Making Things Explode

Jayson Porter has written for Distillations magazine on topics ranging from mules and sesame seeds, to arsenic and porgy fish. At first, these things might sound kind of random, but they share a common thread. Together they reveal hidden stories about the black experience in Mexi ...  Show more

Come celebrate our newest Distillations podcast season, American Vice. From cigarettes to alcohol to fireworks, this season is all about our relationship with risk, how science plays a role in it, and how it has shaped the American experience. To do it, we're partnering with our ...  Show more

Here's a philosophical question for you. If a color doesn't have a name, can we still see it? Many years ago, the human eye evolved to give us the ability to see about a million colors. That's a lot. Then how come, until very recently, nobody saw or even heard of the color blue? ...  Show more

Were ancients color-blind? They weren’t but this idea has been passed around for centuries, usually by classicists confused by the Greeks’ odd choice of descriptive language. Homer, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, the first ‘great’ poet of western civilization described the ...  Show more

Blue is the most popular color in many parts of the world, and it can seem like it's everywhere. But many ancient languages didn’t have a word for blue, and some languages still don’t. This show was recorded live at a National Gallery of Art's NGA Nights event. Learn more about y ...  Show more