All Episodes

February 13, 2024 39 mins

It bears repeating that we live in strange times. Take, for instance, duplication technology. Today, no matter who you are, you can draw an image or scribble out some text, and copy it as many times as you’d like. Yet when we consider that copying tech in historical perspective, we discover that this ability is new. For most of the human past, only wealthy elites could clone massive stacks of duplicated materials. Printing has been around for a surprisingly long time, but easy access to portable copying technology is a clear sign of the peculiarity of the present-day.

Join your favorite professional historian on a journey around the globe—to Indonesia, Iraq, China, Germany and Virginia—and find out about how the arts and sciences of duplication have changed over the centuries, and how that journey teaches us about our fundamentally odd world. Along the way, you’ll get to hear a professional historian’s expert audio simulation of a copying technique that dates back nearly 40,000 years. And you’ll hear shocking statements about Thomas Jefferson’s elbows.

Learn more about this rogue, underdog, Hail Mary pass of a project at findyourselfinhistory.com !

Support the show

Thanks for listening! To learn more about this history project, check out findyourselfinhistory.com.

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.