baudot, Donald Murray, and the U.S. Air Force, there likely wouldn't be email today. This story covers Ray Tomlinson, Western Union, H.G. Wells, Remington, John Pratt, Christopher Sholes, Tom Hanks, and Kenneth Lay.

How could the smallest town in the furthest corner become the epicenter of music? Because it has been the silent epicenter of the US from the beginning. In today's episode we cross paths with King Ferdinand, Ponce De Leon, Beethoven, W.C. Handy, Sam Philips, Robert E Lee, Charles Dickens, Helen Keller, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, Woodrow Wilson and even Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil. 

Alfred Hitchcock is known as the Master of Suspense and greatest director of the 20th Century. What made him different? Today's episode is the Six Degrees of Hitchcock as we encounter Cary Grant, Salvador Dali, John Steinbeck, Thornton Wilder, Ingrid Bergman, James Stewart, Jerry Mathers, Charles Gounod and J. M. Barrie. 

From the beginning of time Santa's task has been to create the spirit of giving and spread it around the globe. Is it possible, however, to build the spirit of St. Nicholas so the energy powers Santa's Village and Santa's Village helps it grow?  In today's episode Elf, Arthur Christmas, Fred Claus, Get Santa, Spirited, Polar Express, Tim Allen, Papa Elf, Bumble and NORAD collide. Welcome to the conclusion of The Canon of Santa Claus. 

The Story of Santa Claus during the 20th Century includes navigating two World Wars, modernizing the mail system, rebuilding Santa's Village and seeing Christmas Carols change the world. In this episode we encounter John Duvall Gluck, A.C. Gilbert, Norman Rockwell, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade,  Salvador Dali and the Spanish Flu. 

Thomas Nast, Charles Dickens and Francis Pharcellus Church were all important figures in the most important 53 years of Santa Claus. While Christmas Spirit was rising, the new addition of "Letters to Santa" and "Christmas Cards" changed the way Santa handled toys.  Also Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and even Galileo played a part.  

Is Santa Real?  That's the question that plagues every parent. We'll show you have every story you've ever heard about Santa are just stories from his life. In today's episode we track Clement Clark Moore,  the Scottish Kirk, snowglobes, Ak the Master Woodsman, Little Saint Nick,  Rudolph, Bumble the Abominable Snowman, Prince Albert and more. 

Imagine if every story you've ever known about Santa was put together into one story. In Chapter 2 we encounter facts from Elf, the reformer Martin Luther, L. Frank Baum, Frosty the Snowman, Lion King Moonracer, the Winter Warlock, Tim Allen, Ogden Nash and the history of Riga, Latvia. Welcome to the complete Canon of Santa Claus.

Imagine if every story you've ever known about Santa was put together into one story. Rudolph and Elf and St. Nick and The Polar Express and Frosty the Snowman.  And even stories about Santa you probably don't know, stories written by people like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein,  Well this is that. Chapter 1. 

Charles Lindbergh is the connecting rod between Delta Airlines and Pan Am. But how they came to be involves a military plot, some crop dusters, the Skull & Bones society, the Lusitania, a name change and a boll weevil. It's an amazing story when you hear it all together. 

While many think The Beatles took the world by storm, in reality the world was patiently waiting for them. In this episode we explore Brylcreem, Marlon Brando, the Queen of England, Brian Epstein, Elvis Presley, World War II, JFK, Martin Guitars, the Ed Sullivan Show, the British class system, Liverpool England, Disney, Davy Jones, Hamburg Germany, John, Paul, George and Ringo. 

Were you ever taught in school the impact the clock has made on the world?  Did you know it pretty much changed everything. So much so a Norwegian town tried to abolish time. In today's episode we connect Rolex, Galileo, Christiaan Huygens, The Golden Spike, Benedictine Monks, the US Naval Observatory, John Harrison and the Boer War in tracing the path of the clock. 

The Story of Sixto Rodriguez doesn't start in 1971, it starts with Ghandi and apartheid. In today's episode we look at Paul Simon, Harry Belafonte, The Beatles, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Bob Dylan, the United Nations, Coca-Cola, Ghandi, The Sugarman Sixto Rodriquez and even Rosa Parks. 

