Have you ever looked at a drawing and felt your brain simply refuse to accept that it was made with coloured pencils? In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I sit down for my very first guest interview with Milla, a remarkably self-taught hyper-realist coloured pencil artist behind the Instagram account @portraitsby.milla.

Before diving into Milla’s captivating creative process, I will break down the fascinating, forgotten history of coloured pencils, from their 19th-century origins as utilitarian accounting tools to the heated debates between wax vs. oil-based cores (and why NASA never actually used graphite pencils in zero gravity).

Together, we will explore the reality of spending 80+ hours on a single portrait, the secret technique behind drawing flowing water and luminous skin tones, overcoming self-doubt as an artist without formal institutional training, and why erasing is often more powerful than adding pigments.

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Music Credits: Track: "Algoma" by Ross Bugden

A thought inside a human brain is temporary, private, and disappears when the person who had it dies. Ink is the alchemy that changes that: it pulls a thought out of the dark, presses it into the physical world, and makes it stay. Ink is liquid memory.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I trace the profound history, chemistry, and human courage behind the marks we leave behind. From 45,000-year-old cave stencils to Egyptian soot formulas that lasted four millennia, we explore how simple liquids transformed human communication.

Discover the wasp-gall chemical reaction that wrote the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, the secret invisible inks of George Washington’s Culper Ring, Rembrandt’s true brown sketching ink, and the enduring mystery of the untranslated Voynich Manuscript.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey through time and memory, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

Music Credits: Track: "Algoma" by Ross Bugden

Right now, millions of dogs are sitting on sofas, sleeping at our feet, or looking at us with those impossible puppy-dog eyes. Dogs sit in our living rooms as our closest companions, hiding the fact that they are part of a 40,000-year co-evolutionary partnership unlike anything else in the natural world.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Pets, I talk about how ancient wolves partly domesticated themselves by choosing to stay near human campfires, how an Ice Age grave reveals 14,000-year-old human empathy, and why dogs evolved a brand-new facial muscle specifically to communicate with our emotions.

From the 14,000-year-old remains of the Bonn-Oberkassel puppy to the Coast Salish woolly dogs sheared for ceremonial blankets; from mutual oxytocin feedback loops to the shipwreck origins of Madagascar's royal Coton de Tuléar - you will look at your dog with entirely different eyes.

• The Self-Domestication Myth: How wolves chose proximity to human campfires and accidentally started an evolutionary partnership.

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

Music Credits: Track: "Algoma" by Ross Bugden

Right now, millions of people around the world are holding a pen, flipping through a notebook, or sticking a small yellow note onto a computer monitor. Stationery sits quietly on our desks as a daily utility, hiding the fact that it is the fundamental technology upon which every other human accomplishment was recorded.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, host Aleksandra pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary history, psychology, and engineering behind paper, pens, and office tools. Discover how ancient writing surfaces shaped human memory, how a failed aerospace glue became a global phenomenon, and why Japan spent a century solving the tiny, invisible frustrations of our working lives.

From the 5,000-year-old papyrus scrolls of the Nile to the high-stakes escape of ballpoint inventor László Bíró; from the neural pathways activated by handwriting to the precision engineering of self-rotating mechanical pencils, you will look at your desk with entirely different eyes.

The First Writing Surfaces: How ancient Egyptian papyrus and Chinese rag-pulp paper transformed human record-keeping.

The Man Behind the Biro: The moving story of László Bíró, the Jewish-Hungarian journalist who traded his fortune to save his family before his invention conquered the globe.

The Post-it Note Accidents: How a failed aerospace adhesive and an irritated church choir singer accidentally created the world's most recognizable office product.

The Psychology of the Tool-Body Self: Why humans view fluent tools as extensions of their own minds, and how writing by hand changes neural processing compared to typing.

Monozukuri & Micro-Friction: How Japanese design philosophy focuses on eliminating the tiny, subconscious annoyances that ruin a workday.

The Stationery Oscars: Inside the Bunbougu Taisho, where front-line shop clerks judge products on ergonomic comfort and psychological satisfaction.

Engineering Miracles: The mechanics behind self-rotating graphite pencils, self-resetting erasers, and stapleless paper fasteners.

