BAM. World's Fastest Centenarian

Indy 500. 3.2 Million Bricks!

How a 1909 disaster, 63 days, and 3.2 million bricks built the most kissed surface in American sports. Five people died on the opening weekend of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. The track founders had two months to fix it before everything they had built collapsed. Their answer: 3.2 million bricks, hand-placed in 63 days. This is how the Brickyard got its name and why three feet of those bricks still remain. When the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in August 1909, the racing surface was a mix of crushed limestone, gravel, and tar. Within two days, the surface broke apart at racing speed. A wheel came off Wilfred Bourque's car and he died when it hit a fence post. Charlie Merz's car shredded a tire and flew into the crowd, killing two spectators. By the end of the opening weekend, five people were dead, including the two paying customers. The AAA threatened to ban racing at IMS. Indiana's lieutenant governor wanted racing outlawed across the entire state. The four Speedway founders had two months to find an answer or lose everything. Their answer was bricks. 3.2 million of them. Laid by hand in 63 days. Plus a 33-inch concrete wall to protect the spectators. The final brick, laid on December 14, 1909, was made of solid gold. In this episode: Why the original 1909 surface failed Why bricks beat concrete and asphalt for that specific moment The math of 50,000 bricks per day, by hand The story of the 33-inch concrete wall, the first permanent spectator barrier at any American racetrack The 1961 decision to pave over almost all of it The 36 inches that remained, and the spontaneous joke between two friends that became the most kissed surface in American sports Sources include the IMS Museum, the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Brickhunter, Burns Stainless, First Super Speedway, History.com, and WISH-TV's 2025 reporting on the Turn 2 excavation that uncovered original 1909 bricks for the first time since 1937. Full bibliography in the show notes and teacher curriculum. Hosted and produced by Anthony McDonald in Indianapolis, Indiana. Part of the Learn.WitUS curriculum platform. Full teacher curriculum, worksheets, knowledge checks, and Indiana Academic Standards alignment available free at the course page. Episode 3, "Voices in the Air," releases next week. 3.2 million bricks, Yard of Bricks, Brickyard, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS, civil engineering, materials science, Wabash Clay, Dale Jarrett, kissing the bricks, Indiana history, educational podcast

Indy 500 The Race That Started It All

A high school classroom docuseries about the Indianapolis 500. Four men, one cornfield, and a 31-year-old engineer who put the first rearview mirror on a car. How the Indianapolis 500 began on May 30, 1911. On May 30, 1911, eighty thousand people watched Ray Harroun win the first Indianapolis 500. He drove a yellow-and-black single-seater called the Marmon Wasp, with a small mirror bolted above the steering wheel. It is believed to be the first rearview mirror ever mounted on an automobile. This is how it started. In 1908, Indianapolis did not have a racetrack. Four men changed that. Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby, and Frank Wheeler bought 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of downtown for $72,000 and built a 2.5-mile oval. Three years later, on May 30, 1911, a 31-year-old engineer named Ray Harroun crossed the finish line first in a yellow-and-black car called the Marmon Wasp. He had designed it himself. He had also bolted a small mirror above the steering wheel, copying an idea from a horse-drawn taxi he had once seen in Chicago. It is believed to be the first rearview mirror ever mounted on an automobile. This episode covers: Why four Indianapolis businessmen built a private racetrack in 1909 Why the original gravel-and-tar surface killed five people on opening weekend How Ray Harroun's engineering mindset changed motorsports forever The math of the 1911 race compared to a modern Indy 500 One specific habit you can borrow from a man who lived more than 100 years ago Sources include History.com, the IMS Museum, Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, the 1911 Indianapolis 500 entry on Wikipedia (citing primary sources), The Henry Ford collection, and Marmon Holdings corporate history. Full bibliography in the show notes and teacher curriculum. Hosted and produced by Anthony McDonald in Indianapolis, Indiana. Part of the Learn.WitUS curriculum platform. Full teacher curriculum, worksheets, knowledge checks, and Indiana Academic Standards alignment available free at the course page. Episode 2, "3.2 Million Bricks," releases next week.

Stories in Every Cup. The Morning Ritual

How a 6:30 AM cup of coffee carries 1,000 years of Ethiopian tradition, colonial history, and the power to vote with your wallet every morning. Welcome to Better Vice Club, Season 1, Episode 1. Host Anthony McDonald opens his kitchen at 6:30 AM and pulls apart the most ordinary moment of the day — making coffee — to reveal something extraordinary underneath. In this episode, you will travel from the Ethiopian highlands, where the Oromo people created the first coffee ceremonies over 1,000 years ago, to the 17th-century European coffeehouses where the American Revolution was planned over shared cups. You will learn the geography of the Coffee Belt (25°N to 30°S), the economics of a $4 latte (the farmer gets $0.12), and the cultural difference between Ethiopian Buna ceremony and your local drive-thru. This is more than a podcast about a drink. It is an invitation to see your morning routine as a daily vote for the kind of world you want to live in. Whether you support fair trade, direct trade, or commodity coffee, your choice ripples back to farmers in Colombia, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. Better Vice Club is an educational podcast for high school students, teachers, and curious adults, aligned to Indiana Academic Standards across Geography, Social Studies, Economics, and English Language Arts. New episodes weekly.

FlashLearnAI How to Start a Flashcard Study Session

I've been building. I built a flashcard app to help me learn and keep my brain sharp on my centenarian journey. FlashLearnAI turns any source (PDF, image, YouTube, audio) into AI-generated flashcards and schedules reviews with spaced repetition. Free to start. Public REST API. Multiplayer Versus Mode for study groups. FlashLearnAI-Flashcards & Spaced Recall Smart flashcards from any PDF, video, or audio. #ShopWitUS #GroWitUS #StudyPrep #Finals #Study #Flashcards #ForeignLanguage

BVC Stories in Every Cup The Morning Ritual

How a 6:30 AM cup of coffee carries 1,000 years of Ethiopian tradition, colonial history, and the power to vote with your wallet every morning. Welcome to Better Vice Club, Season 1, Episode 1. Host Brand Anthony McDonald opens his kitchen at 6:30 AM and pulls apart the most ordinary moment of the day, making coffee, to reveal something extraordinary underneath. In this episode, you will travel from the Ethiopian highlands, where the Oromo people created the first coffee ceremonies over 1,000 years ago, to the 17th-century European coffeehouses where the American Revolution was planned over shared cups. You will learn the geography of the Coffee Belt (25°N to 30°S), the economics of a $4 latte (the farmer gets $0.12), and the cultural difference between Ethiopian Buna ceremony and your local drive-thru. This is more than a podcast about a drink. It is an invitation to see your morning routine as a daily vote for the kind of world you want to live in. Whether you support fair trade, direct trade, or commodity coffee, your choice ripples back to farmers in Colombia, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. Better Vice Club is an educational podcast for high school students, teachers, and curious adults, aligned to Indiana Academic Standards across Geography, Social Studies, Economics, and English Language Arts. New episodes weekly.