Everyday Abundance: The hidden stories behind everyday technologies
Everyday Abundance uncovers the surprising histories and hidden stories behind everyday activities and technologies we often overlook. Hosts Virginia Postrel and Charles C. Mann explore everything from brushing your teeth to music and driving, revealing the innovations and human ingenuity behind them. The podcast is sponsored by the Abundance Institute and aims to show how everyday life is shaped by often-invisible technological progress.
Episodes
Driving Your Car: What Makes Commutes Possible
Cars transformed modern life—but automobiles alone were not enough. Cars would have been useless without a second invention: driving. Behind the daily commute is a vast, intricate system of customs, laws, and innovations that make driving possible. This system evolved over decades and its development wasn’t easy or fast. Ride along with Virginia Postrel
Blowing Your Nose: The Handkerchief-Industrial Complex
Nineteenth-century cities were crowded, polluted, and brim-full of tuberculosis. The combination of disease and dirty air led to enormous nasal issues—and the rise of the surprisingly large and influential handkerchief trade. Then came Kleenex and the rise of disposable hygiene. Join Virginia Postrel and Charles C. Mann as they explore the strange histo
Shopping for Groceries: The Hunger Games
Grocery shopping in a supermarket is such a commonplace part of everyday existence that it is routinely mocked as a ritual of narcotized consumerism. In fact, the modern supermarket is a radical break with the past—and a nexus of innovations central to contemporary life. Markets have existed for millennia, of course. But they were nothing like the moder
Doing Laundry: Appliances of Freedom
The electric washing machine may be the single most liberating household technology ever invented. Before it arrived, millions of people—mostly women—spent enormous portions of their lives bent over washtubs and washboards. Join Virginia Postrel and Charles C. Mann as they explore how laundry technology transformed work, family life, public health, and
Listening to Music: Treble Makers
For nearly all of history, hearing music required someone physically making it nearby and the only music humans ever heard was whistling or singing. Even when instruments became widespread, music was rare. The idea that people could hear any music they wanted at the push of a button was undreamed of. Listen along with Virginia, Charles, and special gues
Brushing Your Teeth: The 12,000 Year War
When George Washington was inaugurated, he had only one natural tooth left—a condition far more typical in the past than modern people realize. For thousands of years, tooth pain was simply part of human life. A primary reason for the problem: effective tooth-cleaning methods simply didn’t exist. Join Virginia and Charles as they celebrate two overlooke
Making a Meal of the Family Meal: Cooking Dinner
Evening after evening, billions of people march into the kitchen and cook dinner. Standing over the stove seems like a timeless activity—an impression reinforced if one comes across old TV shows like those starring Lucille Ball or Dick Van Dyke. Watching those black-and-white families in the kitchen, it’s easy to believe you are looking through the scre
Working Out: The Invention of Exercise
I worked out after work: Few sentences would have been more baffling to people in the 19th century, especially if spoken by a woman. Join Virginia and Charles as they explore a little-noticed revolution in daily life: the transformation of hard physical labor from a daily burden to an emblem of personal virtue—and a globe-spanning, multibillion-dollar
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