History for Kids / History's Not Boring: The Kids History Podcast
A groundbreaking podcast for curious kids aged 4-12 that proves history is anything but dull.
Join our fictional AI hosts Mira, a brilliant 9-year-old, and her younger brother Finn, age 7, as they embark on thrilling journeys through time. From ruthless kings and invisible warplanes to doomed ships and devastating fires, each episode uncovers the most dramatic, fascinating, and sometimes shocking moments in human history - told in a way that actually makes sense to kids.
Whether you're learning about the tragedy of the Titanic, the shocking reign of Henry VIII, the invisible technology of stealth bombers, the catastrophic Great Fire of London, or the origins of humanity in the Stone Age - History's Not Boring transforms complex historical events into unforgettable stories that ignite curiosity and wonder.
Because history isn't something that happened to other people. It's the story of how we got here.
A note on why we use AI. For us, AI allows us to deliver learning at a scale and quality that previously would have been too expensive. If we make the odd technical error, or the sound goes a bit funny, bear with us, we’re trying our best. We hope you enjoy the show!
History for Kids / History's Not Boring: The Kids History Podcast
What is the Empire State Building?
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Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com! Join your hosts Mira and Finn as we travel back to the 1930s to explore the tallest, most famous skyscraper on Earth! Did you know the giant Empire State Building was built during the Great Depression in just 14 months? That is incredibly fast! To make this tower reach the clouds, it took 10 million bricks, 730 tonnes of mighty steel, and an army of 3,400 workers. But the real superheroes of the sky were the fearless Mohawk ironworkers! These brave builders walked on narrow steel beams 1,000 feet above New York City—with absolutely no safety ropes! Imagine balancing in the clouds like that! When the building finally opened in 1931, President Hoover magically turned on the bright lights all the way from Washington, D.C., just by pressing a button! It became so famous that a giant movie ape named King Kong even climbed it on the big screen! Get ready to look up, up, up and discover the sky-high secrets of this amazing building!
Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Okay, Finn. I want you to close your eyes and imagine balancing on a metal beam.
SPEAKER_00It's only about eight inches wide. Okay, I can do that. It's like a balance beam in gymnastics.
SPEAKER_01Right, except this beam is 1,250 feet in the air. What?
SPEAKER_00No, no way. I'm getting down right now.
SPEAKER_01Well, you better hold on tight, because today we are talking about the construction of the most famous skyscraper on Earth.
SPEAKER_00Let me guess. The Empire State Building in New York City? You got it, and our timing is absolutely perfect.
SPEAKER_01Why is that? Because next week, on May 1st, marks exactly 95 years since its grand opening in 1931. It's the building's 95th birthday.
SPEAKER_0095 years? That's almost a whole century of scraping the sky. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And the story of how they built it in just 14 months is totally mind-blowing. Let's set the stage. The year is 1930. The United States is in the middle of the Great Depression. A really tough time when millions of people didn't have jobs. Factories had closed, and lots of families were struggling to buy food.
SPEAKER_00That sounds awful. How could anyone afford to build a giant skyscraper right in the middle of New York City?
SPEAKER_01It was actually the perfect time to build. Materials like steel, glass and brick were much cheaper than usual, and thousands of men desperately needed work to feed their families. Who decided to build it? A business group led by a man named John J. Raskob and the former Governor of New York, Al Smith. They wanted to build the tallest building in the world, beating out the Chrysler Building, which was just finishing up nearby.
SPEAKER_00A skyscraper race! I love it. People competing to touch the clouds. How tall did they want to go? Raskob looked to his architect, William F.
SPEAKER_01Lamb, and asked, how high can you make it so that it won't fall down?
SPEAKER_00Haha. That's a great question to ask the guy designing your super tall building. You definitely do not want it falling down.
SPEAKER_01Lam designed a massive Art Deco building that would be 102 stories tall.
SPEAKER_00Exactly 1,250 feet high. That's taller than anything else in the world back then. That's like putting three football fields standing straight up into the sky.
SPEAKER_01Yup. To make it happen, they hired a famous construction company called Starritch Brothers and Eakin. They began digging the foundation in January, and on March 17, 1930, they officially started building a giant steel framework. Here is where the numbers get absolutely wild, Finn. They didn't just build it, they built it faster than anyone thought humanly possible.
SPEAKER_00How fast? Like a floor a week? I build my block towers pretty fast.
SPEAKER_01Way faster than that. They were building four and a half floors every single week.
SPEAKER_00What? That's almost a floor a day. How did they do that without everything just falling over?
SPEAKER_01They ran the construction site like a giant factory assembly line. They had up to 3,400 workers on site at the exact same time. As soon as the steel frame went up for a floor, the next crew came right behind them to build the walls, and the next crew did the plumbing.
SPEAKER_00That's incredible teamwork. But what was the building actually made of? It has to be super strong to be that tall.
SPEAKER_01First, the skeleton. They used 57,000 tonnes of steel for the frame.
SPEAKER_0057,000 tonnes? That's as heavy as like 10,000 elephants stacked on top of each other.
