The Miracle in the Ashes

Gottlieb Daimler's patent for his high-speed petrol engine (dubbed the "Grandfather Clock") on 3rd April, 1885, wasn't just a technological breakthrough—it inadvertently birthed the motorbike. Teaming up with Wilhelm Maybach, the duo had crafted a compact engine featuring float-m ...  Show more

With a single, deliberate shot, Roger Sharpe played pinball for the council of the New York City Council chamber on 2 April 1976, theatrically overturning a 34-year ban on the game by proving it could be a game of skill. The city’s censorship of the game had its roots in the econ ...  Show more

This week, the boys pick back up with Heinrich Himmler just after Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch, as the Nazi's most pathetic nerd stumbles through his failed-loser era. From chicken farming and occult rabbit holes to his first taste of Nazi bureaucracy, we trace how a sulki ...

For this week’s Friday special, we’ve invited actor Sophie Lowe and director Petr Jákl to the show. Together, they made the historical epic feature film Medieval, also starring the great Michael Caine, Ben Foster, Til Schweiger, only to name a few. You might know Sophie from the ...  Show more

This event is part of Conversations at the Kiln, a new event series at Kiln Theatre programmed by Intelligence Squared. For more events with speakers from the worlds of literature, art, poetry and politics, click here. Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain ...  Show more

In this episode, Jacke talks to author David Denby about his new book, Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer, a group biography (loosely inspired by Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians) that describes how four larger-than-life figures upended the restrained culture of ...  Show more