The Sun Also Rises

The post-World War II rebuilding and reeducation of Germany and Japan contains lessons that remain as relevant as ever, especially at this time of year, when we look forward to a time when the entire world will need to be rebuilt out of the ashes and reeducated.

This episode shines the spotlight on the Star Spangled Banner.

In this episode, guest host Mr. Joel Hilliker shares some profound and inspiring lessons from the Revolutionary War.

We’ve seen the grainy video footage of Neil Armstrong, and heard the recording of his famous words about the “small step.” In our imaginations, this unbelievable achievement has essentially been distilled down to that. But it was the result of a massive team of people laboring for a decade on an effort unlike anything that came before it.

This episode shines the spotlight on some individuals, companies and organizations who have looked beyond the “bottom line.”

Finland has just been named the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row. The U.S., meanwhile, has fallen in the rankings. People in America and around the world are asking: What is Finland doing right? Why are the Finns happy? Can the Finnish model be exported to other countries? For this episode, we traveled to Finland to observe and speak with its people and to try to get some insight into those questions.

On this episode, we discuss the “Curse of Knowledge,” how each of us can overcome it, and why it is worth the effort.

When Irena Sendler saw the Nazis begin herding Jewish populations in Warsaw, Poland into squalid ghettos, she felt she had to help them. She decided to risk everything by trying to “rescue the drowning.”

On this episode, we take a look at some buzzing, winged, armored and leggy aspects of the natural world. We put them under the magnifying glass and consider a few lessons we can learn from them.

“A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.” Those were the words of Joseph H Taylor Jr., who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. This episode examines several recent scientific findings that provide confirmation of an ancient authority.

A growing body of evidence shows that language doesn’t just give people a set of words to express their thoughts. It actually can have a heavy influence on those thoughts and on the behaviors they lead to. What would this mean for the thinking and behavior of a person who speaks a “pure language”?

The story of a group of men who undertook a mission so dangerous and so rapidly prepared that only a fiction writer would have been optimistic about how it would turn out. But they refused to compromise with evil, so they charged into it wholeheartedly. The episode is built around an exclusive interview with Dr. Iddo Netanyahu, notable historian and brother of Israel’s Prime Minister.

On this episode, we discuss three remarkable yet mostly forgotten stories of heroism that occurred in Soviet Armenia in the 1970s and 80s—and a twist that connects them.

This episode examines how a serious injury sustained by a factory worker in 1867 not only changed the course of that man’s life, but also set in motion a chain of events that changed the course of American history—in a way that countless people for generations have benefited from.

By the beginning of the 1800s, Bell Rock in Scotland’s Firth of Forth was responsible for wrecking numerous ships each winter. It was clear to everyone that sailors needed to be warned. But since the Rock was miles from shore and submerged by the sea for all but two hours a day, experts thought it would be impossible to build a lighthouse there. For Robert Stevenson, the challenge would become an obsession.

There is little in the human experience that hooks attention and holds it like a story. In this episode, we demonstrate and explain the power of story. And we encourage listeners to more regularly tap into that power.

Despite America’s deep-rooted problems, the nation remains an unmatched paragon of prosperity, providing opportunity and wealth for great numbers of people. But how and why did the United States became so exceptional? Pundits debating this question point to things like America’s laissez-faire economic system, values, politics, societal mobility, freedom of religion and speech, and its prioritization of equal opportunity. But there is another, often overlooked answer. In many ways this unnoticed factor is the foundation that has made other aspects of America’s success possible. It is a deeply inspiring facet of the U.S. that takes us all the way back into the mists of the earliest human history.

Friend or foe? Are you with us—or them? In certain clashes, this can be a gristly question for soldiers to answer. In ancient times, the Gileadites devised an ingenious way to differentiate between their own troops and those of the enemy, which lives on in the ever-expanding English language today. This episode of The Sun Also Rises discusses words and language and also examines a fascinating account from the Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, elucidating how he became such a masterful communicator.

When the sun came up on May 28 in the year 585 BCE, the Medes and Lydians were still at war. They had been at each other’s throats for years, and it looked like there was no end in sight for their conflict. But something extraordinary happened on the battlefield that day, which changed everything. This episode also features an interview with Dr. Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist, and scientist emeritus at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Gunter Wetzel was 22 years old when he decided that he had to get his family free. But how could he get himself, his wife and their two small children past all the soldiers and over the razor wire-topped walls keeping them inside of East Germany? Mr. Wetzel recently gave an interview to The Sun Also Rises, and, in this episode, he shares the astounding story of how human ingenuity and the longing to be free triumphed over Communist East Germany.

In the mid 1800s, a major medical breakthrough happened that has saved countless lives since then. But could it be that this life-saving knowledge was actually available to mankind for millennia before that breakthrough?

In today’s episode, Mary Previte discusses a forgotten World War Two battle: The Girl Scouts vs. Imperial Japan. Mrs. Previte took part in the fight. Her story is astounding.

When it comes to intellect and creative power, there’s no question that humans vastly outperform every other creature on earth. But did you know there is also a basic physical ability in which people can outperform the animals? Today’s episode takes a look at the marathon as a metaphor for life, and examines some life lessons we can learn from endurance running.

It’s not enjoyable for us to be told that our creative work has problems, or that it is of inferior quality. We like to hear positive feedback, and generally recoil from such criticism. In this episode, host Jeremiah Jacques tells the story of an artist who was bombarded by critical feedback. The artist’s reaction to it contains a lesson for us all.

In our era, it’s usually the innovators who receive the bulk of reward and recognition. But what about those who restore, regrow, recover and rehabilitate? This episode turns the spotlight on individuals who have achieved remarkable accomplishments, not so much with new innovations, but by fixing something that went wrong.

On today’s episode, we dig deeply into a four-word sentence.

What is humor? Why is it? Where does it come from? What happens in its absence? In this episode, host Jeremiah Jacques addresses these questions, and also attempts to demonstrate humor in a way that makes the listeners laugh. Also discussed is the vital role that humor played in the life of a history-altering man.

Racism often becomes a self-exacerbating force. If a person feels hated by a certain group, his normal reaction is to hate that group right back: Meet hatred with hatred. It’s the natural, usual reaction. But today’s episode examines a man who does not behave in the natural, usual way. This man doesn’t meet hatred with hatred, but with authenticity, humility, patience, friendship and hope for his fellow man. This man’s unusual approach has achieved some extraordinary results that we can all learn from.