The World of Diamonds

This article takes listeners on a sparkling journey through the world of diamonds, exploring their billion-year formation, fascinating history, and cultural significance. Host Olivia Harper enthusiastically explains how diamonds became symbols of love and power, delves into the 4 Cs (cut, clarity, color, carat), and shares stories of famous diamonds like the Hope Diamond and Cullinan. The article thoughtfully examines ethical considerations in diamond mining, the emergence of lab-grown alternatives, and includes expert insights from a gemologist on distinguishing natural from synthetic diamonds. With Olivia's engaging, conversational style, the complex science and controversial history of diamonds becomes accessible and entertaining. For more engaging podcasts just like this one, head over to https://www.quietperiodplease.com/ - your destination for thoughtfully produced content that both entertains and educates!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, they're gem enthusiasts and curious minds. This is Olivia Harper,
and you're listening to Jewelry, where we dive into the
sparkling world of precious stones and metals that have captivated
humanity since well forever. Today's episode, Diamonds are Forever, all
about the world's most coveted stone. I've got my coffee

(00:20):
right here. Oops, almost spilled it on my notes, classic me,
and I am beyond excited to take you on this
crystalline adventure. So sit back, maybe pour yourself something fancy
in a sparkly glass, and let's get dazzling. Okay, So diamonds, diamonds.
Just saying the word feels magical, doesn't It Like you're

(00:41):
summoning something ancient and powerful and impossibly beautiful, And in
a way you are. These incredible little carbon packages have
been forming in the depths of our planet for literally
billions of years. Billions that's older than dinosaurs, older than
most mountains, older than well, pretty much everything except the
Earth itself. Every time I think about holding a diamond,

(01:03):
I'm like this thing started forming before there were even
flowers on this planet. Mind blown. The word diamond comes
from the Greek word atamus, which means unconquerable or indestructible,
and honestly pretty accurate branding. These gems are the hardest
natural substance we know of, scoring a perfect ten on

(01:25):
the Mose hardness scale. For context, your fingernail is about
a two point five and a steel knife is around
five point five. So when people say diamonds are forever,
they're not just quoting James Bond. These babies can literally
last forever under normal conditions. They resist scratching, They don't
oxidize or weather away like other materials unless you have

(01:46):
industrial equipment or I don't know a volcano handy that
diamond is sticking around. Humanity's love affair with diamonds goes
way way back. The earliest diamonds were found in India,
probably around the fourth century BCEE, though some historians think
they might have been discovered even earlier. Can you imagine
being the first person to pick up this strange, sparkly rock.

(02:11):
At first, diamonds weren't even primarily used as jewelry. People
valued them for their supposed mystical properties. They thought diamonds
could cure illness, counteract poison, and even ward off evil spirits.
Kings wore them into battle as protective talismans. I mean,
if I had to go into medieval combat, I'd probably
want all the sparkly protection I could get too. For

(02:33):
thousands of years, India was the world's only source of diamonds.
The famous gul Conda mines produced some of history's most
legendary stones, but by the seventeen hundreds, India's diamond supplies
were starting to dwindle. Then, in seventeen twenty five, plot
Twist diamonds were discovered in Brazil and the global diamond

(02:53):
trade shifted. Fast forward to eighteen sixty six and some
farm kids in South Africa found a pretty pebble that
turned out to be a twenty one carrot diamond. Cue
the diamond rush. Within a few years, South Africa became
the world's leading diamond producer, and a little company called
Debier's maybe you've heard of them, was founded. And this

(03:15):
is where our diamond story gets complicated. Because wild diamonds
themselves might be brilliantly clear, the history of diamond mining
is anything but The harsh reality is that diamond mining
has a dark past, entangled with colonialism, exploitation and environmental damage.
In many places, indigenous populations were displaced, workers faced dangerous

(03:38):
conditions and pitiful wages, and entire ecosystems were disrupted. The
term blood diamonds or conflict diamonds emerged in the late
twentieth century to describe diamond's mind in war zones and
sold to finance insurgency, military activity, or warlord activity. The
Kimberly Process was established in two thousand and three to

(03:59):
prevent these conflict diamonds from entering the mainstream market. It
requires participating countries to certify that their diamond exports are
conflict free. But here's the tricky part. The Kimberly Process
has significant limitations. It defines conflict diamonds narrowly as those
that finance rebel movements, but doesn't address broader human rights abuses,

