4.2 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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0:00.0 | Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast. |
0:08.0 | Haley's comet visits the Earth every 75 years. |
0:11.0 | Until the modern era, humans thought they were a sign from the gods, or later on, an important |
0:15.7 | astrological event. |
0:16.7 | In 1705, Edmund Haley, three humanity from these superstitions, proving that Newtonian |
0:22.0 | physics brought comets past Earth rather than the will of God. |
0:25.7 | But despite these scientific advances, when Haley's comet returned in 1910, and astronomers |
0:30.4 | announced that Earth would pass through its poisonous tail, newspapers went all out sensational, |
0:35.7 | claiming that this could be the end of humanity itself, resulted in tragic consequences. |
0:40.2 | The frenzy, sparked by medium manipulation, resulted in all sorts of huxer schemes like |
0:44.8 | comet insurance for level ones that might die by being struck, or comet pills that would |
0:49.8 | protect its user from poisonous gases. |
0:52.2 | Those who sincerely thought they were in danger listened to preachers who claimed that |
0:56.0 | the comet resembled a prophecy from the book of revelations about stars falling from |
0:59.8 | the sky. |
1:00.8 | Workman shell their tools, farmers refuse to plant crops they would never harvest, and |
1:04.3 | people stop paying their creditors. |
1:05.9 | Today's episode I'm speaking with Richard Goodrich, author of comet madness, at the 1910 |
1:10.8 | return of Haley's comet almost destroyed civilization. |
1:13.6 | We look at how in an era of scientific progress and education, people still fell to superstitions, |
1:18.7 | and how that same instinct lives in us today, and how we can react better to natural disasters |
1:23.2 | like this. |
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