History of Technology
293 episodes · Page 9 of 13
#2830: What CERN Actually Does: Beyond the Big Ring
CERN is a treaty organization, not a lab. How 24 countries pool resources to run the LHC and beyond.
#2828: Where Is Calligraphy’s Spiritual Home?
China, Japan, or the Islamic world? Tracing the global lineage of the brush.
#2826: The Hidden Crisis in How We Name Life on Earth
Species are vanishing faster than we can name them — and the people who do the naming are disappearing too.
#2810: Every Catalog Is an Argument
From clay spine labels at Ebla to the Pinakes of Alexandria — how organizing knowledge shaped civilization.
#2803: Barter Economies That Actually Worked (and the Ones That Got Crushed)
From Switzerland's WIR Bank to Argentina's trueque clubs — the strange history of modern barter economies.
#2768: How Eurovision Built Europe's Broadcast Backbone
Eurovision wasn't born as a song contest. It was a television network first—and that infrastructure shaped everything.
#2737: How Word Spacing Changed Human Thinking
How studying medieval word spacing revealed the origins of silent reading — and why funding esoteric research matters.
#2736: Why AI Flagged Your Em Dash
Punctuation isn't a fixed system handed down by grammarians. It's a two-thousand-year story of contraction, invention, and now AI suspicion.
#2734: How Hebrew Printing Defied Book Burnings
The first Hebrew printed book dates to 1475 — and it was Rashi’s commentary, not the Bible.
#2733: Did the Airplane Actually Kill the Train?
The airplane didn't shrink the railways — the car did. Here's the real story of how we learned to move.
#2729: Why Medieval Libraries Sounded Like Beehives
For most of history, reading was an oral act. Silent reading is a surprisingly recent invention.
#2726: Radio Listening vs Podcast Guilt
Why does podcast listening feel different from radio? A deep dive into attention, multitasking, and the psychology of audio.
#2716: Myrrh: The Ancient Resin Worth More Than Gold
Myrrh was once worth its weight in gold. Here's the botany, ancient trade, and medicinal chemistry behind it.
#2715: Why Studebaker Owners Are Different
What drives thousands of people to obsess over a car brand that died in 1966? It's more than nostalgia.
#2714: How Texas Became the Oil State
Spindletop didn't make Texas synonymous with oil. The real story involves geology, regulation, and a surprising government intervention.
#2680: The 200-Year Loophole That Shaped UK Tax
How a 1799 tax carve-out let billionaires avoid UK taxes for centuries — until Akshata Murty broke it.
#2659: The Accidental Invention That Predates the Wheel
Mead predates the wheel. Here's how to brew it at home — and why it's making a comeback.
#2656: Marconi vs. the Cable Builders: Who Really Built the Internet?
Was the internet born from Marconi's wireless towers or the first transatlantic telegraph cables? We argue both sides.
#2655: The Crossroads That Became a World
The intersection that became the heart of a university town, from post road to modern-day agora.
#2654: The Bachelor Brothers Who Built a University
Two brothers, a silk collapse, and a land donation that became the University of Connecticut.
#2652: The Mulberry Bubble That Built a University
The silk industry that built UConn, the cows on Horsebarn Hill, and one mysterious firing at the Dairy Bar.
#2616: Is Democracy Actually What People Want?
A deep look at whether democracy is truly valued or just the socially acceptable position.
#2592: The Market That Never Went Away
From IBM terminals to Stream Decks — how macro keyboards evolved under the radar for decades.
#2553: The Hidden Elegance of the Zipper
A deep dive into the Y-shaped tunnel, the bump-and-hollow geometry, and the silent history of the zip.