The Tree of Life: Empires, War, and the Modern Date (Part 2)
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 an ancient oasis crop into a global commodity? And h...
24 Mars 38min
The Tree of Life: How Dates Built the Ancient World (Part 1)
How did a humble desert fruit help build some of the world’s earliest civilizations? Why did ancient farmers in Mesopotamia become master matchmakers for palm trees? And how did the date palm come to ...
17 Mars 52min
From Hot Houses to High Tech: The Rise of the Greenhouse
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 heated agriculture centuries before Europe’s glass...
10 Mars 1h 9min
Wheels, Plates and Pyramids: Produce & U.S. Dietary Guidelines
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 the Civil War to the height of the culture wars, h...
3 Mars 1h 3min
The History of Avocados
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 culture? And how did a humble postman’s backyard s...
24 Feb 1h 29min
Joseph Banks: The End of the Journey, Not the Influence (Part 7)
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 Banks face his final years: in pain, in controvers...
17 Feb 38min
Joseph Banks: Kew and the Power of Plants (Part 6)
What happens when exploration gives way to administration - and adventure turns into power? How did a royal garden become the beating heart of a global botanical empire? And how did Joseph Banks, with...
10 Feb 1h 10min
Joseph Banks: The Birth of Australia (Part 5)
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 influence matter as much as any act of Parliament or naval ...
3 Feb 1h 13min
