The Disappearing Spoon podcast
Inventions & Discoveries
The tools and technology that help us understand and change the world
The British Tobacco Empire
He was behind the rise of the British Empire, a public-health epidemic, and the lost colony of Roanoke Island. Thomas Harriot has a lot to answer for.
The Most Exclusive Club in the World
As recent tragedies reveal, it’s harder to reach extreme ocean depths than the Moon. Meet the people who got there first—and barely lived to tell to the tale.
Death-Defying Science at 75,000 Feet
How balloon geek Auguste Piccard inspired Hollywood and became a worthy namesake for Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek fame.
Proving Einstein Right
Meet Arthur Eddington, the weirdo scientist who made Albert Einstein the genius we know today.
How New DNA Sleuthing Can Expose Dangerous Killers—and You
The downside of using genetic genealogy to fight crime.
The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer
How a feisty, suicidal Nobel laureate infuriated both Hitler and Stalin, and stalled cancer research for 50 years along the way.
Burn After Watching
The world’s first plastic made Hollywood possible—and killed thousands of people along the way.