(04:20):
worker exploitation, or environmental damage. It's like having a bouncer
who only checks if you're carrying weapons, but doesn't care
about other forms of troublemaking. Today, diamond mining continues in
countries across Africa, Russia, Australia, and Canada, among others. Modern
mining methods range from industrial operations using massive machinery to

(04:42):
extract diamonds from kimberlight pipes. These vertical columns of igneous
rock that brought diamonds up from the mantle. So cool
from a geology perspective, to artisanal mining, where individuals pan
for diamonds in river beds or dig small pits. And
while conditions have improved in many places, challenges remain, especially
in regions with limited oversight or ongoing conflicts. But let's

(05:07):
zoom in for a minute and talk about what makes
a diamond special from a gemological perspective. If you've ever
shopped for a diamond, or even just scrolled through jewelry
sites late at night, no judgment, we've all been there,
you've probably heard about the four seas, cut, clarity, color,
and carrot. These are the factors that determine a diamond's
quality and value, and they were standardized by the Gemological

(05:30):
Institute of America GIA to give us all a common
language for describing these precious stones. First up, cut, and
I cannot stress this enough. Cut is everything. It's not
about the shape of the diamond, though we'll get to that,
but about how well the diamond has been cut to
interact with light. A well cut diamond has perfect proportions

(05:50):
that allow it to take in light and reflect it
back out through the top, creating that fire and brilliance
we all love. Too shallow or too deep and lightly
peks out the sides or bottom cut is graded from
excellent to poor, and it's the one factor that's determined
by human skill rather than nature. A master diamond cutter

(06:11):
is like a sculptor who can see the potential masterpiece
within a rough stone, except their chisel is a mistake
away from turning millions into dust. No pressure. Next is clarity,
which refers to the absence of inclusions, internal flaws and
blemishes surface flaws. Most diamonds have some tiny imperfections, but

(06:33):
the fewer and less visible they are, the higher the
clarity grade. The scale ranges from flawless no inclusions or
blemishes visible under ten times magnification, to included inclusions visible
to the naked eye. Here's a fun fact. Those tiny
inclusions are like a diamond's fingerprint, uniquely yours. Sometimes gemologists

(06:56):
can even tell where a diamond came from based on
its inclusions little signature right there in your ring. Then
there's color or ideally the lack of it. For most diamonds,
the less color, the more valuable. The GIA color scale
runs from D completely colorless to Z light yellow or brown.

(07:17):
Each letter represents a range of color that's so subtle
you need special lighting and comparison stones to grade accurately.
But plot twist. There are also fancy colored diamonds in
vibrant hues like blue, pink, and yellow, which are extremely
rare and often more valuable than colorless diamonds. The famous
Hope diamond is a deep blue and pink. Diamonds from

(07:40):
the Argyle mine in Australia have sold for millions per carrot. Finally,
we have carrot, which refers to the diamond's weight. One
carrot equals two hundred milligrams, about the weight of a
paper clip. But here's the thing. Carrot is about weight,
not size. Two one carrot diamonds can actually appear quite
different in size depending on how they're cut and their

(08:02):
exact dimensions, and price increases exponentially with carrot weight because
larger diamonds are rarer. A two carrot diamond doesn't cost
twice as much as a one carrot diamond, it costs
significantly more like getting charged extra for winning the lottery.
Beyond the four seas, diamonds come in various shapes that
affect their appearance and sometimes their price. The round, brilliant

(08:27):
cut is the most popular and has been mathematically optimized
for maximum sparkle, but there are also fancy shapes like
princess square, emerald rectangular with step cuts, cushion square with
rounded corners, oval, pear, marquies, and heart. Each shape has
its own personality and way of interacting with light. I've

(08:50):
always thought of the emerald cut as the sophisticated, intellectual
of diamond shapes, while the heart shape is like that
friend who's always a little extra, but you love them
any way. Now let's talk about some of the world's
most famous diamonds, because if regular diamonds are stars, these
are the super novas of the gem world. The Hope

(09:10):
diamond it's probably the most notorious, a forty five point
five to carrot deep blue diamond currently housed at the Smithsonian.
Legend has it that the Hope diamond is cursed, bringing
misfortune and tragedy to those who possess it. While that's
mostly melodramatic mythmaking, the stone does have a wild history
of theft, mysterious deaths, and financial ruin. It was likely

