Next Episode:
New episode date is not available for now
Episode Statistics:
# of Episodes: 131
# of Episodes I watched: 0
# of Episodes I haven't watched: 131
Last Episode I watched: -
Episode Summaries
Select Season:
My Season Progress:
0 %
Season 1
Episode 44: Controlling An Airport From 80 Miles Away
Air Date: January 29th, 2018
Summary: London City Airport's getting a new control tower - but it's just going to be a large mast with 14 high-definition cameras on it. The actual tower will be 80 miles away, in the headquarters of NATS near Swanwick. It feels questionable - but is it? Thanks to all the team at NATS - you can find out more about the new tower here - https -//www.nats.aero/services/airports/digital-remote-towers/ Edited by Michelle Martin, @mrsmmartin London camera by Matt Gray, http -//mattg.co.uk I'm at http -//tomscott
Episode 45: The European City Centre With No Street Names
Air Date: February 19th, 2018
Summary: In the Quadratestadt of Mannheim, Germany, the streets aren't named - instead, the blocks are. It's an exception to a rule that most people don't even think about — especially not mapping companies. (Thanks to João Correia for sending me this idea back in 2015!) I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http -//facebook.com/tomscott and on Snapchat and Instagram as tomscottgo
Episode 46: The 1940s Mermaid Show That's Still Pulling Crowds
Air Date: March 26th, 2018
Summary: In Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, Florida, there's a mermaid show -- and there has been for 70 years. It's one of the United States' oldest roadside attractions, and it still does three shows a day. At least, provided the local wildlife doesn't get in the way. Weeki Wachee Springs State Park - https -//weekiwachee.com/ Their YouTube channel - https -//www.youtube.com/user/weekiwacheesprings Articles on the mermaid auditions - https -//www.teenvogue.com/story/weeki-wachee-springs-state-park-is-hold
Episode 47: The US President's Bulletproof Railcar
Air Date: April 2nd, 2018
Summary: US Car Number 1, the Ferdinand Magellan, sits in the Gold Coast Railway Museum in Miami. It's 120 tonnes of bulletproof, armoured railcar - a train carriage designed to move the President of the United States around the country in safety and style. At least, it was, until other transport came along to do a better job. Thanks to all the team at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum - they're at http -//www.gcrm.org/, or on Facebook at https -//www.facebook.com/GoldCoastRailroad/ ! [looks like their main si
Episode 48: A Town Called Asbestos
Air Date: May 21st, 2018
Summary: In Quebec, Canada, there's a town called Asbestos. It's an alarming name, one that conjures up images of lung disease and mesothelioma. So now that the town's asbestos mine, once the largest asbestos mine in the world, has closed... why haven't they changed the name? Dr Jessica van Horssen's book, "A Town Called Asbestos", was invaluable for my research. Its ISBN is 9780774828420, and it can be ordered from most libraries and bookstores. Her five-part YouTube series starts here - https -//www.yo
Episode 49: The US-Canada Border Splits This Road Down The Middle
Air Date: May 28th, 2018
Summary: Rue Canusa (or Canusa Avenue) is a street that's split in two by a border - the northern part is in Stanstead, Canada, and the southern part is in Derby Line, USA — and border crossings here aren't as easy as they used to be. Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http -//facebook.com/tomscott and on Snapchat and Instagram as tomscottgo
Episode 50: The Town That Was Burned for Science - Aultsville
Air Date: June 4th, 2018
Summary: Thanks to Betty from Articulations! Go see her video on the ISO Standard Exit Sign here - https -//youtu.be/i5uSlAw8U9s - and pull down this description for links to all her sources. The St Lawrence Burns were a series of deliberate fires in the soon-to-be-demolished village of Aultsville, Ontario, which was due to be flooded to make way for the St Lawrence Seaway. The results changed the way buildings are constructed around the world, and saved lives. SOURCES - Setting Fires for Science (1958) -
Episode 51: Freezing 200,000 Tons of Lethal Arsenic Dust
Air Date: June 18th, 2018
Summary: Giant Mine sits near Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Once it was a productive gold mine, but after the gold ran out, the mining company went bankrupt and left the government to clean up the mess - enough arsenic trioxide dust to kill everyone on Earth. The solution - freezing it, at least for now. Thanks to all the team at the Giant Mine Remediation Project! More about them - http -//www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027364/1100100027365 The history of Giant Mine and the local
Episode 52: The New Highway to the Arctic Ocean
Air Date: June 25th, 2018
Summary: Until recently, Canada didn't have a road link to the Arctic Ocean. But last year, the all-weather Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway opened, which meant that finally the country was connected "from sea to sea to sea". I set out to drive it, but it didn't quite go how I planned. Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http -//facebook.com/tomscott and on Snapchat and Instagram as tomscottgo
Episode 53: Watching for Nuclear Attack at the Top of the World
