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Uruguay: The Basque Vine
Episode 188
Why did a Basque immigrant fleeing the Carlist Wars plant a vine from the Pyrenees on the banks of the Uruguay River in 1870 — and how did that singl…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Panama: Los Canaleros
Episode 184
Why did the President of the United States personally intervene to improve the yam supply of Caribbean labourers on a jungle construction site — and …
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Algeria: The Wine That Made France French
Episode 185
Why was Algeria, a predominantly Muslim country in North Africa, the largest exporter of wine in the world — and why has almost nobody heard of it? H…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Switzerland: The Cherry and the Still
Episode 186
How does a fruit with a two-day shelf life become one of Switzerland's great protected exports? Why does the finest kirsch come not from Germany's Bl…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Türkiye: Social Intercourse and Free Discussion
Episode 182
Why did two Syrian merchants opening a shop in Istanbul in 1554 inadvertently invent the public sphere — and how did a small copper pot of coffee pro…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Saudi Arabia: The Quay of the World
Episode 183
Why did the Sumerian gods describe a land on the Persian Gulf coast as paradise — and why does the geological reality of that same land, 4,000 years …
1 month, 3 weeks ago
New Zealand: Without Harakeke
Episode 181
Why did a Māori chief ask a visiting English botanist how it was possible to live without a plant — and what does his bewilderment reveal about a civ…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Germany: The Purity Commandment
Episode 179
Why did 27 words buried in a Bavarian price regulation from 1516 become the most famous food law in history — and why did it take 402 years for anyon…
1 month, 4 weeks ago
Ghana: Six Pods in a Toolbox
Episode 180
Why did a blacksmith hide six cocoa pods under his tools to smuggle them past Spanish customs — and how did those six pods become the foundation of a…
1 month, 4 weeks ago
Uzbekistan: The Emperor Who Wept Over a Melon
Episode 178
Why did the man who just conquered India weep over a melon — and what does that tell us about the fruit that travelers from Ibn Battuta to Victorian …
1 month, 4 weeks ago