The Cult of Techo: How washi tape, ultra-thin Tomoe River paper, and ritualised paper planning created a global community of analog enthusiasts.

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

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Listen here: https://youtu.be/_oHK9oF2Z7Q?si=_4g5VvOleYon70rW

Right now, in millions of kitchens simultaneously across the globe, water is being brought to a boil and rice is being added to a pot. Half of humanity relies on this single grain as their primary daily source of calories. Yet, for many of us, it sits quietly in the pantry as an optional side dish hiding the fact that it is arguably the most consequential plant in human history.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I pull back the curtain on the incredible, high-stakes science, politics, and history behind rice. We unpack how this ancient grass didn't just feed civilizations, but actively engineered human geography, shaped collectivist Asian social structures, served as currency in feudal Japan, and drove an agricultural revolution that saved over a billion lives.

From the 2,000-year-old mountain terraces built by the Ifugao people in the Philippines to the stolen West African agricultural engineering that built early America's wealth; from the real science behind "fried rice syndrome" and arsenic hacks to the 25-year battle over Golden Rice - look at the simple pot on your hob with entirely different eyes.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

Music Credits: Track: "Algoma" by Ross Bugden Listen here: https://youtu.be/_oHK9oF2Z7Q?si=_4g5VvOleYon70rW

Look at the small glue stick resting in your desk drawer or the delicate seam holding the glass screen to the frame of your smartphone. The ordinary, routine act of sticking two materials together seems completely mundane today. It was never actually invented in a modern corporate chemical lab, marketed as a trendy household convenience, or designed for disposable modern crafts. Instead, it began as a primitive survival strategy, sparked chemical engineering in the fire pits of Neanderthals 200,000 years ago, and ultimately laid the foundation for a quiet technological revolution that invisibly preserves human knowledge, holds modern airliners in the sky, and builds the composite world around us.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I pull back the curtain on the incredible history behind adhesives. I will unpack the wild, prehistoric adaptations used by Neanderthals to transform birch bark into synthetic tar long before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe, exploring how the unique physics of hafting a blade onto a handle transformed early hunting and set the baseline for human intelligence.

From the gilded, 3,000-year-old furniture inside Tutankhamun’s tomb held together by boiled animal collagen, to the foul-smelling 19th-century industrial glue works that powered Victorian manufacturing at a heavy social cost. Finally, we explore the accidental invention of superglue, why modern aerospace engineers trust liquid epoxy over heavy metal bolts on the Airbus A380, and the gruesome ways nature uses adhesive from underwater barnacle cement to honeybees mummifying invaders inside the hive.

Look at the invisible joints holding your physical world together with entirely different eyes.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

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Look at the small garlic clove sitting on your cutting board or the golden jar of honey resting quietly at the back of your kitchen cupboard. The ordinary, routine act of crushing an ingredient or spreading a spoonful over toast seems completely mundane today. It was never actually invented in a modern sterile laboratory, concocted as a pharmaceutical formula, or designed by high-tech biotechnology. Instead, it began as a collection of kitchen staples, sparked empirical survival through thousands of years of human trial and error, and ultimately laid the foundation for a microscopic war that turned a single mouldy melon into a mass-produced lifesaver.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I pull back the curtain on the incredible, high-stakes science and history behind our fight against bacterial infection. I will unpack the wild, ancient adaptations used by Egyptian physicians and medieval healers to treat deadly wounds with mouldy bread and copper salts, exploring how the hidden chemistry of crushed garlic and the osmotic physics of honey kept humanity alive long before anyone ever knew bacteria existed.

From the thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon recipe that modern microbiologists proved can destroy up to 90% of MRSA superbugs, to the dark days of World War II where doctors in Oxford had to recycle the urine of a dying policeman just to keep his experimental treatment going. Finally, we explore the forgotten story of "Moldy Mary," a Peoria market cantaloupe that boosted global penicillin production by 1,000 times, and what the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance means for the future of medicine.

