Episode 23

Ultima Thule (Episode 8) - To The Ends of the Earth (Parts 1 & 2)

Published on: 12th September, 2023

Today, we take what we know about the sky for granted but for most of humanity it was a mysterious black abyss. Just like an eclipse a new object appearing in the sky became associated with all sorts of good and bad omens. So when was it that we collectively began to understand the heavens? In her amazing book, Chasing Venus, Andrea Wulf makes a case that it truly began in the 1760s when scientists from all over the world came together to work together, even between warring nations, so that they could answer an age-old question - how far away is the Sun from the Earth? And the only theorized way to do this was to have eyes ready and waiting all over the planet to glimpse Venus crossing the face of the Sun. They traveled as far as Siberia, St. Helena, South Africa, California, and even Tahiti. Wulf brought this nearly forgotten story back from obscurity and I add some further insight that I found researching these historic figures. This episode is proof that astronomers can and do have an adventurous side. (8/29)

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No Character Limit
No Character Limit is a podcast to thoughtfully explore interesting and diverse topics without the constraints of character limits or the need to always be right. In an age where nuance is lost, anger and outrage are monetized, and entertainment supersedes knowledge, No Character Limit embraces the lost art of research-based longform discussion. An escape from specialization, compartmentalization, and quantification, join host Robert Thuerck as he dares give voice to thoughts across a spectrum of interests, holistic perspectives, and qualitative measures - without sacrificing expert and professional guidance. Are we as a species addicted to fire? Did the moon actually stop a war? Who wins when a magician goes up against a fortune teller? What caused the greatest mass extinction of all time? Find out all of this and more while learning something new - not only about the greater world around us - but hopefully about yourself... when you join in and listen to No Character Limit.
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Robert Thuerck

Robert Thuerck is a Special Education teacher in Western New York with an undergrad in English Education. He specializes in crisis prevention and has a history of working with students in alternative education placements who didn't find success in mainstream schooling. In his free time he has researched and written about a myriad of topics which resulted in the independent project of No Character Limit.