Distillations

Episode 5, Part 2 from the ‘Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race’ series.

Episode 1 from the ‘Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race’ series.

The Disappearing Spoon tells the story of Thomas Schall, a U.S. Congressman who dedicated himself to one idea above all—reforming our messy, lopsided, archaic, and maddingly inconsistent monthly calendar.

Naked mole-rats are blind, yet they can still recognize—and kill—outsiders. The Disappearing Spoon explains how and what it has to do with the Old Testament.

Biologist John Calhoun’s rodent experiments gripped a society consumed by fears of overpopulation.

When horses gallop, do all four hooves ever leave the ground at once? This episode of The Disappearing Spoon recounts the saga that led to the answer. 

Alternative currencies flourish in desperate times and situations.

This episode of The Disappearing Spoon explores how cataracts nearly ruined the impressionist painter’s career—and then revived it by giving him an insect-like superpower.

A harrowing eye surgery may have given the impressionist painter the ability to see UV light.

How a simple operation—castrating little boys—produced the greatest singers the world has ever known.

With their creeping, bloodsucking ways, bedbugs continue to mock human superiority.

The long, wacky, and surprisingly thought-provoking history of trying animals in human courts.

The enduring appeal of tie-dye.

Distillations talks to four science fantasy experts about the Deborah Harkness book series.

This bonus episode explores how a grade school history teacher from Cincinnati uses video games in the classroom.

Are historical video games an important tool for learning or do they corrupt our collective understanding of the past?

The ‘Lady Science’ magazine editors talk about their new book ‘Forces of Nature: The Women Who Changed Science.’

The ‘Ghostland’ author talks about the relationship between technology and the paranormal and how the ghost stories we tell reveal a lot about society.

Though science and investigations of the paranormal might seem incompatible, they were intertwined for a long time.

When an invisible threat plagued rural 19th-century New England, the evidence pointed to the supernatural.

How a rogue archaeologist in Peru found indisputable evidence of something previously unthinkable—ancient neurosurgery.

And what does it have to do with the unusual chemistry of carbon?

Have modern archeologists finally tracked down the legendary “Peking Man” bones?

Wicked creatures and a defiant chemist make their mark on the periodic table.

How the often-maligned genre was used to train soldiers, explain the weather, and teach us about the modern world.

The marine geologist and geophysicist talks about doing science with an invisible disability.

What is intelligence?

A short history of disability in the United States.

Is seeing believing?

The surprising origins of developmental embryology.

Anissa Ramirez’s latest book tracks the (sometimes literal) ways technology can shape our lives.

Historian of science and media Ingrid Ockert discusses the exact moment Carl Sagan began wearing turtlenecks, how NOVA changed television, and the key to any successful show: respect the audience.

Why are these stylish women posing with scientific instruments? Instrument makers in the 1960s used “lovely ladies” to sell their wares, an advertising ploy that’s still around today.

Humans have a masochistic love of capsaicin, a molecule responsible for the burn in hot peppers. That connection could be a key to pain relief.

Before Bill Nye the Science Guy, there was Professor Harvey E. White of Continental Classroom.

Sex, pettiness, swinging, cemeteries, espionage, murder, and beheadings.

This episode highlights an early-20th-century porcelain painting kit. Porcelain painting became popular after the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, when women saw porcelain objects from all around the world, including those made by other women. Today porcelain painting is trendy again.

The line between science and art was not always so stark.

Tattoos are more than decoration. But do you do when the way you look no longer matches who you are?

Sniffing out a peculiar love of books.

A drawing of a biochemist connects two British political icons.

A cautionary tale of technology run riot.

About half of the 1,100 instruments made by master luthier Antonio Stradivari have been lost or destroyed in the past 300 years. Should the instruments that remain be played or preserved?

A memento reveals how the demand for cheap copies of famous paintings helped democratize art ownership in the 19th century.

What makes a Stradivarius so special? For decades instrument makers, musicians, and even scientists have tried to find out but with inconclusive results.

Some surprisingly controversial theories of human longevity. 

Scientists with disabilities have frequently faced intolerance and prejudice in their careers. A project at the Institute’s Center for Oral History seeks to tell their stories.

Hippies of the 1960s and 1970s were not necessarily the technophobes they are often made out to be.

Lasers, tattoo removal, and second chances.

How deodorant became omnipresent in America.

A Hollywood impresario tries to make his mark on the movie business.

How do art historians know who painted a work of art and when it was painted? For the Institute’s Elisabeth Berry Drago, the answer is hidden in the details.

