History | Conversatori

Amanda Hicok on 09/07/2025

Forgotten Revolutions That Shaped the Modern World

Forgotten revolutions—whether in Japan, Haiti, or Harlem—show that transformative change often happens quietly, far from the barricades of history books. These movements, spanning politics, culture, and science, reshaped societies in ways we still live with today. By remembering them, we see that revolutions aren’t always loud, but their impact is undeniable. When we think of revolutions, images of guillotines, storming bastilles, or iconic speeches often come to mind. But the modern world has been shaped just as profoundly by quieter, overlooked revolutions. These are not always the ones that fill history textbooks; rather, they are the movements that quietly rewrote the rules of society, politics, technology, and culture. Understanding them is essential to appreciating the contours of our contemporary lives.

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 08/29/2025

Person From History—Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday rose from poverty to become one of the most influential jazz singers of the twentieth century, known for her haunting voice and ability to transform songs into deeply personal stories. Her performance of “Strange Fruit” made her a pioneering figure in political music, even as racism and government persecution shaped her turbulent life. Despite dying young, her artistry and truth-telling cemented her legacy as Lady Day, a voice that still compels the world to listen. Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, emerged from hardship to become one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the twentieth century. Raised in poverty in Baltimore, her early life was marked by instability, abuse, and the struggle to find stability in a society that offered little support to Black women. Yet, it was precisely from this crucible of pain and resilience that her distinctive artistry would take shape. Holiday’s voice was not trained in the classical sense, but it was…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 08/14/2025

Person From History—Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, the daughter of poet Lord Byron and mathematician Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron, became the world’s first computer programmer through her visionary work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Her detailed annotations, especially Note G, outlined the first algorithm and anticipated computers’ potential to create music, art, and more—decades before modern computing existed. Though overlooked in her lifetime, she is now celebrated as a pioneer whose blend of logic and imagination continues to inspire innovation and women in STEM. Ada Lovelace, born Augusta Ada Byron in 1815, is often hailed as the world’s first computer programmer—a distinction she earned decades before the concept of a “computer” as we know it even existed. The only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and his mathematically inclined wife, Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron, Ada was set apart early in life by her mother’s determination to nurture her in logic and mathematics rather…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 08/02/2025

Person From History—Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria was a brilliant 4th-century philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer who taught Neoplatonic philosophy in a time of religious and political upheaval. Revered for her intellect and virtue, she became a symbol of classical wisdom during the rise of Christianity. Her violent death at the hands of a Christian mob marked a turning point in the decline of ancient intellectual traditions. Today, Hypatia remains an icon of reason, courage, and the enduring struggle for free thought. In the waning days of the Roman Empire, when the old gods were giving way to new religions and philosophy teetered on the edge of theological dogma, a woman named Hypatia stood as a symbol of intellectual resilience. Born in the 4th century CE in the Egyptian city of Alexandria—a city famed for its great library and vibrant confluence of cultures—Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. Unusually for her time, she was not only well-educated but revered as a public…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 07/31/2025

Wisdom from Forgotten Civilizations

Mainstream philosophy often overlooks the rich wisdom of ancient, non-Western civilizations. Cultures like the Indus Valley, Nok, Aboriginal Australians, and the Moche expressed deep philosophical insights through architecture, ritual, and art rather than texts. Their worldviews emphasized ecological balance, community ethics, and spiritual interconnectedness. Rediscovering these forgotten philosophies offers a broader, more inclusive understanding of human thought. A rendering of an Indus Valley civilization.

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 07/27/2025

How Civilizations Collapse and Rise Again

Civilizations rise and fall through a mix of environmental pressures, internal mismanagement, and shifting complexity. Collapse often unfolds slowly, and while devastating, it can lead to transformation rather than extinction. History shows that human societies are both fragile and adaptable, capable of rebuilding in novel forms. In facing modern challenges, our task is to learn from the dust of empires past—to innovate before the unraveling begins. Satdeep Gill, Angkor Wat with its reflection (cropped), CC BY-SA 4.0

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 07/25/2025

Person From History—Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir was a groundbreaking French philosopher and feminist who reshaped modern thought on gender, freedom, and ethics. Best known for The Second Sex, she argued that womanhood is socially constructed, not biologically fixed. Her activism, literature, and existential philosophy made her one of the 20th century’s most influential thinkers. Through bold theory and public action, Beauvoir challenged society to confront its treatment of women, aging, and human responsibility. Simone de Beauvoir never intended to be remembered merely as “Sartre’s companion.” A towering intellect in her own right, she was a writer, philosopher, and feminist icon who reshaped 20th-century thought about gender, freedom, and responsibility. Her work, particularly The Second Sex, didn’t just critique society—it cracked it open. Born in 1908 in Paris to a bourgeois family, she defied her conservative upbringing by pursuing rigorous philosophical training and entering the elite…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 07/21/2025

