The History of Refrigeration

The US has an unusual number of outbreaks of food-borne illness going on in the summer of 2026, and the star of the show is cyclospora. How does this parasite make people sick, where does it come from? You may not want to know.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

It’s rare that the downfall of an empire can be chalked up to the decisions of just one person. It’s even rarer, when the empire falls over the course of a year. That’s pretty much what happened with the Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachev dissolved it.See omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More

Narcolepsy is one of those amazing rare disorders that everyone thinks they understand – people just fall asleep at random times, even in the middle of doing something. But there’s a lot more to it and – even better – we actually may be able to explain it. Josh and Chuck run it d ... Show More

Air conditioning has had a profound impact on modern life -- and in more ways than you might realize. In this trio of Invention episodes, Robert and Joe explore pre-AC cooling methods, the invention itself and the many ways it changed the shape (and temperature) of our lives. Lea ... Show More

The next time you open your fridge, take a second to behold the miracles inside of it: Raspberries from California, butter from New Zealand, steak from Nebraska. None of that would have been remotely possible before the creation of the cold chain. The cold chain is the name for t ... Show More

Did you know that engineers were harnessing electricity long before they even knew what it was? We take a look at the history and tech behind electricity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

In Ancient Persia, ingenious ice houses refrigerate food in one of the hottest deserts on earth. Bronze Age sites on Orkney reveal the secrets of early cold storage systems. A well-known sea captain becomes the face of a global frozen food brand, with a little help from the Inuit ... Show More

Not everything ends up the way it started out, and that includes the lives we live as humans, as well as the inventions we make along the way.Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmildSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Today's tour features some amazing inventions that might have been a heavy lift, but we've been writing about them ever since.Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmildSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

More human ingenuity is on display on today's tour of the Cabinet.Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmildSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

<p>You've probably heard of the Ice Ages -- long periods of reduction in Earth's temperature, triggering massive expansion of glaciers and so on -- but you may not have heard of the "Little Ice Age," a time of regional cooling that, from the 14th to the 19th centuries, dramatical ... Show More

Looking back on things that were made in the past can always be enlightening--and more than a little curious.Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmildSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Some people change the world for the better, and others make it worse. Either way, they make for curious stories.Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmildSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.