Pop artists set themselves apart by addressing throwaway culture. But how could they make the disposable last?

Synthetic fibers not only changed the fashion industry; they changed how women lived their lives.

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of stuffing animals.

21st century safety concerns made science kits a bit less exciting for children.

Science kits in the 1900s were as much about magic and spectacle as they were about chemistry, so strap on your seat belt and prepare to be wowed.

In the 1950s the effects of atomic energy were on display, including in children’s science kits.

In the 1850s science kits were a source of rational and educational entertainment.

Two space-loving PR men consider the marketing of NASA’s Apollo program.

Was this really the world’s most dangerous toy?

Comic books have been wrestling with the consequences of the atomic age for as long as their readers.

As child labor gave way to child education in the early 20th century, do-gooders sought a novel solution to juvenile delinquency.

Dive into the world of nixtamalization, a chemical process that allowed the Mesoamerican empires to thrive and tacos to taste good.

How Victorians found a foolproof way to make science interesting for their children.

Science writer Philip Ball digs into myth, history, and science to untangle the roots of our fears of artificial life.

A government oilman maps a hidden realm.

Is there any truth in truth serums?

Once upon a time a small city in Massachusetts played an outsized role in plastics. From mundane celluloid dice to Disney’s all-plastic house, the plastics industry focused on the future. What happened when the future finally arrived?

A Japanese gourmand discovers the fifth element of taste.

In the years following World War II, chemical companies sold not only products but a lifestyle.

In a time of rapid technological change and globalization, separating the fake from the real was not always easy. Sound familiar?

Peek into the studio of author and illustrator Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, and watch the creative process behind his book Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb.

Silly Putty’s serious past.

Fashion in the 1950s embraced the bewildering changes that characterized the Atomic Age.

In the early 20th century, chemists prophesied a future that seemed both surreal and somehow within reach.

Author Richard Holmes shares stories of the exhibitionists, scientists, and escapists who make up the history of ballooning.

For decades science journalists peacefully worked their beat. But trouble came to their ostensibly objective world. How did science writers get caught in the crossfire of the culture wars?

The ancestors of today’s CSI shows can be found between the covers of  20th-century detective stories.

Would we understand our world differently if Charles Darwin had never written On the Origin of Species?

This episode takes on the frothy subject of beer, and explores the science, culture, and history behind the suds.

The rise of synthetic color and the scienitists and designers who tried to save society from itself. 

Fancy some alchemical recipes from 15th-century Italy?

How hard can it be to make a gemstone? Plenty hard. People have been trying for almost 2,000 years, but success finally beckoned in 19th-century France.

For thousands of years silk symbolized wealth and style. But in the 1930s DuPont gave Americans the next best thing.

Do you think of poison ivy as a scurrilous weed to be avoided at all costs? Think again! There was a time when the daring and curious found promise in poison ivy and its rash-inducing relatives.

As Coca-Cola’s popularity spread in the United States in the 1920s, rabbis around the country asked, is Coke kosher?

Neon is a dull and invisible gas until it’s trapped in a tube and zapped with electricity. Literally pulled out of thin air, neon became the bright light of the modern world, a symbol of progress, and an essential component of the electronic age.

In the 1950s comic books took Mexico’s youth by storm. But alongside familiar superhuman avengers were other kinds of heroes: real-life chemists.

Before becoming a synonym for cinema, celluloid was never quite a star attraction. But the first successful synthetic plastic played a subtle role in shaping consumer culture.

Observing as experts investigate whether La Bella Principessa is in fact the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

Historian Bert Hansen mines magazines, newspapers, comic books, and movies to catch a glimpse of science as imagined by earlier generations.

In exile, Navajo created new designs for their rugs and blankets using the new synthetic dyes. 

Eighteenth-century author Polycarpe Poncelet finds an unusual connection between music and our sense of taste.

First sold in 1791 to a scientifically literate audience, chemistry sets have since occupied many niches—and now they are making a comeback.

The invention of nylon in 1938 ushered in a textile revolution for consumers and the military alike, ultimately helping the Allies win World War II.

On today’s show, we investigate Olympic mysteries, from the flame of the torch to the composition of those so-called gold medals.

How do scientists explain what they do to the larger public, and how can historians help?

The trend-setting colorists at DuPont’s Duco Color Advisory Service were prophets of the color revolution, guiding corporations and consumers in choosing hues for everything from car fenders to countertops.