Advertise on podcast: Documents That Changed the World

"Civis Romanus sum" - "I am a Roman citizen". Well, I'm not, but if I was, it would have been one of the most important phrases in my world. Citizenship confers rights, asks responsibilities, offers protection, and is easy to take for granted unless you haven't got it; and though we don't know why and have literally only fragmentary evidence of it, even a psychopath like Emperor Caracalla recognized its power while massively extending it and forever transforming his empire in the process

A charred notebook, videos of the impossible, espionage, memorials, Helen Keller's letters, papers drifting down from a clear blue sky, flyers of the missing, DNA. In this special episode, we examine objects, records, documents of all kinds, and the people and institutions that collect and keep them, that help us remember a day and a time few could forget.

You read that right, imagine phalanxes of Canadians pouring (insert maple syrup joke here) over the US border to pre-empt a potential American invasion and the colorful character who might have turned neighbors into invaders

Mmmmm...cookies... Just be careful, these cookies can bite back. The story of the untold number of cookies lurking on your browsers, meant to make browsing easier and faster, which became a major threat to privacy on the Internet

The worst thing that ever happened to Henrietta Lacks - the cancer that killed her - is what has immortalized her, in a line of cellular tissue used in research, making her the savior of countless lives - even at the cost of her dignity

Einstein famously didn't say "God doesn't play dice with the universe". But what about cards? That periodic table you stared at in high school has a surprising origin story; once you hear it, you can't unsee it

Let me just jot down this little note - a few words tossed off in the margin of a book, and 3 1/2 centuries of mathematicians banging their heads against walls, ensure, dogged determination to achieve an indisputable outcome, whatever the reason

Road trip! Let's just pack up and go - but where should we go, stay, eat? Easy decisions for some, perilous for others, until a mailman lent his name to a little book that made the journey a whole lot safer, less humiliating and more enjoyable to generations of travelers setting out on the open road to a better future

A compendium of fastests and highests and mosts in a book that nobody needs but millions have enjoyed - documenting the boundaries of human capability; just don't call it trivial, and please, stop eating the bicycles. Golden plover for the win! (or not) (researched by Brooks Scheibler)

Edison invented the movie camera, right? Nope - and therein lies a Hollywood story that doesn't take place anywhere near Hollywood, with guest appearances by Greer Garson, Spencer Tracy, Jack the Ripper, and Louis Le Prince, the real inventor, and his real life mystery (researched/written by Ellianna Thayne)

Just enter the portal and fame and fortune await, right? Maybe, though nothing is guaranteed - one of many misconceptions about a tool that does its job and makes things work, no wormholes required

Who's got your number? Hopefully nobody who isn't supposed to - the origins of the number we (almost) all live by, why and how it's become so necessary, and what happens when you die - or somebody thinks you have

How can you know what you can't read? A writing system without a key, suspended knots and strings we can't interpret, leaving entire peoples also in suspense to understand their past and stories (researched/written by Diego Licea)

"How dare you treat me like this?" The cry of untold millions of consumers with a grievance to air, or type, or phone in - or bake into clay tablets, in the faint but eternal hope of being heard (researched/written by Ellianna Thayne)

How is a galaxy a document? How could it change the world? Well, look out there, as far as we can see, and even farther - and then look inside, and maybe you'll find out.