In this week's episode, meet Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of political science, and learn how his writing helped to shape today's global political landscape. 

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Concrete is, unbelivably, the second-most-used substance in the world - second only to water - and has a truly fascinating history, its secrets lost to time for a millennia or so before re-emerging in the modern era.

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I've returned from my overseas trip feeling a bit unwell, so have had trouble getting episodes out the door on time - also, I'm planning to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode for QAH next week, so send in any questions you want answered!

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In this week's episode, get across a crisis that posed a potentially existential threat to official international cricket in the 1970s, when media mogul Kerry Packer established a private, unofficial cricketing competition known as World Series Cricket.

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Apologies - I didn't manage to get today's episode recorded and edited in time before leaving on a brief overseas trip. I'll be back next week and should have the show up by the 1st or 2nd of March.

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Rubber has a history that is a lot longer than you might expect - it dates back over 3,500 years, to ancient Mesopotamia, and has had a long and interesting journey to become the commonplace material it is today.

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In this week's episode, get to know Xerxes I of the Achaemenid Empire, and think about why his historical legacy is perceived in the way that it is today. 

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Glass, technically, may be a naturally-occuring material, but the way that humans have learn to create, shape, and change it over the millennia has had a strong influence on the way we live our lives - an influence that we take for granted.

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Soap has been used by humans for thousands and thousands of years to keep our things clean, and for hundreds and hundreds of years to keep our bodies clean. By most people, anyway.

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In this week's episode, meet Harriet Tubman, the US activist and abolitionist who aided countless enslaved people in securing their freedom before she went on to take part in the American Civil War. 

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Writing is a transformative invention, enabling human development and advancement by offering language persistence and durability, creating a collective memory for humankind and transmitting meaning across time.

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