The Capetians: The Dynasty That Made Medieval France and Gave Us the Fleur-De-Lys
If Gothic cathedrals, troubadours, and the Crusades evoke a certain picture of medieval Europe, you might be surprised that these foundations of a shared French culture continue to shape European soci...
4 Jul 202455min
Why the Book is Humanity’s Most Important Invention
Even in our increasingly digitized world, the print book endures as a technology at the heart of human culture. Throughout its 550-yearhistory, the book has transformed at the hands of countless print...
2 Jul 202448min
How and Why Humans Started Speaking
Most people know at least 50,000 words and speak around 16,000 per day. We speak between 120 and 200 words per minute and read them at twice that speed. We invent word games like crosswords, Scrabble,...
27 Jun 202452min
The American Detective Who Fought the Kaiser’s Spy Ring and an Anarchist Bombing Syndicate
America in the early twentieth century was rife with threats. Organized crime groups like the Mafia, German spies embedded behind enemy lines ahead of World War I, package bombs sent throughout the co...
25 Jun 202443min
Patton’s Tactician: Geoffrey Keys, “The Best Tactical Mind” of WWII
Nineteen months after Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor and forced the United States to enter World War II, boats carrying the 7th US Army landed on the shores of southern Sicily. Dubbed Operation...
20 Jun 202439min
The Seven Cleopatras Who Ruled Egypt
Behind the legendary, singular figure of Cleopatra stood six other women who bore her name. The infamous Cleopatra we think we know was actually the seventh queen in a long line of powerful female rul...
18 Jun 202446min
Modern Black Ops Warfare Began with a British WW2 Operation to Steal Boats Off Africa’s Coast
When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army--alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly...
13 Jun 202452min
The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World Were Colossal, Prone to Destruction, and Not All May Have Existed
For millennia, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have been known for their aesthetic sublimity, ingenious engineering, and sheer, audacious magnitude: The Great Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gard...
11 Jun 202446min