(09:33):
mined in India in the sixteen hundreds, owned by King
Louis the fourteenth of France, stolen during the French Revolution,
and eventually made its way to America. Blue diamonds get
their color from trace amounts of boron in the crystal structure,
a scientific explanation that's far less exciting than a century's
old curse, but still pretty cool. Then there's the cullen

(09:55):
In diamond, the largest gem quality rough diamond ever found
discovered in South Africa in nineteen o five. It originally
weighed a mind boggling three thousand, one hundred six carrots
that's over one point three pounds of diamond. It was
cut into nine major stones and numerous smaller ones. The

(10:15):
largest piece, Cullinan the Phryne or the Great Star of Africa,
weighs five hundred thirty point four carrots and is set
in the British Sovereign's scepter with cross. Cullinan two, the
second largest, at three hundred and seventeen point four carrots,
is part of the Imperial State Crown. Both are part
of the British Crown Jewels, which is either impressive or

(10:35):
a complicated reminder of colonialism, depending on your perspective. The
co Enoor is another legendary diamond with a complex history.
Its name means mountain of light in Persian, and it
was once the largest known diamond in the world. Its
exact origins are unclear, but it changed hands repeatedly through
conquest and was eventually acquired by the British during their

(10:57):
colonial rule of India. Today, it's set in the Crown
of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and remains in the
British Crown Jewels, despite ongoing calls for its return to India.
The Conor weighs one hundred and five point six carrots
and has been recut several times throughout its history, most
recently in eighteen fifty two to increase its brilliance, though

(11:17):
this reduced its size by about forty percent. Imagine having
the confidence to cut away forty percent of one of
the world's most valuable diamonds. I get anxiety just selecting
which doughnut to eat from a box. These famous diamonds
capture our imagination, not just because of their incredible size
and beauty. But because they've witnessed centuries of human history.

(11:39):
They've passed through the hands of monarchs and merchants, been
spoils of war and symbols of power, traveled across continents
and oceans. They remind us that diamonds aren't just pretty rocks.
They're artifacts that connect us to our past. But what
about the future of diamonds. This is where things get
really interesting, because we're in the midst of a significant

(12:01):
shift in the diamond industry with the rise of lab
grown diamonds. Yes, you heard that right, diamonds made in laboratories.
And I'm not talking about cubic zirconia or moist senaiae
or other diamond simulants. These are actual diamonds, chemically, physically,
and optically identical to mind diamonds. The only difference is
their origin. Lab grown diamonds are created using one of

(12:24):
two methods, high pressure high temperature HPHT or chemical vapor
deposition CVD. HPHT mimics the natural conditions under which diamonds
form in the Earth, using massive presses to apply extreme
pressure and temperature to a carbon source. CVD, on the
other hand, grows diamonds layer by layer in a chamber

(12:45):
filled with carbon rich gas. Both processes result in real
diamonds that even professional gemologists can't distinguish from mind diamonds
without specialized equipment. The rise of lab grown diamonds has
been meteoric. When they first enter the jewelry market around
twenty fifteen, they were about twenty five to thirty percent
less expensive than equivalent mind diamonds. Today, that price difference

(13:09):
has widened significantly, with lab grown diamonds often fifty to
seventy percent less expensive, and they're gaining popularity fast, especially
among younger consumers, who are often more price conscious and
environmentally aware. The environmental impact of lab grown diamonds compared
to mind diamonds is complicated. Lab grown diamonds do avoid

(13:31):
the direct environmental damage of mining, no open pits, no
habitat destruction, no water pollution from mind tailings, but they
require significant energy to produce. If that energy comes from
fossil fuels, the carbon footprint can still be substantial. However,
many lab diamond producers are now using renewable energy sources,
and the technology continues to improve. A twenty fourteen study

(13:54):
found that mind diamonds require twice as much energy per
caret as lab grown diamonds, though the diamond mining industry
disputes these figures. From a social and ethical perspective, lab
grown diamonds entirely avoid issues related to conflict, financing, or
worker exploitation in mining. However, they also don't provide the
livelihoods that mining does for communities in diamond producing countries.