Look at the ordinary ingredients in your kitchen cabinet with entirely different eyes.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

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Look at the small metallic disc resting on your wrist or the quiet tick ticking away on a bedside table. The ordinary, routine gesture of glancing down to check the hour seems completely mundane today. It was never actually invented as a luxury accessory, a stylish fashion statement, or a piece of refined jewellery for men. Instead, it began as a tool deemed strictly unmasculine, sparked industrial survival inside the muddy, shell-shocked trenches of the Western Front, and ultimately ignited a cutthroat era of global economic warfare that nearly erased centuries of traditional Swiss craftsmanship.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I pull back the curtain on the incredible, high-stakes psychology behind the miniaturisation of time. I will unpack the wild, historical adaptations used by World War I officers to transform delicate pocket watches into survival instruments, exploring how the unique material science of synchronized artillery bombardments made reaching into a waistcoat pocket a fatal mistake, creating a demand for wrist-worn precision that simply could not be ignored.

From the remote, snowbound valleys of the Swiss Jura where generations of uncredited women built delicate mechanical movements by hand, to the dark 1920s dial-painting workshops where young women unwittingly painted radioactive radium directly onto their lips in the name of low-light legibility. Finally, we explore the rise of cheap Japanese quartz technology and the colourful plastic Swatch that rescued an entire nation's heritage, long after traditional mechanical watches had lost their functional necessity in a world surrounded by digital screens.

Glance at the time on your wrist with entirely different eyes.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend

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Look at the small panel of raised dots sitting on an elevator wall or running along the edge of a restaurant menu. The ordinary rectangular patterns you pass by without reading seem completely mundane today. It was never actually invented by a prestigious research institution, a committee of scientists, or a grand government program. Instead, it began as a tool of total social exclusion, sparked structural survival inside a dark, cash-strapped Paris workshop, and ultimately ignited a cutthroat era of institutional warfare that pitted blind students against the very educators running their school.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I pull back the curtain on the incredible, high-stakes psychology behind the architecture of touch. I will unpack the wild, historical classroom tactics used by 18th-century sighted educators to force visual alphabets onto fingertips, exploring how the unique material science of embossed standard print letters allowed a page to be seen perfectly by an eye while remaining completely unreadable to a tracing finger, creating a barrier to literacy that simply could not be played.

From the workshop of a rural French saddler where a curious three-year-old boy accidentally transformed a sharp leather-punching awl into a weapon of lifelong blindness, to the mid-20th-century history books where imaginative writers custom-built a dramatic myth about Napoleon's battlefield stealth to literally banish a quiet inventor from his own origin story. Finally, we meet the legendary network of teenage students whose single, iconic choice to practice a forbidden six-dot alphabet in secret under the cover of night permanently altered the global landscape of communication, long after their own school had banned the system from the classroom.

Run your fingers over your environment with entirely different eyes.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

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Look at the block of cheddar sitting in your fridge or the sprinkled parmesan on your dinner plate. The ordinary, savoury dairy products you use to top a meal seem completely mundane today, but they hold a secret that spans seven thousand years of raw human obsession. It is an object category that was never actually invented for dinner parties, charcuterie boards, or culinary luxury. Instead, it began as a brutal survival technology.

In this episode of The Hidden Life of Things, I pull back the curtain on the incredible, high-stakes psychology behind the architecture of taming rot. I will unpack the wild, historical biological tactics used by Neolithic populations to outsmart their own bodies, exploring how the unique material science of ancient clay sieves and accidental fermentation allowed a toxic fluid to be transformed into digestible sustenance, creating an evolutionary advantage that simply could not be played.

From the forgotten tomb of the Mayor of Memphis where a 3,200-year-old brick of solid cheese lay buried in the desert sands alongside a deadly bacterium later weaponized during the Cold War, to the windswept plains of Mongolia where nomadic warriors custom-built rock-hard sun-dried curds to literally banish slow heavy supply lines from warfare. Finally, we meet the artisanal Bai cheesemakers in southwestern China whose single, iconic street food technique of stretching milk fans over bamboo sticks and coating them in sweet rose petal jam permanently altered the myth that East Asia never did dairy.

Bite into your favourite slice with entirely different eyes.

In this episode, I will cover:

The Hidden Life of Things is an independent history podcast hosted by Aleksandra. If you enjoyed this journey, please follow, rate, and share this episode with a friend!

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