Bone up on Berlin Wall history with iMinds

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Los Angeles is among the many cities that plan to go all out on Nov. 9 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall -- in fact, L.A.’s Wall Project, spearheaded by Culver City’s Wende Museum and Archive of the Cold War, is believed to be the most ambitious such project outside Germany.

And iMinds wants you to be prepared: The company, which provides ‘eight-minute MP3 knowledge grabs’ on a variety of subjects, is now offering a six-track Berlin Wall Collection so you listeners can ‘pepper their dinner party banter with interesting factoids’ about the wall. Included on the subject list: Rise of the Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain, Crossing the Berlin Wall and German Reunification.

Olivia Wood, founder and managing director of iMinds, tells Culture Monster: ‘The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is one of the most significant events in recent world history that most of us were able to witness on television, but I’m sure many people would like to learn more about the rise of the wall, the wider context of global relations at the time and the wall’s eventual demolition. This is where iMinds comes in. Our bite-size knowledge grabs are the perfect way to get up to speed on general knowledge topics on-the-go or in your home.’

Not to be outdone, Culture Monster would like to offer its own Berlin Wall cocktail-party factoid: Did you know that in Berlin the anniversary will be commemorated with a symbolic wall made entirely of giant dominos, which will -- as dominos tend to do -- fall at the appropriate moment? Read more about that project in this article from Der Spiegel.

-- Diane Haithman