Episode Details

Carl Linnaeus gave every organism on Earth a two-part Latin name — the binomial nomenclature system that scientists still use today. His obsession with naming, classifying, and organizing the natural world created the framework that made modern biology possible. He categorized plants by their sexual parts, scandalized polite society, and placed humans in the same classification system as apes.

This episode traces Linnaeus from a Swedish parsonage garden through his expedition to Lapland, his revolutionary Systema Naturae, and the imperial botanical expeditions he dispatched across the globe — many of which ended in tragedy for the students he sent.

• Linnaeus's childhood plant obsession and the Lapland expedition that launched his career
• The binomial naming system and why it revolutionized how science organizes life
• His scandalous decision to classify plants by their reproductive organs
• The tragic fates of the apostles — the students Linnaeus sent on expeditions around the world