History
Historical events, figures, and analysis
#961: When Colonial Maps Create Living Borders
Discover the strange reality of the northern border, where a single village was split in two and a mountain strip became a legal ghost.
#904: The Empire of Bases: How US Footprint Became a Target
As 27 US bases face unprecedented strikes, Herman and Corn trace the 80-year history of the American military footprint in the Middle East.
#830: The Sovereignty Exception: How Host Nations Allow US Bases
Explore the history of American overseas bases, from 19th-century guano islands to modern "lily pad" strategy and the legal webs of SOFAs.
#816: From Scrolls to SQL: The Evolution of Human Order
Explore the history of how we organize the world, from ancient library catalogs to the future of AI-driven vector databases.
#750: The Ancient Roots of Us vs. Them
Explore the ancient roots of human prejudice, from Sumerian steles to the digital echo chambers of the modern "global village."
#742: The Dark Archive: Saving Extremism for History
When mainstream sites delete toxic content, how do researchers save it? Explore the "memory hole" of digital hate speech and dark archives.
#741: The Fragile Web: Who Decides What We Remember?
Explore how the Internet Archive saves the web, the legal battles threatening its future, and the rise of decentralized storage like Arweave.
#735: When Time Stretched: The Magic of Proportional Hours
Before atomic clocks, time was a living thing. Discover how ancient civilizations used "flexible" hours to coordinate their lives.
#599: AI Hunted Soviet Subs Long Before It Wrote Your Emails
AI didn't start in 2022. Discover the 70-year history of the "invisible" systems that have been quietly running our world for decades.
#576: The Sinai Years: Israel’s 15-Year Desert Experiment
From the white-stucco homes of Yamit to the Red Sea reefs, explore the 15-year history of Israeli life and settlement in the Sinai Peninsula.
#568: The Birth of the Border: How Countries Were Invented
How did we go from sprawling empires to rigid borders? Explore the history of the modern country, from Westphalia to the French Revolution.
#511: The Ticking Clock on Jerusalem's Church Land
Explore how ancient church deeds and expiring 99-year leases create real estate chaos and diplomatic minefields in modern Jerusalem.
#490: The Day the Walls Fell: Erasing Jerusalem's City Line
Explore the chaotic, high-speed demolition of the walls that divided Jerusalem for nineteen years and the "temporal vertigo" of 1967.
#489: Tears of the Tree: The Secret History of Frankincense
Explore the biology, economics, and neuroscience of frankincense, from the ancient Incense Route to its psychoactive role in Temple worship.
#487: The Biblical Pantry: Dining in 700 BCE Jerusalem
Step back 2,700 years to discover why there were no tomatoes in ancient Jerusalem and how bread became the center of the universe.
#483: The Ottoman Empire's Hidden Blueprint
Explore how 400 years of Ottoman rule and 30 years of British mandate built the physical and legal foundations of the modern State of Israel.
#482: The Sensory Overload of Daily Life in Herodian Jerusalem
Step back into Herodian Jerusalem. From "liquid bread" for breakfast to the chaos of the Temple, discover how the average person really lived.
#451: The Secret History and Scandal of the Pacifier
How did a simple rubber nipple become a "soul-destroying" moral threat? Corn and Herman dive into the pacifier's scandalous past.
#362: The Re-Enchantment of the World: Why We Still Believe in Ghosts
Why do 54% of people believe in ghosts? Explore the intersection of ancient Talmudic rituals, Irish folklore, and the science of the unseen.
#354: From Partners to Rivals: The Israel-Iran Paradox
Explore the dramatic shift from secret alliances and joint missile projects to the modern "shadow war" between Israel and Iran.