A Brief History of Stuff

‘As long as you need to be able to draw a straight line, hopefully rulers will have a place in the world.’ In the final episode, host Nihal Arthanayake is joined by Senior Production Manager at Ordnance Survey, Jim Goldsmith, and Copy Services Assist...

They quietly whir and ping away in our kitchens, heating up food and the odd cold cup of tea - but behind these unassuming boxes of plastic and metal lies a remarkable story. In this episode, host Nihal Arthanayake is joined by food stylist and reci...

‘Food has been a really important part of our socializing as humans. It’s when we enjoy food together, we tell the stories and sit around a fire as our ancient ancestors would have done. And we like to do that as well, on the space station.’ In this ...

Around 800 million people across the world are menstruating right now, using a variety of products and methods to deal with their blood. But accessing these products can be a challenge, even today. In this episode, host Nihal Arthanayake speaks to cu...

Household chores are an unavoidable part of everyday life. For thousands of years a broom was enough, but by using the humble vacuum cleaner we changed our homes forever. In this episode, carpet sweeper expert Laura Humphreys takes us on a journey th...

Microphones have changed the way we hear the world. From the experiments of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison, through the birth of rock and roll to the explosion of podcasts and video conferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, microphones...

The wonder material graphene can be found in any pencil, but for years scientists couldn’t isolate its incredibly thin layers. Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for doing just that, using little more than their curiosity and...

We know so little about the ocean, but a simple bath toy helped us understand it better. Dive into the story of what happened when 30,000 bath toys washed overboard and how these cute plastic critters helped scientists uncover the mysteries behind oc...

Even the most ordinary objects have extraordinary stories to tell. Our new podcast, A Brief History of Stuff, delves into remarkable stories behind the everyday things around you, exploring the past, present and future of the stuff in your home.   Jo...