The invention of bubble tea

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ...  Show more

In May 1974 India successfully detonated its first atomic device. It had been developed in secret with the codename Smiling Buddha. India called it a peaceful nuclear explosion, though the experimental device was in effect a plutonium bomb. The test was seen as a triumph of India ...  Show more

This week, Gastropod tells the story of two countries and their shared obsession with a plant: Camellia sinensis, otherwise known as the tea bush. The Chinese domesticated tea over thousands of years, but they lost their near monopoly on international trade when a Scottish botani ...  Show more

It's the second most popular drink in the world after water, with 3.7 billion cups drunk every single day.

In this episode, we explore tea's fascinating history, how it changed global politics, caused countries to go to war with each other, a ...

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Legend has it that tea was discovered by a curious Chinese emperor after leaves blew into his boiled water. Now tea is the second only to water in popularity worldwide. And despite the varieties of tea, they all come from a single species of plant. Learn all about it in this c ...