Natural Curiosity

Dr. Steve is a natural Silverback!

This podcast is a balanced, straightforward presentation of scientific and historical information, presented with just the right seasoning of personality. Too many podcasts produced by the corporate media world substitute sound effects and forced laughter to create engagement. Steve does it the old-fashioned way, by finding interesting information and stories (and guests) then presenting it all without clutter. This podcast is really well-edited and produced. Give the good doctor an ear!

Here is his description of the episode:

“A couple of weeks ago, I was looking through some photographs, and I came across some pictures I took of the Goodyear Blimp, anchored in Carson, California, right next to the freeway.

Those pictures got me thinking. What must it have been like to fly in the big dirigibles of the 1930s, those gigantic, hydrogen-filled airships that were sometimes called flying ocean liners? People took long trips on those things—and not a few people. By the time the Hindenburg met its fiery end in New Jersey, more than 3,500 people had made commercial flights aboard the Hindenburg or its sister ship, the Graf Zeppelin; in fact, when the Hindenburg burned, it was in its second season of transatlantic flight.

In this episode, we talk about life aboard these behemoths, as John Geoghegan refers to them in his book about these massive airships, When Giants Ruled the Sky. John Geoghegan agreed to join me on this program, as did Alexander Rose, whose book, Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men’s Epic Duel to Rule the World, tells the story of the battle between zeppelins and airplanes in the early days of commercial flight.”

You’ll find yourself wondering why there aren’t passenger dirigibles shuttling back and forth between New York and Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, Portland and Seattle …