A Message From Brad Harris
To download your own copy of all 20 ad-free episodes of the How It Began series, head to bradharris.com.
How It Began: A History of the Modern World
Share:
Listens: 5
About
A thrilling podcast about the History of the Modern World. Humanity has been hard at work for centuries to empower itself with better tools and insights, from science and surgery to electricity and the Internet, and this series celebrates the history of those triumphs. Compared to our ancestors, we live like superheroes and sorcerers, endowed with powers they could never have imagined. But how did we achieve all this? Historian Brad Harris tackles that question head on, revealing how the most important scientific, technological, and cultural advancements in history began, and inspiring us to keep reaching for new historical triumphs along the way.
Context
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: From Barter to Blockchain
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 ef...
Measuring Time: The Hidden Mechanism of Modernity
Our submergence in the flow of time can make it difficult to comprehend how fundamental timekeeping technology has been to the evolution of our civili...
The Enlightenment: From a Medieval to a Modern Mindset
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement centered in northern Europe during the late 1600s and 1700s that is largely responsible for establishin...
The Printed Book: Opening the Floodgates of Knowledge
We've all heard about how the printing press revolutionized book production. But, the real revolution was in how printed books, as opposed to handwrit...
Mastering Metals: From Sticks & Stones to Cars & Computers
The transition from the Stone Age to the age of metals marks the historical arrival of civilization. But, how was it that people first learned to see...
Coffee: Sobering Up for The Enlightenment
Historian Brad Harris reveals the correlations between the spread of coffee consumption and the rise of modern institutions. From science to security,...
Refrigeration: From Ice Harvests to Superconductivity
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 u...
What Defines the History of the Modern World?
In this introduction to Season Two, historian Brad Harris challenges the growing cynicism toward the ideas of progress and modernity, recalling what T...