(14:18):
In places like Botswana, diamond mining has been a key
driver of economic development and accounts for a significant portion
of the country's GDP and export earnings. It's a classic
example of how technological disruption can create benefits in some
areas while posing challenges in others. The diamond mining industry
initially responded to lab grown diamonds with dismissal, then alarm,

(14:39):
and now adaptation. Debers, which historically fought to maintain the
prestige and value of natural diamonds, launched its own lab
grown diamond brand called light Box in twenty eighteen. Other
mining companies are diversifying their operations or emphasizing the uniqueness
and romantic appeal of natural diamonds formed over billions of

(15:00):
years deep within the earth. For consumers, the choice between
mind and lab grown diamonds often comes down to personal
values and priorities. If tradition, natural origin, and potential investment
value are important, mind diamonds might be the preference. If
maximizing size for budget and minimizing potential ethical concerns are priorities,

(15:21):
lab grown diamonds offer an appealing alternative. Either way, It's
worth noting that both mind and lab grown diamonds hold
their brilliance and durability equally well. They're both forever in
that sense. I recently had the opportunity to interview doctor
Eliza Chen, a gemologist with twenty years of experience examining
both natural and lab grown diamonds. When I asked her

(15:45):
how to spot the difference between the two, she laughed
and said the simple answer is you can't. Not with
the naked eye, not with a standard jeweler's loop, not
even with most of the equipment in a typical jewelry store.
The only reliable methods involve specialized spectrum roscopy equipment that
detects subtle growth patterns or traces of metallic catalysts used
in the lab process. What about resale value, Doctor Chen

(16:09):
was candid. Natural diamonds typically retain some portion of their value,
though usually significantly less than what you paid retail. Lab
grown diamonds have a much lower resale value currently similar
to other luxury purchases like electronics or fashion, but the
market is still evolving and consumers should primarily view both

(16:29):
types as purchases for enjoyment rather than investment. I asked
her what misconception about diamonds she most wanted to correct,
and she didn't. Hesitate that there's a right choice between
mind and lab grown. There isn't. It's deeply personal, like
choosing between vintage and new fashion, or analog and digital music.

(16:51):
What matters is transparency, knowing exactly what you're buying and
making an informed choice that aligns with your values. The
diamond industry is changing in other ways too. Blockchain technology
is being used to track diamonds from mind to market,
providing greater transparency and verification of ethical sourcing claims. New

(17:12):
diamond cuts and setting styles are emerging, challenging traditional esthetics,
and diamonds are increasingly being marketed beyond the engagement ring
context as self purchase luxury items or fashion accessories. Scientists
are also exploring new frontiers in diamond application beyond jewelry.
Because of their exceptional hardness and thermal conductivity, diamonds are

(17:35):
used in cutting tools, heat sinks, for electronics, and even
quantum computing. Some companies are developing technology to create diamonds
from carbon captured from the atmosphere, or even from cremated
remains or locks of hair, literally transforming a loved one's
carbon into a diamond keepsake. I'm still deciding if that's
deeply meaningful or slightly creepy, but it's definitely a fascinating

(17:58):
use of the technology. The story of diamonds is, in
many ways, the story of us, our values, our technologies,
our social structures, our relationship with the natural world. From
ancient Indian minds to modern laboratories, from royal treasuries to
engagement rings, diamonds have been woven into human culture in

(18:19):
profound ways. They've inspired myths and marketing campaigns, sparked wars
and peace treaties, symbolized eternal love and unbridled power. Whether
natural or lab grown, diamonds continue to captivate us with
their extraordinary beauty and remarkable properties. These tiny crystals of
carbon formed through extreme pressure serve as a reminder that

(18:42):
transformation is possible, that something ordinary can become exceptional. Perhaps
that's why they resonate so deeply as symbols of commitment
and achievement. They embody the idea that pressure creates something
enduring and beautiful. As we look to the future, the
diamond industry will un and doubtedly continue to evolve. New
sources may be discovered, new technologies developed, new meanings abscribed

(19:06):
to these brilliant stones. But one thing seems certain. Our
fascination with diamonds isn't going anywhere. Like the stones themselves,
it's forever. Well. I think I've probably sparkled on for
long enough now. Thanks so much for listening to this
episode of Jewelry. I'm your host, Olivia Harper, and if
you enjoyed this deep dive into the world of diamonds,

(19:27):
please subscribe so you don't miss our future gemstone adventures.
This episode was brought to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks.
For more content like this, please go to Quiet Please
dot AI. Until next time, keep shining bright like ooh, well,
you know