Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
From Bloom to Bust: The Rise and Fall of Tulip Mania
Episode 87
The tulip - elegant, exotic, and ephemeral - has long captivated the human imagination. But in 17th-century The Netherlands, it ignited something far more volatile: a frenzy. This is the story of Tul…
Published on 4 months, 1 week ago
Top 6 Produce Drinks (Livestream)
Episode 86
How did a drunk church-goer influence the Navy’s go-to-beverage? What does a Persian fruit beverage and sherbet powder have to do with each other? How did an American favorite drink fall from grace? …
Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago
The Great Tea Heist: Secrets Revealed (Part 2)
Episode 85
Robert Fortune’s journey was far from over. After infiltrating China in disguise, Fortune now sets his sights on the Wuyi Mountains—steeped in legend, veiled in mist, and home to the most coveted tea…
Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago
The Great Tea Heist: Mission Received (Part 1)
Episode 84
The British thirst for tea had become insatiable by the mid-19th century, but there was one problem: nearly all of it came from China. For the East India Company, this dependency was a costly vulnera…
Published on 5 months ago
The History of Chili Peppers (Part 2)
Episode 83
When Portuguese traders arrived on India’s western shores in the early 1500s, they brought more than religion, colonial ambition, and a lust for spice - they also carried with them a tiny, crimson fr…
Published on 5 months, 1 week ago
The History of Chili Peppers (Part 1)
Episode 82
For millennia, chili peppers have been at the heart of the Americas - long before Columbus set sail, before the Aztecs built their empire, and before the Incas wove them into myth. Originating in wha…
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Death by Olives (Livestream)
Episode 81
On August 23, 1919, a celebratory dinner at the Lakeside Club in Canton, Ohio, was held in honor of Col. Charles C. Weybrecht’s return from France at the end of the First World War. But what began as…
Published on 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The History of Olives
Episode 80
The story of the olive is one of resilience, empire, and cultural transformation. From its first human interactions in Africa over 100,000 years ago to its role in the economies of the great Mediterr…
Published on 5 months, 4 weeks ago
Saemaul Undong: How a Rural Movement Transformed South Korea’s Agriculture
Episode 79
In the wake of war, division, and rapid industrialization, South Korea’s countryside faced a crisis. By the late 1960s, rural poverty was deepening, farmers were abandoning their fields for the citie…
Published on 6 months ago
Russia, Ukraine, and the Battle for the Breadbasket
Episode 78
The relationship between Russia and Ukraine is as much about soil as it is about politics. The fertile black earth of Ukraine—cherished by empires, fought over by nations—has been both a source of gr…
Published on 6 months, 1 week ago