Fonts are usually invisible to us; we absorb the written word without noticing the medium (unless someone sends you an... more

How would you feel if you found out you had a very high or a very low IQ? Would it... more

It’s time to talk about the toilet, or crapper, or bog, or the john, head, the comfort station, khazi, dunny,... more

A hundred years ago next to no one was born via Caesarean Section. Today, one in five new arrivals on... more

When this trick was first performed, ushers poured buckets of blood down the gutter outside the theatre to entice people... more

150 years ago a patent was lodged for the first ever pair of jeans (what we’d think of as jeans... more

250 million years ago the armour-plated Placoderm fish invented the act of sex as we know it. Hubba Hubba. Dive... more

You can argue that plastics were invented to save nature from human depredation…that plan backfired a bit!Early plastics were designed... more

The Open Plan Office. A little bit of you might die inside every time you hear those words. But we... more

Today we’re bringing you an episode from Dan Snow’s History Hit. Normal Patented service will resume in the New Year.Accurate... more

Ho ho ho! Come with us on a Christmas tale of invention as we talk to the world’s only Christmas... more

There’s so many versions of Monopoly these days. Which one is the original? London? No. Atlantic City? Uh uh. The... more

Today it’s a Tupperware party and you’re all invited! Tupperware epitomises the post-war suburban dream. But pop open the lid... more

The hieroglyphs seem to hold a lot of secrets about Ancient Egyptians. What do emojis say about us? What on... more

Why did the chicken cross the road? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Who invented the chicken anyway?We... more

Who invented LEGO, the world's favourite toy? To find out we have to head to a Danish fishing village where... more

CROISSANTS WEREN’T INVENTED IN FRANCE. Mon dieu! C’est pas vrai!Today Dallas finds out about the person responsible for bringing the... more

Who invented aliens? We did. Each age invents its own. When we invented robots, aliens became robotic beings. In the... more

The world’s first Loop-the-Loop roller coaster gave so many people whiplash that they kept a medical team on the payroll.Find... more

The Frozen Food industry was invented by the Birdseye company. And that company was started by a living breathing Birdseye;... more

***Real life inventor alert*** We speak to Rick Priestley the co-creator of the weird world of Warhammer where valiant humans,... more

Hold onto your fishing rods guys. We’re tracking down the origins of batteries and it turns out it has a... more

Hope you’re hungry because today we’re opening a can of historical worms as we discover the origins of canned food. How... more

They were cigars the size of ocean liners that floated through the clouds. Cow intestines filled with hydrogen held them... more

What was the first ever internet ad? When was the last time someone actually clicked on one? What happened to... more

Welcome to Patented-Gone-Paranormal!! Thomas Edison tried to make a telephone that called the spirit world. One of the pioneers of... more

For almost a century we’ve been trying to build a star on earth. Not easy with temperatures reaching 150,000,000℃.Today on... more

Linoleum, or “lino”, once ruled the world (of flooring). It appeared everywhere from the Titanic to your gran’s kitchen. But... more

If a Victorian met Elon Musk they would completely get him. The world’s richest man, determined to use technology that... more

George Washington Carver is well known to Americans as the Peanut Man. It’s been written of him that ‘peanuts were... more

The birth of DNA fingerprinting will forever be tied to Leicester, England. It was invented in a lab in the... more

Have you ever heard the story of how punk began?“They are Dickensian-like urchins who with ragged clothes and pockmarked faces... more

From talking sponges to voices frozen in ice, the history of recorded sound is not what you expect.People fantasised about... more

What does Wonder Woman have to do with the invention of the lie detector? Does refusing to yank a donkey’s... more

If humans travel to Mars then by the time they come home all the food they eat will be five... more

We hear from London’s most inaccessible museum, the Met police’s Crime Museum, and take you back to India in the... more

First Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel shocked the world’s eyeballs with her fashion designs. Then she shocked its nostrils with a new... more

Death by tiger bites. Death by prodding. Death from sexual excess. Deaths from over-eating and over-drinking. The opening of graves.These... more

We take PowerPoint for granted. It's as much a fact of life as concrete. Or rainy afternoons. But it hasn’t... more

We talk to the real life Siri in this episode. Susan Bennett was the original voice of Siri back in... more

