# The Great Balloon Escape

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-great-balloon-escape
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-great-balloon-escape.md
Podcast: [The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844)
Published: 2025-12-09T14:41:00+00:00
Episode link: https://samkean.com/podcast/
Audio file: https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/79c6cc71-44d3-4e82-9102-d7fb453de0cf/stream.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/episodes/the-great-balloon-escape
Duration seconds: 1087

## Resource

Astronomer Jules Janssen was desperate to escape the siege of Paris in 1870 and observe an eclipse in Africa—work that he hoped would confirm his discovery of a brand new element in the Sun, helium. So he devised a plan to escape the city in a hot-air balloon, despite promises by the German army to shoot him as a spy if he dared try... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/episodes/the-great-balloon-escape/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-great-balloon-escape.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.