Episode 5 explores the fascinating advent of a modernist icon: Chanel no. 5. Music credit: "Success Dream" (Hooksounds.com) "Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049," Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Jun 28
Episode 46: The Voynich Manuscript
Ciphers, cosmology, cryptology — oh my! This long-awaited episode delves into the pages and the mystery of what some have called the most mysterious manuscript in the world: the Voynich Manuscript, now in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale Uni ... Show More
2h 49m
Oct 2025
Episode 45: The Gardner Heist, Part II
**busts through wall** SHE’S BACK WITH A HALLOWEEN TREAT! That is, if you’re into 3.5-hour podcast episodes about stolen art. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, mostly because it never ends. This episode covers all 13 works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Marc ... Show More
3h 43m
May 2022
Coco Chanel's Iconic Scent
Chanel No 5, the legendary perfume still said to shift one bottle every thirty seconds, was first released in Paris on 5th May, 1921.
Created by Ernest Beaux, its innovative mixture of jasmine, sandalwood, orange blossom and aldehydes gave it a freshness and fizz that turned head ... Show More
11m 59s
Mar 2025
Delve into the splendor of Art Deco treasures
Jewelry is often turned towards the future… In the interwar period, changes were stirring in the world of creative design. Jewelry was imbued with Modernity: radical forms, new materials, speed, lightness... These novel jewelry pieces reflected the changing standards of beauty.
I ... Show More
1m 8s
Jun 2021
83 —Otto Wagner — 5/5 — Proto-Modernist
Our final episode on Otto Wagner considers his relationship to modernism, asking whether Wagner was a predecessor to modernism. We discussed his most modern building, the Österreichische Postsparkasse or Austrian Postal Savings Bank, like so much in Vienna at this time, a coming ... Show More
1h 13m