A History of Lead (Encore)

In 1918, as the world was nearing the end of the First World War, another disaster was already spreading across the globe. It was so lethal that someone could be dead within a single day after seeing the first symptoms. It moved through army camps, cities, ships, and villages, in ...  Show more

One of the most talked-about topics in finance today is stablecoins. Stablecoins have the potential to totally upend the world of banking and finance. Banks, governments, and tech companies are looking at stablecoins and how they might use them in the future. However, most people ...  Show more

It’s easy to take the food on our plates for granted, but the 20th century has been a time of enormous change for the production and supply of what we eat. Not to mention the sort of dish you’d be looking forward to on a Friday evening. Herring and pickled beetroot, anyone? But d ...  Show more

In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we start off looking at the surprisingly interesting origin of the paperclip and why a person who had nothing to do with its design commonly gets all the credit for it, including having a giant statue of it made in his honor only a couple d ...  Show more

For thousands of years, getting light was a huge hassle. You had to make candles from scratch. This is not as romantic as it sounds. You had to get a cow, raise the cow, feed the cow, kill the cow, get the fat out of the cow, cook the fat, dip wicks into the fat. All that--for no ...  Show more

Why is Chatham High-street both futuristic and riddled with the past? Why was it a magnet for historical figures such as King John, Charles II, Nelson and Charles Dickens, and the location for some of the most totemic moments in British history? Is it really a melting pot of ever ...  Show more