In today's episode we look at how it all started.  George Lucas, Thor Heyerdahl, Warren Buffet, James Marshall, Roger Cook, Mt. St. Helens, John Houseman, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Michael Jackson, and Wynton Marsalis all come together for one purpose.  Grab the Star Wars Radio Drama here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kkl2tsaf7tskc2m/AABr6AFIukEYAq7kZitrQERHa?dl=0

Blue is not an easy color to come by in nature. The path to making blue jeans; therefore is an interesting one. In today's episode we reach Levi Strauss, John Hershel, Charles Darwin, the American Revolution, Eli Whitney, the California Gold Rush and ultimately the company whose experiments with Prussian Blue led to murder. 

Is PEACE just a political campaign? How did the Peace sign come to be? In today's episode learn the stance Russia has had on peace. Meet Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the situation with Ukraine's Crimean Coast, the Manhattan Project and hear the words of Russian Premiere Yuri Andropov himself and 11 year old Samantha Smith.

There was a time when a plan was hatched to bomb Woodrow Wilson, but not the way you'd ever think. Today's story involves L. Frank Baum, Edith Wilson, the Statue of Liberty, Wilbur Wright, Oberlin College, Ruth Law, Matilda Jocelyn Gage, the State of Tennessee, and William Boeing. Sit back and enjoy as we celebrate the 19th Amendment. 

W.E.B. Dubois, Abraham Lincoln, A. Philip Randolph, Langston Hughes, Mahalia Jackson, Thomas Dorsey, Harry Belafonte, John D. Rockefeller, and so many others have been fighting for the Dream since 1776. When Martin Luther King gave his speech in Washington, he made sure their voices were heard. 

United States Copyright laws have changed from the beginning, making public domain dates a moving target. This is the story of how Disney built its empire using the public domain as a tool. Disney, A.A. Milne, Mickey Mouse, Jimmy Stewart, and the U.S. Congress.

Much of what you know from the 20th Century can be traced back to McCann Erickson. Everything that seemingly unites those of us with a common 20th Century History can be linked to them . . . even the toppling of a government. If you've seen Mad Men, you've heard them mentioned. But what you didn't learn was the truth about their role and impact on your life. 

Thinking of watching A Charlie Brown Christmas this year? What would be better than a full understanding of how it came to be, starting way back in the 1400s. Learn about Charles Schulz, Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez, Vince Guaraldi, Hans Christian Andersen, Felix Mendelssohn, Saul Zaentz, NASA, Coca-Cola and more. 

Would you ever think Thomas Edison, George Easton, Ian Fleming and Bill Blass all took part in deception? In the World's Greatest Con?  It's the story of James Bond, Inflatable Tanks, Celluloid Film and a WW2 Ghost Army. Sit back and be amazed at this story of America's most respected names.

Would you ever think Thomas Edison, George Easton, Ian Fleming and Bill Blass all took part in deception? In the World's Greatest Con?  It's the story of James Bond, Inflatable Tanks, Celluloid Film and a WW2 Ghost Army. Sit back and be amazed at this story of America's most respected names.

The history of pizza is more than its Naples Origin. You'll be amazed how Mario Puzo, Queen Margherita, Pinocchio, Yogi Berra, Al Capone, The Supreme Court and Sophia Loren all play a part. Today we look at the interconnected history of the world's greatest food (and maybe the Mob). 

The history of pizza is more than its Naples Origin. You'll be amazed how Mario Puzo, Queen Margherita, Pinocchio, Yogi Berra, Al Capone, The Supreme Court and Sophia Loren all play a part. Today we look at the interconnected history of the world's greatest food (and maybe the Mob). 

Could the post office be the single largest cause of America's expansion to Westward?  When you look at it through Maslow's lens, it just may be. Sears, Greeting Cards, Charles Lindbergh, Benjamin Franklin, King William III, the California Gold Rush, the Boston Tea Party . . . and Addressing the Unaddressed in Calcutta. Let's talk about the 7 most important words in the U.S. Constitution.