Air Date: July 2nd, 2018
Summary: In the far north of Canada sit the DEW Line stations - "Distant Early Warning". Built in the 1950s, these were the sites that would have sounded the alarm if the Soviet Union ever attacked North America. Or at least, they were until they went obsolete just a few years later. This video relies on public domain archive footage from - DEW Line Story (1958) - https -//archive.org/details/dew_line_story_1 https -//archive.org/details/dew_line_story_2 Atlas the ICBM (1957) - https -//archive.org/details/342
Episode 54: Testing The Sound Mirrors That Protected Britain
Air Date: August 6th, 2018
Summary: Over on the RAF Starrship channel, I'm talking about the history of radar - https -//youtu.be/VDC_RCh0ws8 - but over here, we're testing a 90-year-old piece of technology that was meant to be part of Britain's air defence. The Sound Mirrors, on Romney Marsh, were built in the late 1920s as a way to amplify the sound from aircraft engines over the English Channel. We're flying a bit closer than that, with a drone. STARRSHIP - Instagram - https -//www.instagram.com/starrshiphope/ Facebook - https -//www
Episode 55: I Hit 3,000-Year-Old Art with a Hammer
Air Date: August 13rd, 2018
Summary: The White Horse, in Uffington, is one of the oldest surviving works of art in Britain - carved into a hillside in Oxfordshire 3,000 years ago. Every year, it's rechalked by volunteers co-ordinated through the National Trust, a line of maintenance going back to before England had written history. Thanks to all the National Trust team! If you're free over the August bank holiday and fancy helping out, here's the link! https -//www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/9220f3c2-d50f-4a9e-9063-8d9346ed5da9/pag
Episode 56: Testing The World's Longest Echo
Air Date: November 19th, 2018
Summary: Technically, the Inchindown oil tanks in Invergordon, Scotland, have the world's longest reverberation, but that makes a much worse title. We tested them with a loud noise and some very sensitive microphones. Matt's musical experiments - https -//www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzMVJkTjKNc Behind the scenes on the Matt and Tom channel - https -//www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4qplnaPjbk Thanks to Allan, Alan and Preston for all their help on the day, and to landowners the Bannerman Group for allowing us access!
Episode 57: An American Stonehenge - The Mysterious Georgia Guidestones
Air Date: November 26th, 2018
Summary: In a field near Elberton, Georgia, USA, sit a set of mysterious standing stones - mysterious not because they're ancient, but because they were funded by someone anonymous in 1980, perhaps as a message to any survivors of the end of the world. I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http -//facebook.com/tomscott and on Instagram as tomscottgo The closing music is "Nearer My God To Thee", recorded by the US Marine Band c.1896, from the USCB Cylinder Aud
Episode 58: The City of Golf Carts
Air Date: December 10th, 2018
Summary: Some American cities use buses, or trams, or trains. Peachtree City, Georgia, has a different solution - it's not quite public transit, but a hundred miles of golf cart tracks helps to keep cars off the road. More about Peachtree City - https -//www.peachtree-city.org/ and https -//visitpeachtreecity.com Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) With thanks to Titan Miller for emailing me the idea, back in 2017! I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at htt
Episode 59: The Canyon That Humans Made By Accident
Air Date: December 24th, 2018
Summary: The tourist guides promote it as Georgia's Little Grand Canyon - but this is a scar on the Earth, caused by humans either not understanding or not caring about geology. Is it natural? Or man-made? Or both? I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http -//facebook.com/tomscott and on Instagram as tomscottgo
Episode 60: The Broken Building That Must Not Be Destroyed
Air Date: March 4th, 2019
Summary: St Peter's Seminary sits in woodland about an hour west of Glasgow, near a village called Cardross. If you like Brutalist architecture, then it's a beautiful ruin - if not, then perhaps your view isn't so kind. It's a historic, religious building - but it's also a money sink that can't be demolished. My thanks to Ronnie Convery at the Archdiocese of Glasgow! Edited by Michelle Martin, @mrsmmartin I'm at http -//tomscott.com on Twitter at http -//twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http -//facebook
Episode 61: The Last Play-For-Cash Fascination Parlor
Air Date: March 11st, 2019
Summary: On Nantasket Beach in the seaside town of Hull, Massachusetts, sits the last play-for-cash Fascination Parlor in the world. It's a century-old arcade game, made of relays that click and buzz. There are a few other parlors left in the world - but this is the only one where you're playing for actual money.
Episode 62: The Sculpture That Looks Like A Real-Life Cartoon
Air Date: April 22nd, 2019
Summary: Gibbs Farm, in New Zealand, is an enormous private sculpture collection. Its most famous piece is Horizons, by Neil Dawson - and it looks like a cartoon tissue somehow painted onto the landscape. To see it in person, though, will take a bit of effort.
