The Song of Urania Podcast
1) Episode 47: Clock Around the Rock
We turn to the astronomy of Mesoamerica, with a particular focus on the Maya and Aztec. The central feature of their astronomy was a pair of interlocking calendars which regulated all aspects of life....Show More
2) Episode 46: The Stars from Starboard
The most important application of astronomy in Polynesian societies was oceanic navigation. Polynesian navigators regularly traversed from one small island to another across hundreds of miles of open ...Show More
3) Episode 45: Looking Up Down Under
Aboroginal Australian societies are believed to be among the oldest continuous cultures on the planet. Some of their oral traditions appear to preserve a cultural memory of celestial events from multi...Show More
4) Episode 44: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam Per Astra
In his second attempt, Matteo Ricci was able to gain access to the Forbidden City. Over the next century, the Jesuits came to surprising influence in China through their knowledge of European astronom...Show More
5) Episode 43: When the Saint Comes Marching In
After the fall of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty drove the few small Nestorian Christian communities in China underground and largely closed China off to foreigners. Only in the 16th centu...Show More
6) Episode 42: A Tale of Two Reforms
After Wang Mang had usurped the Imperial throne, a disastrous series of reforms led to the collapse of his dynasty. The reestablishment of the Han Dynasty called for yet another calendar reform. About...Show More
7) Episode 41: Liu Xin's Theory of Everything
After Wang Mang deposed the Han Dynasty and instituted his new Xin Dynasty, he needed to promulgate a new calendar to mark the occasion. One of his court astronomers, Liu Xin, developed a new calendar...Show More
8) Episode 40: Emperor Wu's Woo
We learn about the political events and omens that led to the calendar reform of 104 BC.
9) Episode 39: The Guest Stars
We turn to the ways that the Chinese Emperor's astronomers predicted and interpreted eclipses, as well as the so-called "guest stars" that they occasionally reported observing in the skies. Then we di...Show More
10) Episode 38: The Organization of Heaven & Earth
This month we turn to the astronomy of China in the early Imperial Era. We look at the way that the Emperor's astronomers were organized within the imperial bureaucracy and then walk through the three...Show More