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As It Happens

As it Happened: The Archive Edition - The 'How To' Episode

This episode serves as a do-it-yourself guide to things you may never see yourself doing — with a few that should never be tried at home.

An eclectic DIY guide to things impressive and impractical — from 50 years of AIH archives

CBC Radio ·
A robot figure in a school at Fulham, London, in 1927. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

This episode of As it Happened: The Archive Edition serves as a do-it-yourself guide to things you may never see yourself doing — with a few that should never be tried at home. 

Click 'Listen' above to hear the broadcast version of the episode. Full-length versions of each of the interviews as they originally aired, as well as archival images, appear below. 

Most people who study trees don't think about long-ago military conflicts as one of the stories that might be preserved in those trees.- Earth scientist Scott St. George

Chapter 1: How to talk to the trees

...and get them to tell you about a giant Nazi warship concealed nearby throughout the Second World War. 

An aerial reconnaissance photo of the crippled German battleship Tirpitz in Fættenfjord outside Trondheim, Norway, circa 1942. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Chapter 2:  How to completely disappear

...by assuming the identity of a dead person.

(Polaroid/Getty Images)

Chapter 3: How to fight a Kodiak bear

...or at least stand up to one without losing your head.

Troy Hurtubise invented several products, including the bear suit. (Supplied/Youtube)

Chapter 4: How to save the world

...one pee at a time.

(Getty Images)

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Chapter 5: How to build your own robot, on a shoestring

...with a mind all its own.

A robot (not Buster) holds a bucket and sponge to wash a car in 1975. (Central Press/Getty Images)

Chapter 6: How to build budget lifelong wooden furniture

...so that you can be buried in it when you die.

Archie Miller drinking a cup of tea on June 12, 1958, in the solid oak coffin he bought to ensure he would leave this world in real style. (Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images)

Listen to the full episode audio at the top of this post. 

Written and produced by Kevin Ball.

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