Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
The Tree of Life: Empires, War, and the Modern Date (Part 2)
Episode 135
How did the humble date palm become entangled in the great age of empire? Why did steamships, railways, and the opening of the Suez Canal transform a…
7 hours ago
The Tree of Life: How Dates Built the Ancient World (Part 1)
Episode 134
How did a humble desert fruit help build some of the world’s earliest civilizations? Why did ancient farmers in Mesopotamia become master matchmakers…
1 week ago
From Hot Houses to High Tech: The Rise of the Greenhouse
Episode 133
What does a Roman emperor’s craving for cucumbers have to do with feeding eight billion people? How did a 15th-century Korean cookbook quietly invent…
2 weeks ago
Wheels, Plates and Pyramids: Produce & U.S. Dietary Guidelines
Episode 132
What was the United States government’s first move, when it decided that what Americans ate was a matter of national concern? Why, from the depths of…
3 weeks ago
The History of Avocados
Episode 131
What kind of fruit was designed to be swallowed whole by giant sloths? How did a sacred Mesoamerican tree become the green badge of millennial brunch…
1 month ago
Joseph Banks: The End of the Journey, Not the Influence (Part 7)
Episode 130
What becomes of a man who spent his life moving plants, people, and power across the globe - when his own body finally begins to fail? How did Joseph…
1 month, 1 week ago
Joseph Banks: Kew and the Power of Plants (Part 6)
Episode 129
What happens when exploration gives way to administration - and adventure turns into power? How did a royal garden become the beating heart of a glob…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Joseph Banks: The Birth of Australia (Part 5)
Episode 128
How did a gentleman botanist turn a vague imperial idea into a functioning colony on the far side of the world? Why did Joseph Banks’s quiet influenc…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Joseph Banks: Fame, Tantrums, and the Seeds of Empire (Part 4)
Episode 127
Fresh from fame and flush with ambition, Joseph Banks sets out to remake the world in his own image. But what happens when celebrity curdles into ent…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Joseph Banks: Death and Survival (Part 3)
Episode 126
What happens when discovery turns to disaster — and survival hangs on a sliver of luck? How close did Joseph Banks come to losing everything he had c…
2 months ago