SPEAKER_01Exactly! And the outside wasn't just metal. They used 200,000 cubic feet of limestone. And get this 10 million bricks to build the walls.
SPEAKER_0010 million bricks? If I tried to count to 10 million, it would take me months.
SPEAKER_01And think about how heavy that is. To save time, they couldn't wait for elevators. They actually had little railway tracks built inside the building on the floors, and used small minecarts to roll the bricks and steel exactly where they needed to go.
SPEAKER_00But wait, what about the guys putting the steel together all the way up in the clouds? Did they have giant cranes?
SPEAKER_01They had cranes, but humans had to connect the pieces. Some of the most famous workers were the Mohawk Skywalkers. They were Native American iron workers from the Mohawk Nation who travelled down from Canada and upstate New York. Why were they called skywalkers? Did they have spacesuits? Because they seemed completely fearless. They would walk across those narrow, slippery steel beams over a thousand feet in the air, without any safety ropes, nets, or harnesses.
SPEAKER_00No safety ropes. My stomach is doing flip-flops just thinking about that. One strong gust of wind, and whoosh!
SPEAKER_01They had an amazing sense of balance and physical bravery. They caught red hot metal rivets that would toss through the air from 30 feet away. Then they hammered those hot rivets into the steel to permanently hold the building together.
SPEAKER_00They really were walking in the sky and catching hot metal. They were like real-life superheroes. They totally were.
SPEAKER_01They even set up special restaurants on the high floors so the workers wouldn't have to waste time going all the way down to the street for lunch. Thanks to their hard work, the entire building was finished in just one year and 45 days. That's about 14 months. So what happened when it finally opened? On May 1st, 1931, they had a massive grand opening, and President Herbert Hoover officially turned on the building's lights for the very first time.
SPEAKER_00Did he take a train all the way to New York to do it?
SPEAKER_01Nope. He stayed at the White House in Washington DC and pressed a special button that was connected by telegraph wire all the way to New York. That is the coolest light switch ever! Did people love the building right away? Well, at first, because of the Great Depression, a lot of businesses couldn't afford the rent. So many offices were empty that people jokingly called it the Empty State Building.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, the Empty State Building! That's kind of sad after all that hard work.
SPEAKER_01But it quickly became a massive tourist attraction. People from all over the world rode the super fast elevators to the top observation deck, where they paid 10 cents to look through the telescopes. And then, in 1933, it got a massive boost from Hollywood.
SPEAKER_00Wait, I know this one.
SPEAKER_01Yes, in the movie, the giant ape King Kong climbs all the way to the top of the Empire State Building to fight airplanes. It cemented the building as the most famous tower on Earth.
SPEAKER_00Wait, speaking of aeroplanes, has anything ever actually crashed into it in real life?
SPEAKER_01Actually, yes. In 1945, a military B-25 bomber airplane accidentally crashed right into the 79th floor on a super foggy Saturday morning.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh, did the building fall down? Did the top break off?
SPEAKER_01No. Because of those 57,000 tonnes of steel frame that the Mohawk Skywalkers built, the tower stayed completely solid. It only suffered minor damage and they fixed it up quickly.
SPEAKER_00That is one tough building. It really is like a mountain of steel.
SPEAKER_01Totally! It even gets struck by lightning about 25 times every single year because it acts as a giant lightning rod for the city. Now, are you ready to test what you've learned? Alright, Finn, it's quiz time! Let's see how much of this sky-high history you can remember.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm ready. Let's see if my brain is as strong as a steel beam, or if it's made of mush.
SPEAKER_01First question. What year did the Empire State Building officially open its doors? Next one, this is about those massive numbers. How many bricks were used to build the skyscraper? Question 3. What was the name of the fearless Native American iron workers who helped build the steel frame? Here's number four. Which US president pressed a button in Washington DC to turn on the lights? Last question. What giant movie monster famously climbs the building in a 1933 film? Great job! Let's see how you did on this towering test. The first answer is, it officially opened on May 1st, 1931. For question two, they used a staggering 10 million bricks. The answer to question three is the amazing Mohawk Skywalkers. For number four, it was President Herbert Hoover who pressed the button.
SPEAKER_00And the final answer is King Kong. I got them all! Wow! Learning about the Empire State Building was amazing. I want to go to New York City and count all 10 million bricks myself. That might take you a few years.
SPEAKER_01It really is amazing though. It proves what humans can do when we work together. We literally built a mountain of steel in just 14 months.
SPEAKER_00I'm just glad I didn't have to walk on those beams in the sky. I like my feet firmly on the solid ground.
SPEAKER_01Me too. Hey listeners, if you loved learning about the Empire State Building with us today, please leave us a five-star review.
SPEAKER_00Yeah! Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars. It really helps us build this show as tall as a skyscraper.
SPEAKER_01And don't forget to head over to our site, kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games, activities, and cool history stuff to explore there. It's like a giant theme park for your brain. You have to check it out. And if you want to shout out on the show or just want to say hi, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com. We would love to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00Maybe you can tell us your favourite King Kong movie, or if you've ever been to the top of the Empire State Building.
SPEAKER_01See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye everyone!