episode-header-image

Feb 2023

1h 21m

64: History of Everything: The Wonderful...

About this episode

Silk is a fabric first produced in Neolithic China from the filaments of the cocoon of the silk worm. It became a staple source of income for small farmers and, as weaving techniques improved, the reputation of Chinese silk spread so that it became highly desired across the empires of the ancient world. As China's most important export for much of its history, the material gave its name to the great trading network the Silk Road, which connected East Asia to Europe, India, and Africa

Bonus episodes as well as ad-free episodes on Patreon.

Find us on Instagram. Join us on Discord.

Submit your relatives on our website

Join the Book Club on http://chirpbooks.com/history

Get some delicious COFFEE

Podcast Youtube Channel

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next

When the US Military Tried to Control the West With Camels

When you think of camels, you probably don’t associate them with the military. But, you might be surprised to learn that up until the end of the Civil War, camels actually played a key role in military strategy. Travel to Thailand with me ⁠here⁠ Check out our sister podcast the ⁠ ... Show More

Bonus: The Coup Leader Who’s Become an Anti-Western Hero in Africa: Ibrahim Traore

Three years ago, Ibrahim Traoré was a junior army officer in Burkina Faso’s armed forces. Today, he has emerged as a surprising anti-Western hero preaching self-reliance and resilience with fans across Africa and beyond. But what happened to get us to this point? Learn more about ... Show More

Genius, Innovation, and Jealousy: The Story of Bell Labs

For most of the 20th century, Bell Labs was the beating heart of American innovation. Founded in 1925 as the research arm of AT&T and Western Electric, it was the world’s preeminent industrial research laboratory. If you used a phone, accessed the internet, or wrote code, you wer ... Show More

Recommended Episodes

The Silk Road: everything you wanted to know

The Silk Road is one of the most famous trade routes in history, a vast interconnected network along which not only goods but ideas, knowledge and culture flowed. Sam Willis joins Rebecca Franks to discuss its remarkable history and answer listener questions on the subject, spotl ... Show More

From the Mongols to the Huns: the nomads who dominated Eurasia

From the Huns, Mongols and Magyars to the Turks, Xiongnu, Scythians and Goths, these nomadic people of the Eurasian steppes built long-lasting empires, facilitated global trade via the Silk Road and widely disseminated religion, technology, knowledge and goods. Speaking to Emily ... Show More

Ancient South Asia

South Asia - encompassing Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan - is one of the cradles of human civilization, and today it's home to one in every four people in the world. But who were the early inhabitants of South Asia, where had they come from, and what led them to develop agricult ... Show More

132. Journey to Nalanda and the Library of Jewels

In late autumn, 629 AD, Xuanzang set out for the great university of Nalanda from Chang’an. Across the desert, over the Pamirs, and through multiple robberies, it was an epic journey. As he neared the Buddhist heartlands, he saw Buddhism in decline with its monasteries increasing ... Show More

A Brief History of the Mongol Empire

In the year 1162, in the Khentii Mountains of what is today Northeastern Mongolia, a baby by the name of Temüjin was born. He would go on to become the single greatest conqueror and establish the largest contiguous empire in world history. His empire would reverberate throughou ... Show More

Neolithic China and Jomon Japan

East Asia was one of the world's primary centers of agricultural innovation. Farming was invented there, rice and millet domesticated, and the people who did so grew in numbers and sophistication. Some of the world's most-spoken language families grew out of Neolithic China, and ... Show More

The Dawn of History in China

China’s written history goes back more than 3,000 years, stretching deep into the Bronze Age. But just how far back does it go, and how reliable are those first legendary texts when discussing a world that had already been lost for centuries? They speak of powerful kings and capi ... Show More

Liangzhu: Cradle of Chinese Civilisation?

Where do you begin to understand the origins of Chinese civilization? Located near the Yangtze River, the treasures of the Liangzhu culture can be found, a civilisation that dates back to the Neolithic. Today, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Yijie Zhuang from University College L ... Show More

The Indus Valley Civilization

Egypt and Mesopotamia are the most famous civilizations of the ancient world, but at the same time in South Asia - today's Pakistan and India - an even larger and more populous society came into being: the Indus Valley Civilization, whose peak lasted from 2600 to 1900 BC. But the ... Show More

The Yamnaya Culture and the Proto-Indo-European Migrations

More than 5,000 years ago, a group of wandering herders on the Eurasian steppes - the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European - began to move outward from their homeland. With their wagons, horses, and livestock, they traveled hundreds of miles through the Danube Valley and into ... Show More

Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami