I am a sucker, total sucker, for great educational programming.

And the History Channel’s How the States Got Their Shapes falls into that category very nicely.

With Brian Unger (former Daily Show correspondent and NPR host) and his completely deadpan delivery, this show manages to make what could potentially be an extremely boring subject and make it sing.  He’s not to hard on the eyes, either, which always makes for a nice bonus.

If you’ve got a mature 8 year old, they should do fine with this show.  There is some historical violence, such as various reenactments of Civil War battles and so far, they have said the word “hell.” But it is totally in context.

You will find out the answers to these utterly fascinating questions: (and I say that not at all facetiously)

-How did an asteroid create the border for three states and change history?

– Why did we almost have a state called Forgottonia?

-Why does Montana look like it took a bite out of Idaho?

-Did the Civil War actually begin… in Kansas?

The season is already six shows in, but I’m guessing you can find it on reruns.  It IS the History Channel, after all.  If not, they’ve got all previously-aired shows online.

And yes, I am officially a geek.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 2:30 am by Glinda and is filed under Diversions, Entertainment, Things I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.