Sleep Encyclopedia

This episode starts on the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system and home to more than 1500 species of fish, mammals, birds, turtles, and more, and somehow ends up on yokai, monsters or spirits from Japanese folklore that personify supernatural or inexplicable phenomena. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on Druids, ancient Celtic religious leaders as well as judges, medics, and political advisors, and somehow ends up on the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland, which led to England’s claim of sovereignty and the beginning of over 800 years of direct English involvement. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on The Wizard of Oz, an american fairytale published in 1900 that was adapted into a renowned musical and film, and somehow ends up on the Crusades, religious wars initiated and sometimes directed by the medieval Latin church. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on Robert Smalls, a slave who during the US Civil War commandeered a Confederate ship and delivered it to the Union blockade nearby, and somehow ends up on Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot where 90% of plant and animal life are endemic to the island. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on the subject of the Ford Model T, the first affordable automobile and one of the ten most-sold cars of all time, and somehow ends up on the island nation of Jamaica, birthplace of Reggae and the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on the subject of the Himalayan mountain range, which contains over 50 mountains including the highest in the world, Mt. Everest, and somehow ends up on Charles Darwin, an english scientist whose work in the Galapagos led to his role in history as the father of evolution. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on the subject of the guitar, a chordophone instrument that has evidence of existing in some form for thousands of years, and somehow ends up on The Divine Comedy by Dante, an Italian narrative poem that took 12 years to write and has remained one of the greatest works of literature in the 700 years since it was finished. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

e 29: Brine Pools

This episode starts on brine pools, dense underwater lakes with such high salinity anoxic conditions are created that only select few organisms can survive, and somehow ends up on the Second Sino-Japanese War, a conflict that lead to WWII and all started because one Private wasn’t at his post. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.

This episode starts on the Amazon rainforest, which makes up over half of the world’s rainforest and is home to 16,000 different species of trees, and somehow ends up on chess, one of the world’s most popular games for centuries played by millions of people throughout history. How are they connected? You’ll have to listen to find out.