Operation Paperclip: From Hitler's Labs to NASA

Operation Paperclip was a secret U.S. program that brought over 1,600 Nazi-affiliated scientists to America after WWII. These scientists, including Wernher von Braun, helped advance military and space technology. The program prioritized Cold War advantage over moral accountability, often hiding the participants’ Nazi ties. Its legacy remains controversial as a symbol of ethical compromise in the name of national interest. Arliebright, Karl Baur with Werner Von Braun, CC BY-SA 4.0

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 07/10/2025

Person From History—Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu, a legendary Chinese strategist, authored The Art of War, a timeless guide to strategy and leadership. His teachings emphasize intelligence, adaptability, and psychological insight over brute force. Rooted in Daoist philosophy, his legacy has influenced military, political, and business thinking across centuries. Even in the modern age, Sun Tzu’s wisdom remains a sharp lens through which to view power and conflict. Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese military strategist and philosopher, is best known as the author of The Art of War, a timeless treatise on strategy, leadership, and conflict. Thought to have lived during the Eastern Zhou period (approximately 544–496 BCE), his life and identity are the subject of both historical reverence and scholarly debate. Despite the uncertainties surrounding his biography, the influence of his work has echoed through millennia, shaping not only the battlefields of ancient China but also the boardrooms and political arenas of the modern…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 06/10/2025

The Lost Cities Under Our Feet

Modern cities are built atop ancient ones, with layers of forgotten civilizations lying just beneath our feet. These buried cities, from Rome to Mexico City, reveal the continuity—and fragility—of human settlement. Urban stratification turns excavation into time travel, raising questions about memory, progress, and what we choose to preserve. In every subway dig or street repaving, the past murmurs back. Beneath the bustling sidewalks of our modern metropolises lie ruins more ancient than our streetlights, subways, or Starbucks. The ground beneath our soles often hides entire cities—once-vibrant hubs of culture, commerce, and conquest—now entombed by time and concrete. From the submerged alleys of ancient Alexandria to the Roman villas under London’s financial district, modern civilization isn’t built next to history; it’s built on top of it. Quite literally, our skyscrapers are standing on the shoulders of buried giants.

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 06/05/2025

Person from History—Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant scientist whose X-ray work captured the iconic Photograph 51, crucial to the discovery of DNA’s double helix. Her contributions were overshadowed by Watson and Crick, who used her data without permission. Despite being denied recognition in her lifetime, Franklin's legacy has since been restored as a pioneering force in molecular biology. Her story is both a cautionary tale and a celebration of scientific brilliance. When we talk about DNA, names like James Watson and Francis Crick typically get all the spotlight—and occasionally a Nobel Prize. But in the shadow of the double helix stands Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray crystallography work provided the crucial photographic evidence that made their model possible. Franklin wasn’t just the woman with the microscope; she was the scientist who literally illuminated the shape of life. Yet for decades, she was relegated to a scientific footnote—until historians, feminists, and frankly, people with…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 05/20/2025

Person from History—Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo turned her suffering into revolutionary art, using self-portraiture to explore identity, pain, and Mexican nationalism. Her bold aesthetic defied gender expectations and reshaped the role of the female body in visual culture. Though often mythologized, Kahlo's power lies in her unapologetic self-definition. She remains a complex icon who painted not dreams, but uncompromising reality. Few artists have become as iconic and as intimately studied as Frida Kahlo. Her striking self-portraits, political defiance, and unapologetic exploration of gender, pain, and national identity place her at a crossroads of personal vulnerability and cultural resistance. Born in 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico, Kahlo lived a life riddled with physical suffering—first from polio as a child, and later from a horrific bus accident at 18 that left her with chronic pain and a lifetime of surgeries. Yet, it was through this suffering that Kahlo carved out her visual language, one that is as raw as it is…

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 04/30/2025

Person from History — Jonas Salk

Jonas Salk was the pioneering scientist who developed the first effective polio vaccine in 1955, using a killed-virus method that proved both safe and groundbreaking. His work led to a dramatic decline in polio cases and helped pave the way for near-global eradication of the disease. Salk famously chose not to patent the vaccine, prioritizing public health over profit. He later founded the Salk Institute and remained dedicated to medical research until his death in 1995. In an era when polio struck fear into families across the globe, Jonas Salk emerged as a scientific hero. His groundbreaking development of the first effective polio vaccine in 1955 changed the course of public health, turning the tide on one of the most devastating diseases of the 20th century. But Salk was more than a brilliant virologist—he was a humanitarian whose commitment to the greater good continues to inspire.

Amanda Hicok

Amanda Hicok on 04/19/2025

Person From History — Marie Curie

Marie Curie was a groundbreaking scientist who became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win in both Physics and Chemistry. She discovered the elements polonium and radium, pioneered research on radioactivity, and helped develop X-ray technology. Despite facing gender-based barriers, Curie’s resilience and brilliance left a lasting legacy in science and medicine. Marie Curie was not just a brilliant scientist—she was a trailblazer whose work continues to influence science, medicine, and the role of women in academia. Born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867, she rose from modest beginnings to become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize—and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields: Physics and Chemistry.

Amanda Hicok