stop everything.
open itunes.
go to the itunes store and search for this podcast: "a history of the world in 100 objects" - it's from BBC radio and i am 100% addicted to it. this article will tell you why in a much more eloquent fashion than i can. but here is what i can tell you: in 100 objects held by the british museum, the curator of the museum tells us a history of the world. he goes chronologically and thematically; for example: i'm on the third week of the series and the episodes are all on the growth of cities and objects related to that that tell us a lot about early cities. the podcast is 15 minutes long, and i have started to listen to two a day: one on the way to work and one on the way home. on a great traffic day, i get to work with about 3 minutes left in the episode, on a normal day i finish just before i pull into school. they are SO interesting and i am learning a lot. for example: episode 3 is about a neanderthal hand axe, and the narrator explains to us that this is so important in world history because it's the first tool that could skin an animal well. neanderthals needed skins to make clothing before they could move out of hot hot africa and into colder climates...so this tool was a crucial step in world history. um, duh. but i had never thought of this.
the other really cool thing about the series is that it seems truly global. i've listened to the first 13 episodes and we've been to tanzania, pakistan, iraq, egypt, arizona, japan, australia, israel, mexico, and france. it appears they've truly made an effort to tell us a history of the WORLD, not europe.
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