Food, Trade & Everyday Life
Every Sleep Stories episode about Food, Trade & Everyday Life, newest first.
The Story of Refrigeration
Keeping food cold went from hacking blocks of ice off frozen lakes to a machine humming quietly in your kitchen, and honestly it's one of the most underrated glow-ups in history.
The Story of Herbal Medicine
Healers tested which plants actually worked through centuries of trial and error, and a surprising amount of that knowledge is still in your medicine cabinet.
The Story of Money
Bartering worked fine until you needed to trade exactly one third of a cow, which is roughly when humans invented money.
The Story of Chocolate
Cacao beans used to be currency you could spend, not just a treat you could eat, and getting from there to a candy bar took centuries.
The Story of Coffee
Legend says a goat herder noticed his goats getting suspiciously energetic after eating certain berries. The rest of the world caught on soon after.
The Story of the Silk Road
Not really one road, and not really just about silk, this trade network moved goods, religions, and ideas across entire continents.