The Contact Lens. The humble Contact Lens. Oh boy, do we have a rip-roaring episode for you about the humble... more

REAL LIFE INVENTOR ALERT!!!Two jockstraps cleverly sewn together. That was how the very first sports bra was made in 1977.... more

If you feel confused and left behind by cryptocurrency then this is for you. We're taking you on a journey... more

The patent for the Ring doorbell cites this as the starting point. A Heath Robinson looking design with peep holes,... more

Find out what Play-Doh has to do with sooty walls. And how we have a nursery teacher called Kay Zufall... more

Pyres on the Appalachian mountains. Planes spraying chemicals into clouds. Mirrors in space. “I can make it rain, I can... more

!!!REAL LIFE INVENTOR ALERT!!!Usually we talk about dead people on this podcast. It is history after all. But this week... more

The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest building in the world for nearly four thousand years…until it was beaten... more

The transistor; solar panels; the first telecommunications satellite; cell phone networks; UNIX code; information theory. All these and more were... more

90% of everything you own arrived by sea.And there’s one invention to thank above all else – the humble shipping... more

Barbie. What is it about Barbie? Love her or loathe her this 11 ½ inch doll gets a big reaction.Which... more

*tap* *tap* *tap*That’s the sound of physical cash being consigned to the dustbin of history by us tapping cards/phones/watches instead.Contactless... more

No summer blockbuster. No Las Vegas and no skyscrapers in Dubai. No chocolate bars when the weather gets hot. Air... more

The United States has been suffering from a baby formula shortage for months now. It’s shown how reliant we are... more

A pint might be Britain’s most beloved measurement. But what’s the name for the distance a reindeer can walk before... more

Imagine knowing no language at all…*wordlessness*…and then giving birth to one.This is what happened amongst the children at a school... more

When the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead they were trying to stop time, to preserve the body so well that... more

Often mistakenly called Cryogenics, Cryonics is the speculative practice of preserving and storing recently dead bodies at very low temperatures... more

A whistle stop tour of the 50 year history of video games — and all the innovations along the way,... more

The drones are coming. In twenty years there’s going to be a hundred times more flying planes, taxis, parcels in... more

Today we are talking warships: from the revolutionary Tudor ships to modern aircraft carriers, and all the innovations along the... more

The history of Special Effects — from stop motion to motion capture.In just over a century, we special effects have... more

_CW: This episode is a bit saucier than normal with explicit sexual references and some swearing. If that isn’t your... more

The success of the Apollo Missions relied on hugely imaginative engineering. There is perhaps no better example of this than... more

As a result of all the military and medical advancements of World War One there were more seriously injured and... more

Introduced just over 100 years ago, Daylight Savings have always been divisive.So, why are people for and why are people... more

Chicken, mayonnaise, curry powder - and wait, sultanas? What exactly is Coronation Chicken and what does it have to do... more

A cup of coffee was once a luxury. Now it is quick, cheap and widely available — a daily essential... more

“As ancient as time, as modern as tomorrow.’Why have tattoos been reinvented in so many cultures - and with so... more

The telescope marked, arguably, the first invention to truly transform a human sense. For the first time it allowed our... more

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? A UFO maybe? Or is it some reflective Lichen? Where does the... more

On 17 December 1903 the Wright Brothers successful completed the first manned, controlled and sustained flight in human history.They made... more

Invented in the mid-1800s, bicycles have had enduring popularity. Across cultures, they have been embraced, promising freedom and mobility at... more

How — and why — did Prozac become the best-selling antidepressant of all time? As it is Mental Health Awareness Week,... more

How did LSD go from accidental discovery to the counter cultures go to drug?On April 19th 1943 Albert Hoffman had... more

Staples, paper clips, and washers - small inventions that improve our everyday lives and have even saved lives. In this... more

Many of us became familiar with robots through science fiction — R2D2, C3PO, Rosie from the Jetsons, Marvin the Paranoid... more

We put man on the moon before we invented the wheeled suitcase. Why did it take so long? Find out in todays... more

Tanks defined 20th century conflict — they conjure to mind images of Tiananmen Square or the Soviet Army rolling into... more

Nada, naught, nil, zip, zilch, zero. Whatever you call it, it's hard to imagine the world without it. Zero is... more