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Then and Now: Global History and Culture


Welcome to our podcast. Current episodes feature lectures from my global culture and history course at the University of Minnesota. The podcast title (Then and Now)  reflects the relationship between today's events with the history forces from the past.

When the podcast began in 2006, it was a project with students in my global history course. We worked together to: (a) review of history topics in the course' (b) special music episodes connecting a country's culture with its artistic production through music; (c) special interview episodes with voices of students and community members as they were part of historical events; (d) 'podcast rebroadcasts' that other history podcasters gave permission to rebroadcast one of their episodes; and (e) music videos that featured important slides from the unit PP presentation. Every episode featureded some of the best independent music artists from a website that makes available podcast-approved songs. Share comments about the podcast with the course instructor, David Arendale, arendale@umn.edu  I am an associate professor  at UMN.  Visit my personal website for other history-related content and other information, http://arendale.org  

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Please post comments to the individual episodes, post to the iTunes podcast review and rating section, and email to me, arendale@umn.edu You can also check out David's other four podcasts and social media channels at www.davidmedia.org  Thanks for listening. 

Mar 14, 2024

(Bonus) The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles). The concept was announced on March 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan,[1] a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact". Reagan called upon American scientists and engineers to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete.[2] Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 with the Space Development Agency (SDA).[3]

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the US Department of Defense to oversee development. A wide array of advanced weapon concepts, including lasers,[4][5] particle beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with various sensor, command and control, and high-performance computer systems that would be needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the entire globe and involved in a very short battle. The United States held a significant advantage in the field of comprehensive advanced missile defense systems through decades of extensive research and testing; a number of these concepts and obtained technologies and insights were transferred to subsequent programs

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles). The concept was announced on March 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan,[1] a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact". Reagan called upon American scientists and engineers to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete.[2] Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 with the Space Development Agency (SDA).[3]

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the US Department of Defense to oversee development. A wide array of advanced weapon concepts, including lasers,[4][5] particle beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with various sensor, command and control, and high-performance computer systems that would be needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the entire globe and involved in a very short battle. The United States held a significant advantage in the field of comprehensive advanced missile defense systems through decades of extensive research and testing; a number of these concepts and obtained technologies and insights were transferred to subsequent programs