To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here A melted candy bar revolutionized your kitchen. At the Raytheon Corporation in 1945, during the final year of World War II, Dr. Percy Spencer was tasked with improving radar technology. He was working with magnetrons – vacuum tubes that generated powerful microwave radiation. One day, while standing near a magnetron, Spencer… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In many generations, being a teenager has been tough. It’s just possible that the present moment in American cultural history might be the toughest of all. According to a recent report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 13% of high school-age girls have attempted to take their own… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Martin Frobisher couldn’t believe his luck. He was already celebrated as one of England’s most daring and accomplished sailors. He had helped vanquish the Spanish Armada that had tried to invade England in 1588. In the service of Queen Elizabeth I, he had searched for the Northwest Passage, that mystical pathway… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Imagine that every time you drive your car a quarter of a mile you have to rebuild its engine. That’s the challenge of managing a Top Fuel dragster, those needle-nosed top-of-the-line acceleration machines. Top Fuel dragsters aren’t built in dusty garages by tinkerers. They are birthed by engineers and skilled technicians… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1885, Tsar Alexander III placed an order for an Easter gift for his wife. It wasn’t just any Easter gift. The leader of Russia’s royal family asked the master jeweler Peter Carl Faberge to create something special. Something fit for an empress. The result was a white enamel Easter egg,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There’s an old story about a businessman who got quite a surprise when he was served his in-flight dinner. Tucked into the corner of his reheated food tray was a roach. That experience did more than just kill his appetite. It prompted him to write a sharply worded letter to the airline’s… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s the biggest moment of your life. It’s just you and the goalkeeper, who is standing 12 yards away. The soccer goal he’s guarding is 24 feet across and 8 feet high. Will you hit the penalty shot that will win the World Cup for your country – eternally ensuring your… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In his book The Greatest War Stories Never Told, Rick Beyer describes the fateful charge of Pickett’s Brigade on July 3, the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg: With tens of thousands watching in awe, these brave men set off beneath the fierce afternoon sun. A mile of farm fields… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The first fight of the Founding Fathers was about faith. The inaugural session of the Continental Congress – the group that would ultimately call for the drafting of the Declaration of Independence – convened in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, on September 6, 1774. Thomas Cushing, a lawyer from Boston, moved that the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When America’s ragtag revolutionary army faced one of its darkest moments, George Washington brought out his secret weapon. His eyeglasses. Things had gone unaccountably well for the colonists in their struggle against the British army, the world’s most elite fighting force. By the spring of 1783, treaty negotiations would soon guarantee America’s… Read more »