Episode 64: The Circle Visible From Space
Air Date: May 20th, 2019
Summary: Mount Taranaki, on the North Island of New Zealand, is a large-scale circle that's visible from space - a stratovolcano with six miles of forest around it. But that didn't happen naturally. Oh, and there's a good chance that, in the next fifty years or so, it might explode.
Episode 65: The One-Lane Bridge Shared By Cars And Trains
Air Date: June 10th, 2019
Summary: Near Hindon, on the South Island of New Zealand, there's one of only two remaining one-lane road-rail bridges in the country. No barriers, no lights, no sirens - if you're driving across this, you need to make sure to listen out for the train horn.
Episode 67: The Giant Underground Tunnels Protecting Tokyo From Floods
Air Date: July 8th, 2019
Summary: If you believe the hype, then the Metropolitan Area Underground Discharge Channel stops Tokyo flooding. It doesn't. But it is one colossal part of a huge network of flood defences that protect a city that would otherwise be... well, very wet.
Episode 68: The Only Bit Of Louisiana's Coast That Isn't Sinking
Air Date: September 9th, 2019
Summary: On a coastline that's steadily sinking under the waves, the Wax Lake Delta is rising - which is a wonderful thing for researchers.Historically, every time humans try and mess with the Mississippi, there have been unintended consequences - and even though we can now model it fairly well, there are still surprises.
Episode 70: Inside The Tunnels That Will Store Nuclear Waste For 100,000 Years
Air Date: September 30th, 2019
Summary: Onkalo, on the Finnish island of Olkiluoto, is planned to be the first geologic storage facility for high-level nuclear waste - eventually sealed for 100,000 years. I got to see inside.
Episode 71: The Giant Art That Keeps Planes Quiet
Air Date: October 21st, 2019
Summary: Next to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is the Buitenschot Land Art Park, a giant set of ridges and furrows cut into the landscape. Yes, it's art - but it also stops some local residents from being exposed to jet noise.
Episode 73: Why The World's Littlest Skyscraper Was A Massive Scam
Air Date: December 16th, 2019
Summary: In Wichita Falls, Texas, the Newby-McMahon Building stands 480 inches tall. Not 480 feet - 480 inches. There's a story of a smooth-talking scammer that sounds almost too good to be true. But is it?
Episode 74: The Bridge That's In Two Countries At The Same Time
Air Date: January 27th, 2020
Summary: Schengen is a small town in Luxembourg, on the borders with France and Germany. But one of those borders is a little more complicated - the Mosel (or Moselle) river is a condominium, it belongs to both countries at the same time. And thus, so the bridges above it.
I'm not 100% happy with the research in this video, because it was put together quickly and, through necessity of language, from English-speaking secondary sources. However, Frank Jacobs in the New York Times on condominiums, talks about the history of the treaties - https -//opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...
and that's confirmed by a reference in Freshwater Boundaries Revisited - Recent Developments in International River Law by María Querol, which quotes Bernhardt's Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Vol 111, p465.
Interestingly, the borders on Google Maps, Bing Maps and OpenStreetMap all take different (and sometimes nonsensical) twists and turns, so I've chosen to illustrate the simplest example.
Episode 75: Why The Dutch Headwind Cycling Championships Are Difficult And Amazing
Air Date: February 10th, 2020
Summary: About once a year, on the Oosterscheldekering barrier in the south of the Netherlands, there is NK Tegenwindfietsen - a bicycle race cycling into a headwind. This year it was 120km/h - this is why it's so difficult, and also why it's so brilliant.
Episode 76: The Country Where All Public Transit Is Free
Air Date: February 24th, 2020
Summary: From March 1st 2020, Luxembourg will have free public transit throughout the country - you'll be able to travel on buses, trains, trams, and that one funicular railway without a ticket. It sounds like a good idea - but is it?
Episode 78: The World's First Internet Bench
Air Date: June 15th, 2020
Summary: In the Abbey Gardens of Bury St Edmunds, in a quiet corner of a park, sits the World's First Internet Bench. Well, sort of. It's been nearly twenty years, and it's arguable whether it ever did the job in the first place...
Episode 79: The Abandoned Hill With Two Members Of Parliament
Air Date: July 6th, 2020
Summary: Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, is a now-desolate hillfort run by English Heritage. But it was once one of the most important sites in southern England - so important that it had two members of Parliament. Then, it became a "rotten borough" - and a warning about power.
Episode 80: Is The Most Northern Part Of Iceland Still There?
Air Date: August 17th, 2020
Summary: Kolbeinsey is the most northern part of Iceland, a tiny island that, according to Wikipedia, is due to disappear due to wave erosion "probably around the year 2020". Which raised an obvious question - is it still there?
Information about series and episodes are provided by TMDB API. If you think that episode information is wrong or missing, please click here to request an update. After your request, update process can take up to 30 minutes.