Mastering Metals: From Sticks & Stones to Cars & Computers

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new podcast: Context. If you’ve enjoyed engaging in history with me so far, I think you’ll continue to find …

Money is a form of trust.  Credit, not coins, has been the heart of financial innovation.

Communities that have learned how to leverage credit most effectively and facilitate its transfer between parties most …

Our submergence in the flow of time can make it difficult to comprehend how fundamental timekeeping technology has been to the evolution of our …

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement centered in northern Europe during the late 1600s and 1700s that is largely responsible for establishing our modern convictions concerning the virtues of representative …

We've all heard about how the printing press revolutionized book production. But, the real revolution was in how printed books, as opposed to …

Historian Brad Harris reveals the correlations between the spread of coffee consumption and the rise of modern institutions.

From science to security, insurance to stock exchanges, and all the way through to democratic …

Historian Brad Harris reveals what empowered us to wield cold. 

While most of the achievements of technology seem based on our conquest of heat, the …

In this introduction to Season Two, historian Brad Harris challenges the growing cynicism toward the ideas of progress and modernity, recalling what The Enlightenment was all about.

Music provided by Zack Hemsey, …

In the Season One finale of How It Began, historian Brad Harris reveals the beautiful history of how life came to know its true origins through …