The Ridiculous, Murky Origins of Pasta, Part Two: From Myth to the Modern Day

The Ridiculous, Murky Origins of Pasta, Part ...

Up next

Inventors Who Died Due To Their Own Inventions: The Irrational Death of Hippasus

We all know pi, right? It's one of the most famous 'irrational numbers' in history, and mathematicians are still trying to figure it out in the modern day. While this may seem arcane to some of us non-mathheads, in today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max learn these numbers were3 once ...  Show more

The Spiritualism Movement Was Utterly Ridiculous, Part Two: Con Artists, Skeptics, and Ghosts

As the Fox sisters became global superstars for their purported ability to speak with the dead, the Spiritualism movement became both a social phenomena and a booming business. Yet along with the rise of true believers and performing psychics, an army of skeptics and investigator ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

A Pasta Tour of Italy with Dan Pashman
The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Cookbook author and Sporkful host Dan Pashman sets out on a research trip across Italy in search of highly regional pasta dishes that he can’t find anywhere else. Along the way, he learns a shocking truth about Italy and ...

  Show more

484. The Food that Changed the World
The Rest Is History

The unexpected evolution of Italian food can serve as a tantalising doorway into some of the greatest moments of Italian history: from medieval monarchs, murdered popes, and the Renaissance, to secret societies, and Mussolini’s fascist propaganda. Yet the history of Italian food ...  Show more

The Anunnaki, Chapter Two: Rebranding G-ds
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know

Let's be honest, oh mortals: history proves time and time again that one civilization's angels may become another civilization's demons. In Chapter Two of this three-part series on the Anunnaki, "Ben," Matt, and Noel explore the cultural and spiritual evolution of mysterious enti ...  Show more

Shakespeare's Family: New Discoveries
Not Just the Tudors

Did the women in Shakespeare’s life—his wife, sister, and daughters—shape his story more than we realise? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Matthew Steggle to hear how new digital tools and rediscovered manuscripts uncover surprising evidence about Shakespeare’s fa ...

  Show more