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Browse through all our articles exploring history's most obscure corners

How Do You Starve a Farming Country?

Apr 13, 2026

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15 min read

How Do You Starve a Farming Country?

How economic systems can create scarcity in the midst of plenty

Deep Dive

+2

THE KING AND THE COINS

Apr 6, 2026

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17 min read

THE KING AND THE COINS

A Nevada millionaire spent his life trying to build a country. A Melanesian prophet spent his trying to get one back. For ninety days in 1980, they almost had one.

Wires to Nowhere

Mar 30, 2026

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18 min read

Wires to Nowhere

The hidden cost of betting everything on a future that may not arrive.

Deep Dive

+1

The Nation That Charity Built

Mar 23, 2026

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21 min read

The Nation That Charity Built

The story of Liberia

19th Century

+3

The Accidental Architect

Mar 16, 2026

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19 min read

The Accidental Architect

Napoleon's Empire Crumbled. The Tools He Built To Rule It Are Still Running the World.

21st Century

+3

The Man Who Stole a Skyscraper

Mar 9, 2026

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12 min read

The Man Who Stole a Skyscraper

One night's reservation. Five years rent-free. One very obscure law.

Deep Dive

+2

The Ships That Shook Britain: How Pirate Radio Forced a Nation to Rock and Roll

Mar 2, 2026

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5 min read

The Ships That Shook Britain: How Pirate Radio Forced a Nation to Rock and Roll

Ancient World

+2

Episode Page: The Antikythera Mechanism: The 2,000-Year-Old Computer That Shouldn't Exist

Feb 28, 2026

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28 min read

Episode Page: The Antikythera Mechanism: The 2,000-Year-Old Computer That Shouldn't Exist

This episode is based on our newsletter deep-dive: Episode Page: The Antikythera Mechanism: The 2,000-Year-Old Computer That Shouldn't Exist

19th Century

+3

Prophets and Power: The Unsettling Early Chapters of America's Homegrown Faith

Feb 23, 2026

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3 min read

Prophets and Power: The Unsettling Early Chapters of America's Homegrown Faith

The Mormon Church Story

Deep Dive

+3

The Most Dangerous Dream Ever Produced

Feb 16, 2026

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3 min read

The Most Dangerous Dream Ever Produced

The Story of Roar.

Bodies & Contagion

+3

WHEN DISEASES BREAK THEIR OWN RULES

Feb 9, 2026

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4 min read

WHEN DISEASES BREAK THEIR OWN RULES

The Sweating Disease, the Vanishing Leprosy, and What We Still Don't Understand About How Sickness Kills--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Illuminating History's Strangest Corners | Issue #20 | February 2026

Ghosts of Genius

+3

The Fiction of Facts: Cooking the Books Since Ancient Rome

Feb 2, 2026

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2 min read

The Fiction of Facts: Cooking the Books Since Ancient Rome

Illuminating History's Strangest Corners | Issue #19 | February 2026

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The Accountant Who Broke the Church

Jul 6, 2026

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5 min read

The Accountant Who Broke the Church

Jakob Fugger just wanted his 3%. The Reformation was a side effect.

The Victory Roll

Jun 29, 2026

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4 min read

The Victory Roll

When Washington decided a movie star's hairstyle was a national security problem

Charity, With Benefits

Jun 22, 2026

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5 min read

Charity, With Benefits

The first orphanage was also the first Renaissance building. The second gave us Vivaldi. Neither was built to matter this much.

Annulled in Ten Weeks, Cited for Eight Centuries

Jun 15, 2026

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4 min read

Annulled in Ten Weeks, Cited for Eight Centuries

How a king's insincere signature became the foundation of constitutional government

Ten Centavos

Jun 8, 2026

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3 min read

Ten Centavos

How a tax dispute cost Bolivia its coast, its copper, and its future

Worth His Weight in Gold

Jun 1, 2026

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3 min read

Worth His Weight in Gold

The Spectacular Weighing Ceremonies of the Aga Khan

The Knowledge Has Blood in It

May 27, 2026

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5 min read

The Knowledge Has Blood in It

How civilization turned suffering into science — and never settled the debt

The Disaster That Built the Building Code

May 18, 2026

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6 min read

The Disaster That Built the Building Code

Inside the deadly Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

The Safest Thing to Eat Was Never Bread

May 11, 2026

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8 min read

The Safest Thing to Eat Was Never Bread

A century of chemistry, war, and quiet compromises inside the most basic food

It Started Over Coffee: The Gossip That Insured the World

May 4, 2026

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6 min read

It Started Over Coffee: The Gossip That Insured the World

The Accidental Architect: How a Missed Train Gave the World Its Clock

Apr 27, 2026

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6 min read

The Accidental Architect: How a Missed Train Gave the World Its Clock

The Bailout That Smelled Like Flowers

Apr 20, 2026

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7 min read

The Bailout That Smelled Like Flowers

The Other Tulip Mania Story

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Where history’s hidden structures come into focus.

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